Renovating Roanoke’s ‘Grand Old Lady’

The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center, Curio Collection by Hilton plans a $14 million renovation this year, bringing new technology, new design and new, custom-made Hotel Roanoke-logoed furniture to every one of its 329 guest rooms.

The hotel’s most recent renovation, completed in 2020, upgraded its Pine Room restaurant, created the 1882 lobby bar and added infrastructure to support hybrid meetings in the 63,000-square-foot conference center.

The current renovation will be conducted in phases, about 40 rooms at a time, beginning in March at the earliest, according to hotel representatives. The overhaul is part of a cycle all Hilton hotels follow to upgrade their facilities, but Hotel Roanoke General Manager Brian Wells says it’s about more than following a corporate directive. “We want people, when they stay here, to have a hotel stay to remember,” he says.

Guests have been remembering their stays at “The Grand Old Lady” since Christmas Day 1882, the year the Norfolk & Western Railroad (later Railway) came to town and built the hotel — two years before Roanoke became a city.

“Every time I’d meet someone new, they had a Hotel Roanoke story,” Wells says.

“Hotel Roanoke, with its deep history, it’s really part of the identity of Roanoke and the entire region,” says John Hull, executive director of the Roanoke Regional Partnership. “It’s just a unique property. It’s a place where we like to host all our clients. We think it’s just a showcase-level property for our region.”

Guest room updates include adding 55-inch TVs and smart features that will allow guests to use their phones as room keys or adjust the TV or room temperature to their preferences. The challenge is doing all that and retaining the property’s “rich history and elegance,” says R.D. Wright, the hotel’s assistant general manager and capital projects manager.

“Hotel Roanoke continues to reinvent itself while staying up to date with modern amenities and trends while still maintaining that historical element that sets it apart as such a special property, not only in Roanoke, but across the entire Virginia’s Blue Ridge region,” says Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge spokesperson Kathryn Lucas.

The hotel and conference center is the largest meeting spot in the region. “So, when large meetings come to town,” Lucas says, “it’s the property that people want to stay at.”