Va. hotel revenues likely to remain low through holidays

Lodging revenues down 53% compared to last year

Published November 11, 2020 by Sydney Lake

With the holiday season looming, Virginia hotel revenues continue to decline when compared to last year, 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 Nov. 1 through Nov. 7, hotel revenues in Virginia decreased by 53% and rooms sold declined by 35%, compared with the same week last year. The week prior saw a 45% decrease in revenue compared to 2019 and a 28% decline in rooms sold. Compared with last year, the average daily rate (ADR) paid for hotel rooms dropped 28% to $82.21, while revenue per available room (RevPAR) fell to $36.99, a 53% decline.

“As we enter into holidays and winter months, which are historically our worst months of the year, we’ll continue to see declines year-over-year,” says Eric Terry, president of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association. “Hopefully, 2021 will start to show some improvement.”

Hotel revenues and rooms sold declined in most markets in Virginia last week, compared with the same time frame last year. Compared with the same week in 2019, revenues fell 71% in Northern Virginia, 45% in Charlottesville and 34% in Hampton Roads. During the week of Oct. 25 through Oct. 31, revenues fell 63% in Northern Virginia, 35% in Charlottesville and 26% in Hampton Roads. The number of rooms sold in Northern Virginia is down by 54%, Charlottesville is down by 28% and Hampton Roads is down by 21%. 

Despite continued drops in revenue and number of rooms sold, Hampton Roads continues to fare well compared to national rates. Since the week of Sept. 6 through Sept. 12, it has had the smallest declines in both occupancy and RevPAR among the top 25 markets in the U.S.

Williamsburg continues to be the hardest-hit locality in Hampton Roads, though, seeing a 49% decline in revenue last week, followed by Newport News/Hampton with a 43% decline and Norfolk/Portsmouth with a 40% decrease.

“Performance of the hotels in the commonwealth 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. “COVID-19 continues to have adverse impacts on this industry.”

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