Kaimuki resident Kim Okazaki and her husband like to spend a weekend at a hotel in Waikiki every once in awhile and travel to Maui every year.

But since hotel rates have been going up, they've cut their stays short.

Okazaki, 33, said she's seen hotel rates for kama'aina go up about $20 to $30 a night at smaller hotels over the last year.

"The airfare has gone up too," she said. "Everything, even car rentals."

With Hawai'i's visitor industry setting records in tourist arrivals and a shrinking hotel room inventory, prices have been rising and kama'aina deals, which local residents have enjoyed for years, are hard to find.

Those in the travel industry say kama'aina rates are available but not as plentiful as in years past.

"It's a little bit harder to get than it was before because the economy, the traffic, everything is doing good," said Rachel Shimamoto, manager of Travel Ways.

"If people (wait until the) last minute and when it's busy, then they'll be disappointed," she said. For "spring break at the end of this month, it's hard to get lots of things."

But Shimamoto noted that the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa has been offering a kama'aina special of $150 a night through March 26. The hotel offered the same deal last year, Hilton officials said.

"The hotels set aside blocks of rooms for each rate," said Duke Ah Moo, staff vice president of Hawai'i operations for Pleasant Holidays. If the blocks set aside for tourists fill up, and there are still kama'aina rooms available, the kama'aina rooms are sold to tourists, he said.

Ah Moo said he's seeing more residents vacation on the Mainland because of the lack of kama'aina rates as well as the increase in interisland air fares.

"The price difference is not as significant as it was in the past," Ah Moo said.

Taking advantage of available kama'aina rates means perhaps changing travel booking habits.

"You can no longer go last minute because the rooms won't be there; the demand is so high from all over," Ah Moo said. "So just the way that people book travel needs to change. Same for the airlines with interisland. You can no longer walk up to the counter with a blank coupon and get on a flight. You have to plan in advance if you want to get the best fares."

Hotel room inventory has been declining because of conversions to condominiums and time-shares. Hundreds of hotel rooms are also closed for renovation and redevelopment, such as Outrigger Enterprises Inc.'s $460 million Waikiki Beach Walk project.

In 2002, Ohana Hotels & Resorts offered kama'aina rooms at some properties for $49 a night. In the fall of 2004 they were between $62 and $163 a night. Today Ohana's starting kama'aina rates are between $79 to $119, depending on the property.

Ridge-view rooms at the then-Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hawai'i hotel went for $195 a night for kama'aina in 2002, and rose to $225 in 2004. Last week, kama'aina packages at the newly named Kahala Hotel & Resort were priced at $310 a night.

Rex Johnson, president and CEO of the Hawai'i Tourism Authority, said he's heard concerns from some Neighbor Island residents "about not being able to find what they termed as reasonable room rates when they came here for business."

Many hotels use kama'aina rates to fill in the slower, shoulder seasons.

"I think we as local residents got used to the fact that kama'aina rates would be available at certain times of the year," he said. "And with the success that the industry has had, the shoulder periods are certainly not as large as they used to be."

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.