So,

1) Not much content on that page exclusive of navigation.

2) Not enough site trust.

3) Not enough links pointing directly to that page, the category (state) pages, or leaf node pages, like the individual hotel ones.

Prior to Panda, a domain with a lot of links could have virtually infinite leaf node pages with no links but laser-targeted content and rank a large portion of them. These days, "lots of links to our homepage" plus virtually infinite pages with no links is a recipe for being Panda'd.

I don't think the core "top -> state -> hotel" structure is likely a problem. That sort of tree structure, with variations, is pretty much universal in large sites. Having a lot of links on a page will not, by itself, burn you to bits.