May 16--Charleston County hotels sold about 8,000 more room nights in April than they did the same month a year ago, but because more hotel rooms have been built, the occupancy rate declined slightly.

Hotel occupancy slipped 0.3 percent to 84.9 percent over April 2012.

This was "solely due to inventory increase," said Perrin Lawson, deputy director of the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Downtown Charleston saw two hotels come online earlier this year. The 120-room Holiday Inn Charleston Historic Downtown on Meeting Street and the 153-room Holiday Inn Express, a former Best Western that was redeveloped, opened over the winter, adding to the number of rooms available.

About 1,500 more rooms are slated to open over the next few years, mainly across peninsular Charleston, with proposed projects in other areas adding to the mix.

April's figures also brought a 5 percent spike in the average daily rate per room to $148.07 and a 4.8 percent jump in revenue per available room to $125.87, the highest on record, according to the Office of Tourism Analysis at the College of Charleston.

Peninsular hotels and those in East Cooper saw occupancy declines while those in West Ashley and North Charleston experienced increases. All areas of the county saw rises in average daily rates and revenue per available room.

For the year, county hotel occupancy is down 2 percent.

Reach Warren L. Wise at 937-5524 or twitter.com/warrenlancewise.

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