May 3--Hotel occupancy rates and revenues took another tumble in March with hotels in Fort Worth and Arlington taking some of the biggest hits, according to a monthly report. 

The Las Colinas in Irving area showed a slight improvement, however, according to Houston-based PKF Consulting's monthly Trends in the Hotel Industry report. 

"There's going to be continuing misery this year," said John Keeling, senior vice president of PKF. 

The suffering isn't continuing fallout from Sept. 11, Keeling said. 

It's fallout from the economy, and the Dallas hotel markets have been suffering the most, he said. 

"A very large impact comes from the downturn in the telecom industry," Keeling said. "The telecom industry has really hammered them." 

But the hammering of late has spread to Fort Worth and Arlington-Grand Prairie. 

According to PKF, Arlington's occupancy for the first three months of 2002 is down 13.2 percent compared with the same period last year. That's the biggest drop in the Metroplex. Arlington's revenue per available room, or RevPAR, is down 24.9 percent when compared with the same period last year. That is also the biggest drop in the Metroplex. Through February, that dubious honor belonged to Richardson. RevPAR is a measure of a hotel's occupancy rate times the average daily room rate. 

Keeling said that drop could be the result of fewer vacationers; a big chunk of Arlington's overnight visitors are tourists. 

"When people are feeling poor and feeling concerned about their jobs, one of the first things they cut out is these trips," Keeling said. 

Fort Worth also suffered some losses in March, but that could be the result of a slow month for meetings and groups after a packed February, said Jed Wagenknecht, general manager of the Courtyard by Marriott Blackstone. 

"Every single week there was just one group after another in February," Wagenknecht said. "And with March, it's spring break time. In the hotel industry, we know we'll suffer for a couple of weeks while people take pleasure trips with the kids." 

April should show a fairly healthy rebound, thanks in part to races at Texas Motor Speedway, Wagenknecht said. 

Irving hotels, while still posting lower figures than a year ago, actually saw an improvement compared with the previous month. That's attributed to an early Easter and improved airport traffic, said Jim Clark, president of the Irving Convention & Visitors Bureau. 

"The March you're comparing that with is March of 2001 when we started to tip over," Clark said. "So we're coming into a time now when the numbers from last year started to take a turn for the worst. It's actually bounced back better than we thought it would." 

-----To see more of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dfw.com 

(c) 2002, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.