Va. hotel revenues continue to slip

Virginia hotel revenues continued to worsen last week after a small improvement during the Labor Day weekend, 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. 13 through Sept. 19, hotel revenues in Virginia decreased by 52% and rooms sold declined by 33% compared to the same week last year. It’s also a decline from the previous week, which saw a 48% decline in revenue and 33% decrease in rooms sold. Compared to last year, the average daily rate (ADR) paid for hotel rooms dropped 27% to $88.27, while revenue per available room (RevPAR) fell to $42.41, a 52% decline.

“Hotel occupancies across Virginia continue to be very low,” says Eric Terry, president of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association. “Until we start to see increases in corporate and government travel as well as meetings, recovery will be very slow. We still have many hotels closed, so the statistics would be even worse if they were included in the calculations.”

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 72% in Northern Virginia, 49% in Charlottesville, and 23% in Hampton Roads. During the week of Sept. 6 through Sept. 12, revenues fell 72% in Northern Virginia, 53% in Charlottesville and 12% in Hampton Roads. The number of rooms sold in Northern Virginia is down by 54%, Charlottesville is down by 34% and Hampton Roads is down by 14%. 

Hampton Roads continues to fare well when compared nationally. It has had the highest occupancy rate among the top 25 markets in the nation since the week ending June 27. However, RevPAR in Hampton Roads was in fourth place at $50.72, behind San Diego, Los Angeles and Anaheim, California.

Williamsburg continues to be the hardest-hit locality in Virginia, though, seeing a 48% decline in revenue last week, followed by Norfolk/Portsmouth at a 35% decline and Newport News/Hampton at an 18% decline.

“Performance of the hotels in Hampton Roads during this week was in general worse than last week,” Professor Vinod Agarwal of Old Dominion University’s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy said in a statement. “One of the main reasons is the end of the summer tourist season and fewer leisure travelers visiting Hampton Roads.”

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