Hotel occupancies are down significantly in the Washington, D.C., area amid the U.S. federal government shutdown,

according to data from STR. Last week, occupancy dropped 12.1 percent in Washington compared with the year prior, and occupancy in Norfolk and Virginia Beach declined 9.9 percent. The average daily rate was flat in Washington and down 2.4 percent in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach market. STR senior vice president Brad Garner noted that "long-term effects of the shutdown remain to be seen, but in the early going, it clearly had an impact on the overall hotel industry."