Va. hotels continue slow recovery

Lodging revenue still down 43% compared to last year

Published October 7, 2020 by Sydney Lake

Virginia hotel revenues remained below pre-pandemic levels last week, according to data from STR Inc., a CoStar Group division that provides weekly market data on the U.S. hospitality industry.

For the week of Sept. 27 through Oct. 3, hotel revenues in Virginia decreased by 43% and rooms sold declined by 27%, compared to the same week last year. The previous week saw a 52% decline in revenue and a 33% decrease in rooms sold. Compared to last year, the average daily rate (ADR) paid for hotel rooms dropped 22% to $86.20, while revenue per available room (RevPAR) fell to $41.25, a 43% 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 61% in Northern Virginia, 38% in Charlottesville and 25% in Hampton Roads. During the week of Sept. 20 through Sept. 26, revenues fell 68% in Northern Virginia, 41% in Charlottesville and 20% in Hampton Roads. The number of rooms sold in Northern Virginia is down by 44%, Charlottesville is down by 24% and Hampton Roads is down by 20%.

Hampton Roads continued to fare well compared to national rates. Reaching 52.5% for the most recent week, the region has had the highest occupancy rate among the top 25 markets in the nation since the week ending June 27.

“Some of the Hampton Roads improvements might be [due to] the relaxation of Navy Command travel,” says Eric Terry, president of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association. Last week, the Daily Press reported that the Department of Defense had lifted COVID-19 travel restrictions for Navy facilities in South Hampton Roads.

Williamsburg continues to be the hardest-hit locality in Hampton Roads, though, seeing a 55% decline in revenue last week, followed by Norfolk/Portsmouth with a 27% decline and Newport News/Hampton at a 25% decline.

“Performance of the hotels in the commonwealth during this 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. “The hotel industry in general continues to recover slowly.”