The Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center announced Thursday that it had been recognized as one of the Top 10 Hotels for the Holidays in USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards for 2025.

The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center revealed renderings of their proposed 10,000-square-foot expansion on Thursday morning. They are also celebrating the 30th anniversary of their grand reopening.

The Hotel Roanoke has added a half-million dollars worth of upgrades to create sophisticated video conferencing to allow attendees both in-person and on-line. The move will make it easier for groups to meet, even once the pandemic is over.

ROANOKE, Va. – New COVID-19 restrictions are now in effect across Virginia, limiting what people can do as we head into the holidays. After starting to build back a little normalcy over the last couple of months, new restrictions are bringing new challenges for the hotel. “Now it’s really back to really quiet,” Wells said. “It’s going to cost us tens of thousands of dollars a week,” Martin said. “It’s been painful to do, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much we try to enforce stuff to keep people distanced and safe, it doesn’t seem to matter,” Martin said.

ROANOKE, Va. – As businesses throughout the Roanoke Valley work to recover during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, The Hotel Roanoke has made progress on major renovations that may help. A virtual ribbon cutting on Wednesday afternoon unveiled its new Pine Room and the 1882 Lobby Bar. “For those who have been here before, they’re going to be shocked and stunned,” said the hotel’s director of food and beverage Declan McGettigan. The project that took two years of planning, six months of renovations and $3.6 million honors the history of the hotel and Roanoke. The Hotel Roanoke has been hit hard by the pandemic, but it’s hoping this can be the catalyst for a comeback, not just for the hotel, but the entire region.

ROANOKE, VA. The Hotel Roanoke Conference Center said its looking forward to welcoming meetings and conferences back to the area. At the height of the shutdown, it was down 80% for conference space rental, and overnight stays were down too. In the last few weeks, small meeting rentals have begun to pick back up and the hotel is booking bigger events for the future. The hotel is optimistic about that, but general manager Brian Wells said right now their hands are tied. The conference area and hotel rooms are being sanitized as frequently as possible under the new protocols.

ROANOKE, Va. A popular local hotel is making some changes in response to the coronavirus. The meeting rooms in the Hotel Roanokes conference center have been designed to try to ensure social distancing. On Thursday, Visit Virginias Blue Ridge held its quarterly meeting in the hotel to witness first-hand the new social spacing protocols put in place as a result of COVID-19, according to a news release. Visit Virginias Blue Ridge is working to create a safe space for meetings and events as the state gradually reopens. Hotel Roanoke is also taking extra steps to keep hotel rooms clean.

ROANOKE, Va. - Tourism leaders said Amtrak is far exceeding expectations two years after passenger rail service returned to the Star City. Amtrak representatives tell 10 News Roanoke's ridership is the highest of any individual line in the commonwealth. They're curious about a new way to travel and for us, that's great," said Brian Wells, general manager of the Hotel Roanoke. For the Hotel Roanoke, Amtrak means big business. The early success is raising the question of whether Amtrak could expand in Roanoke.