Local hotels have yet to see surge of inaugural bookings

With few rooms left in Washington-area hotels, people coming to President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration are booking hotel space as far south as Williamsburg.

More than a month before the Jan. 20 ceremony, hotels deep into Virginia are taking hundreds of reservations from out-of-state visitors.

"We have filled approximately 260 rooms at this point that are all deposited, mostly for the night before" the inauguration, Jack Zimmerman, general manager of the Crowne Plaza at Fort Magruder in Williamsburg, said Friday.

Hoteliers are welcoming the overflow business associated with the swearing-in ceremony, particularly during a nonpeak season.

"It's slow during that period of the year in Williamsburg.... I'm very happy with where I am now," Zimmerman said.

He said he expects the remainder of the hotel's 303 rooms to be reserved soon. Several of the people with reservations are coming from the Carolinas.

The demand apparently hasn't extended to South Hampton Roads.

Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau spokeswoman Pam Lingle said local hotel operators and tourism officials had received few inquiries about room availability related to the inauguration. Lingle said she's not certain the city would see any inauguration hotel business because the establishments are not along Interstate 95.

Geography and distance might play a role in whether Hampton Roads ultimately sees any residual effect.

Williamsburg and Richmond, where several hotels are sold out for the time of the inaugural ceremony, are both within 150 miles and a 2-1/2-hour drive of D.C. - assuming no traffic congestion. By comparison, South Hampton Roads is closer to 3-1/2 hours away, under ideal conditions.

Mike Turner, general manager of the Clarion Hotel at Richmond Airport, said all of his 116 rooms "were sold within seven days of the election" to travelers from as far away as Mississippi.

The rush for rooms is a lesson in supply-and-demand principles and an indication of the keen interest in the inauguration.

The 95,000 hotel rooms in the Washington metro area - most of which are sold out on the dates around the inauguration - can't fully accommodate the expected invasion.

If crowd predictions reaching as high as 5 million prove accurate, attendance would dwarf that of inaugurations past, which have drawn several hundred thousand people.

Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com