Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort & Spa has temporarily reduced use of its 453-room Kalia Tower to consolidate hotel guests in five other towers on its 22-acre Waikiki campus.

The hotel operator said the shift is a move typically made every year during seasonal dips in occupancy to make more efficient use of personnel.

Jon Conching, sales and marketing vice president for Hilton in Hawai'i, said occupancy at the nearly 3,400-room Hilton Hawaiian Village this month is running in the high 70 percent range, which is more than O'ahu's average hotel occupancy in the low 70 percent range.

"It's a decent month," he said.

Hotels normally manage room use during slow periods, but closing wings or towers often makes sense only for the largest properties like Hilton's, which would have more than 600 rooms empty if 80 percent of rooms are filled.

Mid-March to mid-June is a soft season for Hawai'i tourism, and several hotel operators said they were predicting a worse shoulder period this year over last year before Aloha Airlines and ATA Airlines shut down passenger service a few weeks ago to further strain the industry.

Hilton said it expects to resume hotel room use at Kalia Tower on May 1 or May 2. Commercial portions of the tower such as Starbucks and the front desk remain open as are six floors dedicated to time-share operations.