* Nine-month sales fall 8.9 percent
* Hotel division sales fall 12 percent
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PARIS, Oct 15 (Reuters) - France's Accor posted an 8.9 percent decline in nine-month sales on Thursday as demand continued to wane for its mid-category and upscale hotels but it stuck to its full-year profit goal.
However, Chief Financial Officer Jacques Stern told a conference call he was "very cautious" about 2010 and did not expect a rebound in the first part of the year.
Sales in the first nine months of the year were 5.26 billion euros ($7.85 billion), just ahead of the average estimate in a Reuters poll of nine analysts of 5.25 billion.
Hotel revenue was 3.89 billion euros during the period, dragged down by a 12 percent drop in sales at mid- and upper-range hotels.
The group's prepaid services division, which includes restaurant vouchers, posted roughly flat nine-month sales at 687 million euros. Like-for-like, they rose 3.6 percent.
"In an economic environment that has seen no significant improvement, Prepaid Services revenue rose ... despite rising unemployment and the steep decline in interest rates worldwide," Accor said in a statement.
The company revealed in August that it was considering splitting its prepaid services division from its main hotel operations to create two separately listed businesses and allow them to exploit growth potential more effectively.
On Thursday, Accor said it was continuing to target full-year operating profit before tax and non-recurring items of 400 million to 450 million euros.
($1=.6702 Euro) (Reporting by James Regan; Editing by David Cowell)