Are motel vacancies hard to find in late Sept./early Oct.? (Hampton: real estate, rentals)

[bigzap]

Hello, All!
My wife and I have somewhat recently retired (early), I'm 58, she's 61. We've been strongly considering moving to the Asheville NC area for quite some time, having several "missions" there to check it out. Currently we are up here in New Jersey, and look forward to a lifestyle wherein we can slow down and relax, hence, the Asheville idea was looking good. But the more we watch from up north, the more it looks like that housing, groceries, etc. etc. are increasing, and getting more and more crowded. So, the thoughts of moving elswhere have been creeping in. For several months we were planning on going down to NC for another look around, but we've been looking at the beautiful stretch of land you have in your lives. The Roanoke area is seeming to call our name recently, and now, we are considering thoughts of spending a week in Virginia only, and consider all that is there to offer in your neck of the woods. Tentatively, we may be looking at heading on down Mon. 9/28 until Sun. 10/4. Something like that. We are wanting to rent a place from VRBO near Smith Mountain Lake for the first three days, with the remaining time wanting to be uncommitted, and rent motel rooms for the remaining days there. With this, a question arises. Will finding motels rooms start to become hard to come by as the fall leaf season kicks in? Or is that a larger consideration in the Asheville area than it is in Roanoke? Or will we be there early enough in the year that crowding isn't much of an issue? Thanks for your help and or suggestions!

[Watchful]

Originally Posted by bigzap

Will finding motels rooms start to become hard to come by as the fall leaf season kicks in? Or is that a larger consideration in the Asheville area than it is in Roanoke? Or will we be there early enough in the year that crowding isn't much of an issue? Thanks for your help and or suggestions!

Hotels in Roanoke are probably more affected by Virginia Tech home football games - I am thinking. Beautiful foliage covers such a widespread area in Virginia that I don't think it is going to make a huge difference. But someone else may have more info!

I also began my search with Asheville but wound up here!

[cam4vt]

Hotels are more in demand each year and they are building quite a few at the same time. If you book ahead you should be okay, but if you are doing walk ins only sketchy ones may be available. Hotels do fill up in leaf season, but lately as tourism rises there is more demand for hotels all the time not one part of the year.

VT plays Pitt at home the Saturday you wish to visit so that will factor in too.

[Gardner222]

bigzap...Roanoke is a lot like Asheville in that we are both IN the mountains. Asheville real estate is currently higher generally than Roanoke. Roanoke has always been on the tourist map since its origins, although not on the big scale as Asheville and
the busy Smoky Mtns. It is a diverse region as there are many small towns all with their identities.

http://visitroanokeva.com

Roanoke, VA Downtown District | The Official Website of Downtown Roanoke, Inc

We don't have a Biltmore Estate but a short drive the Homestead in Hot Springs and the Greenbrier in WV are both spectacular
resorts.

Hotels are popular here so I would make a reservation in my opinion. Have a great trip!!

[bigzap]

Gotta say, your responses have been very much appreciated!! Thank you. I was wondering though, if we shaped our itinerary to finish off the week in the Lynchburg area, would you think that the VT game would shrink motel vacancies in that area as well? We have been hoping to get away from making reservations, as we just want to explore and not be tied down to a specific location, other than 3 days at or near Smith Mountain Lake.

[Watchful]

Since this trip is just a few weeks away, you can probably tell already by the price - if they are expecting sellouts the price will already be up. If the prices are reasonable, then likely there will still be rooms. Just an educated guess.

[Watchful]

Just doing a Hilton property search, for Saturday, Oct. 3, Hotel Roanoke is $259 and Hampton Inn Airport is $239 and Hilton Garden Inn and the other Hampton properties are sold out.

For Oct. 17 (no home game) Hotel Roanoke is $169 and Hampton Airport is $149 - HGI is sold out but not the other Hamptons.

For Oct. 24 (home game), Hotel Roanoke is sold out but availability elsewhere.

So I am thinking football trumps leaves in terms of weekend availability!

[CapsChick]

OP, you should consider coming a couple of days earlier to attend the Smith Mountain Lake Wine Festival (Sept 26-27). It's somewhat of a "signature" event for SML. Or, come a little later and check out the SML Charity Home Tour (Oct 9-11).

Or were you trying to avoid these two events?

[Watchful]

Lynchburg weekend rentals might be more affected by events going on at Liberty U. than by VT football...just guessing??

[LynchburgLover]

Re Lynchburg -- also check the dates for Homecoming/Parent's weekends at Liberty, Lynchburg, Sweet Briar, Randolph and a boarding school Virginia Episcopal. Lynchburg is a bit smaller; there are fewer hotels/rooms available for peak weekends.

We always had good stays at the Courtyard off Candlers Mountain (Murray Place?)

Good luck!