Punahou grad Jeanette Kennedy feels guilty that there's no room to accommodate all of the people trying to get into her sold-out presidential inaugural ball, so Kennedy's doing the next best thing — offering her home in Arlington, Va., to friends from Hawai'i.

"It's not the Hawaiian way or the aloha spirit to turn people away — even though we want to share," said Kennedy, who is on the board of the Hawai'i State Society of Washington, D.C., that's putting on the first Hawai'i Inaugural Ball in honor of native son Barack Obama.

People from Hawai'i are increasingly asking friends, family and distant acquaintances in the Washington area if they can crash on their couches and floors and in their spare bedrooms so they can be part of the largest inaugural crowd in history when Obama is sworn in as the nation's 44th president on Jan. 20.

Maybe it's the aloha spirit working in reverse. Or maybe it's the increasing cost of hotel rooms, if they're even available.

But for whatever reason, more and more customers are booking flights but passing on the hotel rooms that Panda Travel is offering, so they can stay with friends instead, said Kehau Amorin, Panda's director of business development and client relations.

"People will want to go, and then they see the price tag," Amorin said. "They are staying with friends because it's so much cheaper and they'll say, 'I'm using my miles.' "

Panda offers a six-night trip for $3,299 that includes a seven-day metro (transit) pass, but some of the hotels have tried to increase their rates since Obama's election victory, Amorin said.

Francy Lim Youngberg, co-chair of the sold-out Pearl Inaugural Gala on Jan. 19, has offered her three-bedroom home to her parents, brother- and sister-in-law, two nephews and two Obama campaign volunteers from California.

"It's a good thing there's no fire code restrictions in your own home," Lim Youngberg said. "My floor and our bedrooms are all spoken for by my family and friends from New York to California."

Lim Youngberg, who has family in Hawai'i, Guam and the Philippines, also extended an invitation to her cousin, his wife and their baby from the Philippines.

"The only thing that killed the deal was I told him it would be 30 degrees outside," she said. "They were eager to come until I told them it was like sitting in your freezer. They said they'll come at cherry-blossom time."

Kennedy's friend from the Punahou class of '93, Ty Nohara of Mililani, doesn't mind the cold and was happy just to have a place to stay.

"I didn't even have to look for a hotel room because Jeanette offered and I said, 'OK,' " Nohara said. "She is one of my best friends."

Nohara will use her frequent-flier miles to get to Washington and hopes to catch a glimpse of the inaugural parade and tour Washington's new visitor center. She has only one ticket to any of the week-long inaugural events — the Hawai'i Inaugural Ball that Kennedy's group is putting on.

So Nohara may travel 5,100 miles just to watch Obama's inauguration on television from the comfort of her friend's townhouse in Arlington, Va.

"I do get my own room, my own bed and everything," Nohara said. "And I do get to spend time with my friends."