Va. hotel revenues up 12% in March

Virginia hotel revenues for March 2021 increased by 12% compared with March 2020, according to data released Tuesday by STR Inc., a CoStar Group division that provides market data on the U.S. hospitality industry.

During the same period, rooms sold went up by 25%. The average daily rate (ADR) paid for hotel rooms dropped 10% to $85.59, while revenue per available room (RevPAR) rose to $42.80, a 13% increase.

“Performance of the hotels in the commonwealth during March 2021 was in general much better than in February 2021,” Professor Vinod Agarwal of Old Dominion University’s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy said in a statement. “With increasing vaccinations, declining COVID-19 infections and rising consumer confidence, we have begun to see significant improvement in the performance of the hotel industry over the 2020 levels and we expect these improvements to continue each month through the end of 2021.”

Hotel revenues and rooms sold increased in most markets during March 2021, compared with March 2020, as the COVID pandemic took hold in the commonwealth. Revenues fell 32% in the Northern Virginia market, but they rose 69% in Charlottesville and 42% in Hampton Roads. In February, revenues fell 63% in Northern Virginia, 24% in Charlottesville and 17% in Hampton Roads. The number of rooms sold during March 2021 fell by 4% in Northern Virginia but increased by 67% in Charlottesville and 62% in the Hampton Roads market. The Virginia Beach area fared better than other markets, with a 100% increase in hotel revenue, followed closely by 93% in Williamsburg.