CNL sells 32 hotels as it goes upscale - Most of the hotels sold were small properties that lack meeting spaces and restaurant facilities

Orlando-based CNL Hotels & Resorts announced Thursday it is selling 32 of its 91 hotels and resorts for about $405 million.

The company is selling off what it calls "nonstrategic" hotels -- mostly Hampton Inns and Holiday Inns -- to Whitehall Street Global Real Estate Limited Partnership 2005.

The majority of hotels sold were in the select-service segment, a term used to describe small properties that lack amenities such as large meeting spaces or restaurant facilities. None was in Central Florida.

Some have reservations, others anticipate a payoff - Hotels in Hampton continue to wait to see big dividends that the convention center may provide

HAMPTON -- Opened more than a year and a half ago to help make the city a destination, a new convention center is still years away from giving a significant lift to Hampton's hotel market, according to some hoteliers.

"Hampton is slowly becoming a destination," said Kelli Henry, sales director for the Holiday Inn on West Mercury Boulevard. "It takes a little longer to get the word out. We're not a Baltimore. We're not an Atlanta."

The Hampton Roads Convention Center is part of a controversial project costing more than $125 million that also brought in a 295-room Embassy Suites hotel. The sprawling complex sits by the Hampton Coliseum and offers about 344,000 square feet of convention space, nearly the area of six football fields.

In 2005, with the center officially opening in late April, the city's hotels saw a drop in demand for rooms. That's according to surveys of nearly 30 hotels in Hampton by Smith Travel Research.

The convention center brought in about 15,000 room bookings, according to estimates from Hampton's convention and visitor bureau, but there was an overall drop in demand of nearly 9,000 rooms. About 569,000 rooms were sold during 2005, compared to about 578,000 in 2004, Smith Travel says.

Heavy travel forecast for holidays - Hotel rates, air fares and gasoline prices have risen only slightly from a year ago, AAA-Oklahoma says

More people will travel this Christmas-New Year's holiday than ever before, both nationally and in Oklahoma, according to travel club AAA.