Jul. 24--The Buffalo area is getting its first new hotel in more than a year. 

The Inn at Williamsville, behind the new Rite-Aid on Main Street in the village, will open Aug. 1 with 80 rooms, including 10 suites. Buffalo Lodging Associates, a division of Benderson Development Co., built the four-story inn at Main and Los Robles streets. The inn includes an indoor heated pool, exercise center, whirlpool, meeting rooms and shuttle service to the airport and local attractions. 

The suites have whirlpools, fireplaces and kitchenettes. 

But the new hotel is hitting the marketplace at a difficult time, when the travel industry is hurting and area hotel rooms barely half full. 

"There's a small travel niche for them to tap into, but it will probably end up taking rooms from other hotels," said Richard Geiger, president of the Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau. 

Instead of new hotels, Geiger said the area needs new attractions to fill hotels, which have averaged a 55.9 percent occupancy rate through May of this year, according to Smith Travel Research, an independent research firm that produces monthly reports for the Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau. At this time last year, the occupancy rate was 58.4 percent. 

Hotels are also not getting as much for their rooms as last year. The room rate through May was $68.92, down 2.3 percent from last year. 

The last hotel to open in the area is also owned by Buffalo Lodging Associates, the Hampton Inn & Suites at 220 Delaware Ave. in Buffalo. 

Buffalo Lodging Associates, which is affiliated with Benderson Development, operates 14 hotels in six states, including four hotels in the Buffalo area. In addition to the Inn at Williamsville and the Hampton Inn & Suites, Buffalo Lodging Associates operates the Homewood Suites Buffalo, 760 Dick Road, Cheektowaga; and Sleep Inn Amherst, 75 Inn Keeper's Lane, Amherst. The management company has 13 more hotels planned, including a Homewood Suites with 90 rooms on Millersport Highway in Amherst for spring 2003. 

"Whenever you have additional inventory come into a market, you're going to be looking at additional competition," said Howard Hinton, vice president of sales and marketing. "There are going to be a certain clientele that is both curious to try the new product as well as perhaps switch for location reasons or they feel more comfortable at a boutique-style property." Although the convention and visitors bureau worries about the area having too many rooms for the number of visitors to the region, local businesses welcome the Inn at Williamsville. 

A previous hotel at the same location brought pilots and flight attendants into local stores and restaurants. The Williamsville Inn closed several years ago and was demolished in 1999. 

"Everyone is hoping it brings in business and we hope the Inn at Williamsville gets a contract with an airline," said Christy Petri, president of the Williamsville Business Association and owner of Willis & Lowe, a home furnishings store, at 5544 Main St. "When the old Williamsville Inn used to be there, local shops used to get lots of business from the pilots and flight attendants." 

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(c) 2002, The Buffalo News, N.Y. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. RAD,