Accommodations

There are more than 16,000 hotel rooms in the Richmond area, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding a place to lay down your head. Having said that, if you’re visiting the same weekend as NASCAR race weekends in May and September, or the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) basketball tournament in March, or Columbus Day weekend when the Richmond Folk Festival takes over the town, conveniently located hotel rooms go fast. And downtown hotels tighten up considerably when the General Assembly is in session from January to March. Another thing to keep in mind is that Richmond is a college town, so for big events like parents’ weekend or graduations, certain hotels near UR, VCU, or VUU can fill up.

Now that I’ve scared you into booking early, let me give you the lay of the land as far as hotels in the region go. The hotels that are listed below are just a sample of what is available in the area. If you’re here to see the sites of Richmond, I highly recommend staying downtown near the vast majority of the attractions. Many hotels offer shuttle service around downtown, so once you park your car (if you came with one), you can walk or take a hotel shuttle to many attractions and restaurants. Most hotels downtown do charge for parking, but if their rates are too steep, you can usually find nearby lots and garages in the $10- to $12-a-day range.

If you want to be in the suburbs, feel free to stay outside the city, but don’t think you’ve really visited Richmond if you don’t venture from there. The airport hotels in the East End make useful bases before early flights, but you won’t see the best of what the area has to offer out there. Of course, there are dozens more hotels available than could be included here. This is just a cheat sheet.

Overview

Searching for hotels online is problematic with the Richmond region because the word Richmond doesn’t always mean the city of Richmond. Many hotels have postal addresses that say Richmond, but they are actually located outside the city in either Chesterfield or Henrico County. Some hotels fudge things by including Mechanicsville-Richmond in their names. It’s perfectly fine to stay in one of the county’s hotels if that’s where you want to be, but many travelers unfamiliar with Richmond’s quirky relationship with the U.S. Postal Service book a hotel online that says it’s in Richmond, only to find out when they arrive that they are several miles outside of town, not where they meant to be. Another quirk is that a hotel that both hotel marketers and Richmonders believe is in Short Pump might officially be listed as in Glen Allen. It’s confusing. This chapter is divided by locality, starting with city hotels and expanding to the surrounding counties.

All of the hotels listed are wheelchair accessible and many have roll-in showers. Lovely as they are, none of the bed-and-breakfasts listed here are wheelchair accessible for overnight guests. For a town where tobacco was top dog until recently, a surprising number of hotels have gone nonsmoking. If smoking is allowed in a hotel, the listing says so. All of the B&Bs are nonsmoking, and they don’t accept pets. Hotels that accept pets get a mention in the write-up.