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Hotel industry in Hampton Roads has smallest declines among the top 25 markets

WAVY Web Staff

(WAVY photo/Jack Noonan)

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — The Old Dominion University Dragas Center for Economic Analysis released new data Wednesday that show the Hampton Roads’ hotel industry continues to have some of the smallest declines among the top 25 markets.

The declines are recorded for the week of Sept. 6 in both occupancy and RevPAR throughout the top markets.


“Performance of the hotels in the commonwealth during this week was in general slightly better than last week,” said Professor Vinod Agarwal of the Dragas Center. “COVID-19 continues to have adverse impacts on this industry.”

Compared to the same week in 2019, revenues fell 23% in the Hampton Roads market during the week of Nov. 1-7. 

According to STR data released, hotel revenues are down 47%, and rooms sold are down by 29% for the area since this time last year.

In some instances, data shows that the Average Daily Rate paid for a hotel room during the week of Nov. 8 dropped 25% and the Revenue Per Available Room dropped by 46%.

That is putting some hotel stays at less than $81.63 a room — which is slightly cheaper than the last report.

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 18%, ADR by 14%, and RevPAR by 29%.

Rooms sold during the latest week fell by 13% in the Hampton Roads market. The Chesapeake and Suffolk market continues to fare better than other submarkets in Hampton Roads with a decrease in rooms sold by 4.6% — nearly half of what the last report shows.   

Within the Hampton Roads market, hotel revenue fell by 43% in Williamsburg, 36% in Norfolk/Portsmouth, 15% in Virginia Beach, 14% in Newport News/Hampton, and 9% in Chesapeake/Suffolk. 

Rooms sold fell by 37% in Williamsburg, 20% in Norfolk/Portsmouth, 8% in Virginia Beach, and 6% in Newport News/Hampton.

Over the last four weeks, the data also shows that the Williamsburg hotel market continues to have the poorest performance. The city led with declines in occupancy by 38%, RevPAR by 45%, room revenues by 48%, and rooms sold by 41%.

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