Va. hotel revenues continued to improve last week

Hampton Roads fares well despite remaining restrictions

Published September 2, 2020 by Sydney Lake

Virginia hotel revenues continued to improve last week, according to data released Wednesday by STR Inc., a CoStar Group division that provides weekly market data on the U.S. hospitality industry.

For the week of Aug. 23 through Aug. 29, hotel revenues decreased by 38% and rooms sold declined by 27% compared to the same week last year — an improvement over the previous week, which saw a 42% decline in revenue and 31% decrease in rooms sold. Compared to last year, the average daily rate (ADR) paid for hotel rooms dropped 15% to $93.99, while revenue per available room (RevPAR) fell to $45.26, a 37% decline.

Hotel revenues and rooms sold declined in most markets in Virginia, compared with the same time frame last year. Compared to the same week in 2019, revenues fell 52% in Northern Virginia, 46% in Charlottesville and 25% in Hampton Roads. During the week of Aug. 16 through Aug. 22, revenues fell 60% in Northern Virginia, 51% in Charlottesville and 34% in Hampton Roads.

The number of rooms sold in Northern Virginia is down by 42%, while the Charlottesville market held on at 33% and the Hampton Roads market declined by 12%.

However, Hampton Roads continues to fare well when compared nationally. It continues to hold on to the highest occupancy rates among the nation’s top 25 markets, with 60.6% occupancy last week and 64.2% occupancy since the week of June 21. Its RevPAR level held on at third place in the nation last week at $65.93, behind San Diego and Los Angeles.

“Performance of the hotels in Hampton Roads during the current week was in general better than last week,” Professor Vinod Agarwal of Old Dominion University’s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy said in a statement. “It appears that [the] Virginia Beach hotel market has nearly recovered from COVID-19. Revenues for the city are down by only 8.5% and rooms sold actually increased for the first time since the week of March 1-7.”

Gov. Ralph Northam said Tuesday during a news conference, however, that he would not roll back COVID-19-related restrictions in Eastern Virginia prior to Labor Day to prevent a repeat of spikes in coronavirus cases seen after the Memorial Day and July 4th holidays.