Va. hotel revenues improved only 1% last week

Most markets in state continue to struggle, however

Published August 12, 2020 by Sydney Lake

Hotel revenues in Virginia improved by only 1% last week and still remain at a 45% decrease compared to the same week last year, according to new data from STR Inc., a division of CoStar Group providing market data on the U.S. hospitality industry. The week before last, STR reported a 46% decrease in Virginia hotel revenues when compared to the same week last year.

During the week of Aug. 2 through Aug. 8, hotel revenues in Virginia decreased by 45% and rooms sold declined by 32% when compared to the same week last year. The average daily rate (ADR) paid for hotel rooms dropped 19% to $94.02, and RevPAR (a key lodging industry metric) fell to $48.36, a 44% 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 65% in Northern Virginia, 43% in Charlottesville and 33% in Hampton Roads. During the week of July 26 through Aug. 1 revenues fell 65% in Northern Virginia, 46% in Charlottesville and 32% in Hampton Roads.

The number of rooms sold in Northern Virginia is down by more than 50%, while the Charlottesville market held on at 33% and the Hampton Roads market declined by 19%.

However, the Hampton Roads region continues to fare well when compared nationally. It again held the highest occupancy rate and RevPAR among the top 25 markets in the U.S., which it has done for the past four weeks. The occupancy rate in Hampton Roads last week was 66.9% and RevPAR reached $73.90. Williamsburg (part of the Hampton Roads region) continues to perform poorly, however with hotel revenue dropping by 73%. The Williamsburg market has performed the worst during the past four weeks.

“We continue to see some improvement in room revenues as well as in rooms sold in Hampton Roads almost every week over the last several weeks,” Professor Vinod Agarwal of Old Dominion University’s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy said in a statement. “However, given that we have more restrictions in Hampton Roads due to rising infection cases, effective July 31, we are more likely to see some deterioration in the performance of Hampton Road hotels in coming weeks.”

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