Hotel occupancy in Tompkins County is down 8.4 percent from this time last year, according to Smith Travel Research, leaving local hotels, including the Statler, looking for ways to boost revenue.

Leading the way in this search is Dr. Sheryl Kimes, Singapore Tourism Board Distinguished Professor in Asian Hospitality Management in the School of Hotel Administration. In a recent report published by the Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell, she urges hotels to resist cutting room rates and to instead focus on alternatives like marketing and loyalty programs.

“While the pressure to reduce rate[s] is understandable, hotels should exercise caution in manipulating rates because of the potential negative long-term effects on profitability and the hotel’s image,” she wrote in the report.

The report is published online and has been downloaded by over 1,800 people, according to Carol Zhe, office manager of the Center For Hospitality Research. Additionally, a summary and directions to download the article have been published in the center’s newsletter, which circulated to 85,000 people globally, she said.

Cornell’s own Statler Hotel has not been immune from the reduced occupancy rates plaguing the industry, and it is taking Kimes’ advice by keeping rates up. According to General Manager Richard Adie, the occupancy rate at the Statler is currently 72 percent, down from 76 percent last year. Most Ithaca and Cornell travelers would come regardless of rates, Adie said. He reasons that dropping the price of hotel rooms would mean giving guests back money that they would have paid anyway.

The hotel is also following Kimes’ advice to boost marketing in an attempt to bring in new customers.

“An economic downturn is a good time to carefully examine your marketing plan and determine whether there are other small or price-sensitive market segments which can be developed for your hotel,” Kimes said.

The Statler recently enhanced its marketing strategy by purchasing a search engine optimization service, which allows it to show up at the top of a Google search for Ithaca hotels.

The Statler is also trying to take in a bigger share of the 30,000 prospective students and families who tour the University by marketing a package specifically for prospective students. This bundle, first adopted last spring, includes a coupon at the campus store, a coupon for a meal at the dining halls and a Cornell teddy bear. Talks are currently underway to develop a package for alumni as well. Bundles like these add perceived value to the room rate and allow the hotel to maintain its current rates, Adie said.

One of the reasons that Ithaca and Tompkins County hotels are doing better than hotels in other markets is the presence of the Statler, Adie said. “They look at the Statler, see that we aren’t cutting our rates, and the market is the better for it,” he said.

In her report, Kimes also details what hotel rate managers should do if competing hotels get involved in a price war. She acknowledges that there is a point where a hotel can’t compete without cutting room rates. At that point, the best strategy is to avoid making the cuts noticeable by masking them creatively. Methods for this include packaging the room with other items, like tickets to a concert or show, and using alternative distribution methods, like hotels.com. These strategies allow the hotel to maintain its image and to raise rates more easily after the downturn ends. The public, she said, cannot complain about increased rates and stay at other hotels if they never knew the rates dropped in the first place.

Price wars have not yet become a problem in the Ithaca market. According to Smith’s Travel Research, the average rate for a hotel room in Tompkins County has declined only 1.8 percent, compared to the national average of 9.4 percent.

Even though price rates and occupancy rates have declined comparably less in Tompkins County than in the rest of the country, the Ithaca/ Tompkins County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau is continuing an aggressive marketing strategy. According to Fred Bonn, director of the bureau, marketing begins 90 miles outside of Ithaca and is limited to places within a six hour drive, a market he calls a “drive-market.”

According to Bonn, Ithaca is performing better in national occupancy statistics because of this drive-market strategy. “We are an extremely accessible and affordable destination,” he said. Ithaca is not affordable and accessible for anyone who has to fly in, he said.

Keeping pricing and occupancy rates up is good for hotels and good for Ithaca, which rakes in $11.9 million in tax benefits from tourism, he said.