WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. » Hotel and leisure company Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., which operates about a dozen properties throughout the islands, said yesterday that its third-quarter profit fell 12 percent on a restructuring charge and that its time-share business in Hawaii was the hardest hit of all of its vacation ownerships.

Vasant Prabhu, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Starwood, said consumer confidence has hit new lows and resulted in an increasing rate of decline in originated sales of time-share units.

“;Close rates are dropping and more buyers are seeking lower price points by buying cheaper inventory or every-other-year products,”; Prabhu said during a conference call yesterday. “;Hardest hit is Hawaii, but we are seeing this now in all our markets, including Orlando, which has held up reasonably well so far.”;

Executives also said during the call with analysts that the company will halt share buybacks until further notice, instead concentrating on asset sales.

The hotel sector has struggled as consumers continue to tighten spending due to the ongoing housing slowdown, eroding credit and rising food and gas costs.

Earnings dropped to $113 million, or 62 cents a share, from $129 million, or 61 cents a share, a year earlier. The per-share discrepancy is due to fewer shares outstanding during the current period.

Excluding a $22 million restructuring charge, income from continuing operations was $129 million, or 71 cents a share.

For the period ended Sept. 30, revenue was flat at $1.54 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings of 53 cents a share on revenue of $1.51 billion.

Systemwide revenue per available room, or revpar, for same-store hotels in North America dipped 0.5 percent, while global systemwide revpar for same-store hotels gained 3.5 percent.

Revpar is a key gauge of a hotel company's performance.

Revenue from vacation ownership and residential sales declined 11 percent. Starwood said it did not sell any vacation ownership receivables during the quarter; it had previously expected a $10 million to $15 million gain from such sales.

The company said it closed three sales centers and will cut overhead due to declining sales.

While Starwood plans to stop share repurchases for the time being, Chief Executive Frits van Paasschen said the company is still committed to buybacks long term, but is unsure when the environment will be more agreeable.

Starwood completed the sale of one hotel in the third quarter for proceeds of $15 million. It plans to close on the sale of three hotels in Europe by the end of the month for proceeds of approximately $325 million.