VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Something In The Water 2019 just wrapped up and people are already excited for a potential repeat of the historic event next year.
Hotel owners at the Oceanfront say they started getting calls the Monday morning after the festival from people ready to book rooms for next year.
“So it’s a great problem to have, that people are already wanting to book for a year out. That’s not something we normally see in Virginia Beach,” said Russell Lyons, the president of the Virginia Beach Hotel Association.
This year officials confirm every hotel room at the Oceanfront was booked.
WAVY’s Full 2019 Something in the Water Coverage
While hotels are getting flooded with reservation requests, most hotel owners say they won’t even set prices or offer rooms for months.
“Yeah, we’re getting a lot of phone calls. We don’t ever open up those bookings until the calendars have been set for that year,” explained John Uhrin the Director of Operations for Burlage Management. “Those won’t be open until probably the middle or latter part of summer. But still people are calling and I think there’s a great deal of interest, so I think the public really enjoyed it.”
We checked online and some places are already taking reservations for next year. Some travel sites have rooms by the Oceanfront listed as high as $1,500 a night for the possible weekend of the festival.
Lyons has this advice for future festival-goers looking to book a place to rest.
“Relax, wait until they announce the dates. We don’t know what next year looks like. We haven’t even confirmed when Pharrell wants to put on this festival, if it’s going to be the same weekend, if it’s going to go longer than just the Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So once all that gets flushed out, look for rates then,” advises Lyons. “Don’t feel like you need to book it immediately.”
Lyons also notes prices can change drastically throughout a year, significantly fluctuating up or down. He suggests people wait and start looking to book for the festival a few months from now.
Lyons also says they expect there to be a lot more room inventory available next year than there was this year because by the time the festival was announced, many hotels were already heavily booked for other events going on the same weekend.