Inland lodgings, on the other hand, were filling up fast with business from Florida evacuees.

"I've been better," said Tripp Hays, director of sales and marketing at the Mills House downtown. "I've just been watching a great, full weekend peter away to nothing."

Hays said cancellations at the Mills House started Wednesday, when 40 rooms came open. By Thursday afternoon, the hotel had lost almost all of its holiday business, including four wedding parties that had promised sizable food and beverage revenue.

The story was similar at lodgings across the Lowcountry, as Labor Day vacationers decided to sit tight or break for higher ground. Charleston Place, for example, reported 50 cancellations by midafternoon Thursday.

Elsewhere, Greenville-based JHM Hotels Inc. saw cancellations at its Charleston Riverview Hotel, which it bought last year. But JHM was filling reservation books quickly at its six Atlanta hotels.

Its four lodgings in Greenville were also close to full for the weekend with business from people fleeing Frances and fans flocking to the Clemson-Wake Forest game.

"Everybody is watching to see how it hits Florida and what will it do as it moves up the coast," said D.J. Rama, vice president of JHM. "Our objective is to try to accommodate as many people as possible."

Columbia hotels also reported frantic business, in part because of Saturday's Benedict College vs. South Carolina State football game. The Holiday Inn City Centre had all 175 rooms booked for the weekend, said general manager Mike Wells.

For Charleston lodgings, the weekend will be a disappointment, whether Frances comes close or not. Some in the hotel industry expected a small boost from evacuees heading north from Georgia and Florida.

Florida officials had ordered 2.5 million residents to leave their homes, and the South Carolina welcome center on Interstate 95 in Hardeeville was packed with travelers by then. But most Holy City lodgings had not heard from any of those folks.

Hotels in Hilton Head also had more cancellations than new bookings, said Charlie Clark, a spokeswoman for the Hilton Head Island/Bluffton Chamber of Commerce.

Clark said it was too early to tell whether the area would get business from evacuees.

Charleston restaurants and retail shops got a welcome boost when a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship heading to Florida docked here Thursday afternoon to avoid the heavy weather to the south.

About 2,200 passengers poured onto the peninsula. The ship was scheduled to steam out again late Thursday night and turn back north to Baltimore, cutting short its voyage.

For most hoteliers in Charleston, hurricanes are another cost of doing business.

"It happens," Hays said. "You just hope it's going to hit during the week and not on the weekend ... The bummer is that in all likelihood, Frances is not going to hit us at all."

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