Washington, D.C. Hospitality Market Report

Work-related stays spike hotel demand. The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election will accelerate the local hospitality sector’s ongoing recovery. Alongside the primaries taking place in March and June, the District itself is expected to welcome a year-round boost to its visitor count from journalists, government officials and professionals participating in discussions. The CBD recorded the fastest demand increase across all major U.S. submarkets last year, and that momentum will carry into 2024 as election-related visitations lift the number of local bookings to within 2 percent of 2019’s record level. Many of these government- and business-sponsored trips will support demand at select-service hotels, helping propel the segment’s occupancy to the highest rate since 2018 this year. Improved hiring momentum in white collar fields unrelated to the elections should provide another tailwind for business travel as job candidates visit the metro for interviews. While stays related to recruitment stand to most benefit the CBD’s hotels, the metro’s outlying office hubs are also positioned to receive this demand driver. Suburban Virginia reached record hotel occupancy last year, coinciding with its strongest office sector net absorption since 2019.