Hotels in Tri-Cities stay afloat in recession better than most others.

Hotels in the Tri-Cities area are weathering the recession better than those in most other areas of Los Angeles County, hospitality experts reveal.

"Pasadena is doing fairly well," said Bruce Baltin, a partner at accounting firm Pannell Kerr Forster. "It's not as reliant on any one type of industry as is the Los Angeles airport area. They have some manufacturing, some financial institutions and some corporate headquarters."

While the year-to-date occupancy rate in Pasadena, the city which has most of the Tri-Cities area's hotels and motels, did fall from one year ago -- from 66.4 percent through August 1990 to 64.2 percent through August 1991 -- that was only about half the decline that occurred in Los Angeles County over the same period, when occupancy declined from 68.3 percent to 64.4 percent.

Separate records are not kept for Glendale and Burbank hotels.

Despite a decline in the average daily guest rate over the same period in Los Angeles County from $58.21 to $57.63, in Pasadena the guest rate increased from $55.39 to $57.51.

Among the major hotels in the Tri-Cities area are the Pasadena Doubletree, the Pasadena Hilton, the Pasadena Holiday Inn, Burbank Hilton, the Burbank Holiday Inn, Glendale Holiday Inn.

In addition, a Red Lion Inn is under construction in Glendale, a hotel estimated by some observers to be in the same deluxe class as the Doubletree.

The Burbank Airport Hilton also this year doubled its size from 280 rooms to 500 rooms and increased its convention center space from 10,000 square feet to 50,000 square feet.

Tim Ellis, general manager of the hotel, said that the expansion will allow the hotel to handle large conventions.

A major factor in the decision to expand was the 1990 announcement that Southwest Airlines would begin servicing Burbank Airport, Ellis added.

He added that the hotel also is benefiting from recognition of Burbank Airport as "a more user friendly airport," one with easier access to downtown and lower hotel rates than Los Angeles International Airport.

Another factor in the area's favor is its reliance on individual commercial travel and small corporate meetings rather than on conventions and tourism, the latter of which have been in the doldrums throughout the county.

In addition, Baltin characterized the market as a mature one which has avoided vicissitudes of inadequate supply and then overbuilding.

While other investors are considering building more first class hotels, Baltin said they will wait out the recession before taking action, both because of questions regarding demand and difficulty getting financing.

Motels and low-end hotels are not doing as well as the major hotels, said one expert.

Lower end motels have average occupancy rates 5 percent lower than the upper end product, said Robert Holden, executive director of the Pasadena Center Operating Co., which supervises the Pasadena Visitors and Convention Bureau.

"The corporate entities utilize the hotels rather than the inns and motels," he said. "The motels have people coming in for one night and it's a shopper's market. They shop around." There are 12 budget hotels in Pasadena alone.

The general manager of one Pasadena motel said that despite the recession, motels are holding their own.

"On a monthly average, we're averaging 65 percent (occupancy)," said Darryl Espie, general manager of the Pasadena Vagabond Inn, part of an economy motel chain.

After the summer months ended, Espie said that corporate management of the hotel lowered its Inns' room rates from Sunday to Thursday by 13 percent and increased its commissions to travel agents by 20 percent in an attempt to lure more business.