by John Allgood

New hotels have been sprouting in Lexington ever since the completion of the Virginia Horse Center in 1985. Hotel managers who want to keep rates as high as possible, say no more hotels are needed, and local officials agree. But Horse Center officials insist they still need more rooms, and the two universities located in Lexington agree.
Whether the area gets more hotels depends on which side wins this lodging battle.

The number of hotel rooms has increased from 1,204 to 1,518 in the past five years, according to Sheryl Wagner, director of marketing for the Lexington Visitor Center. There is only a room shortage on the rare occasion when Washington and Lee University, Virginia Military Institute and the Horse Center hold events at the same time, she said. Building new hotels would only take business away from the existing ones, she said, so if more hotels are built near the Horse Center, then the hotels closer to downtown will lose business.

Lexington’s newest hotels are the Sleep Inn and Suites, completed last fall, and the Holiday Inn Express, which is in the final stage of construction. Umesh Gandhi, owner of the Sleep Inn and Suites and Country Inn and Suites, said he is not looking to build another hotel. General manager of the Holiday Inn Express, Ellen Pennie, also said that Lexington does not need more hotel rooms.

Sam Crickenberger, director of zoning and planning in Rockbridge County, said that with the recent completion of the Sleep Inn and Suites and the Holiday Inn Express he thought the lodging shortage had been fixed. Crickenberger has not received any new applications, but that could change.

“Every time I get a new [hotel] application, I’m surprised,” Crickenberger said.

Lethia Hammond, director of marketing for the Horse Center, says more hotels are still needed. The horse center attracts 400,000 visitors per year and 60 percent are from out of state, said Hammond. These visitors generate approximately 600 room bookings per week, she said.
“At least 40 percent of hotel business is because of us [the horse center],” Hammond said.

Michelle Dadson, events coordinator for the W&L alumni office, said Lexington needs more lodging because there is a room shortage when W&L has an event on the same weekend as V.M.I. or the Horse Center.
Many parents of students have had a tough time finding rooms for parents weekends. W&L parent Agnes Butler of Winston-Salem, N.C. said she prefers the Hampton Inn, where she has had parents' weekend reservations since last November. Butler said room scarcity always makes it tough to get a reservation on a busy weekend.

UVA and W&L will hold their upcoming parents’ weekends Oct. 22-23 and Oct. 27-28, respectively. On parents’ weekend, the Cavalier Inn in Charlottesville is charging $110 per night, while Butler says she is paying $150 per night, with a three night minimum, at the Hampton Inn in Lexington. For their respective parents’ weekends, the Days Inn in Charlottesville still has availability for its $100 rooms, while the $150 rooms at the Lexington Days Inn are all booked.

“We’ve had to get reservations as far away as Staunton before,” Butler said.

Breadown of prices and occupancy of hotels around  Lexington:

HOTEL	STANDARD RATE	OCCUPANCY: WEEKDAYS	OCCUPANCY: WEEKENDS
Comfort Inn	$85.00	N/A	N/A
Country Inn & Suites	$83.75	60-70%	100%
Days Inn	$55.00	40%	80%
Econo Lodge	$59.99	40%	40%
Hampton Inn Col Alto	$104.00	98%	98-100%
Howard Johnson Inn	$69.95	40-50%	80-90%
Ramada Inn	$77.00	45-50%	90-100%
Super 8 Motel	$63.21	87%	98%
Wingate Inn	$89.00	40-50%	75%
Sleep Inn and Suites	$89.99	50%	100%

source: The Trident; created by:  Shelley Orman

Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.

Lead supervisor:      Prof. Claudette Artwick

Reporting supervisor: Prof. Doug Cumming

Editing supervisor:  Prof. Pamela Luecke

Technical supervisor:  Michael Todd