CLEARWATER - Say hello to $500-a-night hotel rates. If you haven't checked out Pinellas County hotel prices recently, brace yourself for sticker shock customarily reserved for Palm Beach and Miami.

At least four Pinellas hotels posted rates of $500 and higher this winter, the current AAA Florida Tourbook shows. More than two dozen Pinellas hotels charge at least $250 a night.

Although the priciest accommodations helped boost the county's average room rate, all sizes of hotels and motels charged more last year. Rates increased by 9.6 percent to an average of $103.85 during last year's peak winter season.

Such lofty fees may be pricing some members of the middle class out of Pinellas vacations, Pinellas tourism officials said Wednesday.

"This has been a tough year," said Walter Klages, president of Tampa-based Research Data Services, Pinellas County's tourism consultant. "Occupancy is down, and ADR [average daily rate] is skyrocketing.

Despite a record 5.3 million visitors who spent at least one night in Pinellas in 2006 - up 0.8 percent from 2005 - visitors staying in Pinellas hotels and motels declined 0.3 percent to 2.65 million in 2006. The rest of the 5.3 million stayed with family and friends, according to data discussed at Wednesday's monthly meeting of the Pinellas County Tourist Development Council.

"It's really related to rates over the past year," said Carole Ketterhagen, director of the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

However, Ketterhagen added that other factors in 2006 played a role in holding down visitors' numbers. That especially includes a fear of hurricanes among vacationers that caused declines in June, July and August.

The county rebounded with gains in each of the last four months of 2006. But the businesspeople and elected officials on the Pinellas County Tourist Development Council agreed Wednesday that they needed to take steps to be able to continue to precisely target their marketing efforts.

The board directed Klages to research perceptions of potential first-time visitors to Pinellas, who might have begun to pick up on changing room rate trends in Pinellas County.

Pinellas customarily markets itself as a family friendly destination with reasonably priced lodging. The visitors bureau's December research report found that 99.6 percent of that month's visitors noted the beaches influenced them to visit, and 82.4 percent cited reasonably priced lodging, down from 84.5 percent in December 2005.

"People are charging as much as $500 a night," Klages said. "These are facts."

The clientele able to afford those kinds of rates, however, also helped boost direct expenditures by 2006 visitors to $3.2 billion, up 4.4 percent from 2005. The county estimates 82,000 of its jobs are directly or indirectly related to tourism.

The trend translates into higher-income tourists. The median household income of Pinellas visitors in December 2006 was $106,438, up from $105,921 for the same month in 2005.

"We base our average rate platform on carefully crafted, competitive reviews of competitive environments," said John Marks, general manager of the Don CeSar Beach Resort, which became part of the Loews Hotel chain four years ago.

The Don lists rooms from $289 to $559 between Feb. 16 and April 30, the priciest season, the AAA Tourguide rates show.

"Our average rate potential isn't as good as it would be in the Palm Beach, Miami or Naples areas," Marks said. "But what has happened over the past few years is that average rate potential has become greater based upon both group and transient guests discovering this part of Florida is a beautiful destination to visit."

In addition, the Lowes affiliation has produced cross marketing opportunities and The Don has begun to draw an increasing number of visitors familiar with Lowe's hotels in the Northeast, he said.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817 and tjackovics@tampatrib.com