Hampton Roads hotel industry may be past worst part of revenue decline

Posted: May 6, 2020 / 05:40 PM MDT

Updated: May 7, 2020 / 12:18 AM MDT

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — The Old Dominion University Dragas Center for Economic Analysis released new data on Wednesday that shows Virginia and Hampton Roads hotels may be over the worst part of the economic decline.

The major concern was that the hotel industry would continue to decline because of the lack of vacationing and business trips, but economists at ODU predict this may be over soon.

“Hotel Revenues and rooms sold have declined in every major market in Virginia, and we expect these declines to get smaller in the coming weeks,” according to the ODU Dragas Center.

According to STR data released, hotel revenues are down 78%, and rooms sold are down by 62% since this time last year.

In some instances, data shows that the Average Daily Rate paid for a hotel room during the week of April 26 to May dropped 42% which is one percent higher than last week’s report. The Revenue Per Available Room dropped by 76% which is two percent lower than last week.

That is putting some hotel stays at less than $69.50 a room — which is slightly cheaper than last week’s data shows.

The overall occupancy rate of hotels in Hampton Roads for the past four weeks — when compared with the same time last year — shows a decline by 55%, ADR by 43%, and RevPAR by 75%.

Data shows that hotel revenue fell 93% in Williamsburg, 78% in Virginia Beach, 69% in Norfolk and Portsmouth, and 54% in Chesapeake and Suffolk, and 53% in Newport News and Hampton since this time last year.

Over the last four weeks, the data also shows that the Williamsburg hotel market has the poorest performance. The city led with declines in occupancy by 82%, ADR by 59%, RevPAR by 93%, room revenues by 95%, and rooms sold by 87%.

“We expect to see an improvement in room revenues as well in rooms sold over the coming weeks,” said Professor Vinod Agarwal of the Dragas Center. “We should brace ourselves for a slower rebound as the state and nation reopen from COVID-19, however, it will take time for business and leisure travelers to fill rooms again.”