Hotel revenues down 27% for January

Industry sees slight improvement from December

Published February 24, 2021 by Richard Foster

Virginia hotel revenues for January 2021 were down 27% compared with January 2020, continuing the industry’s slow climb back to recovering from the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according to data released Thursday from STR Inc., a CoStar Group division that provides market data on the U.S. hospitality industry.

For the same period, rooms sold declined by 14%. The average daily rate (ADR) paid for hotel rooms dropped 15% to $82.56, while revenue per available room (RevPAR) fell to $34.84, a 27% decline.

“Performance of the hotels in the commonwealth during January 2021 was in general better than December 2020,” said Professor Vinod Agarwal of Old Dominion University’s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy in a statement released Monday. “COVID-19 continues to adversely impact this industry.”

Hotel revenues and rooms sold declined in most markets in Virginia during January 2021, compared with January 2020. Revenues fell 34% in Northern Virginia, 36% in Charlottesville and 11% in Hampton Roads. During December 2020, revenues fell 61% in Northern Virginia, 37% in Charlottesville and 23% in Hampton Roads. The number of rooms sold during January 2021 fell 28% in Williamsburg and 12% in the Newport News/Hampton region. However, rooms sold increased in Chesapeake and Suffolk by 3.8%.