Washington and Lee’s Parents and Family Weekend brings many families to Lexington, but the influx of people doesn’t benefit all businesses equally. While some business owners told the Ring-tum Phi they saw increased traffic, others reported that there were limited boosts of revenue.
The Lexington hospitality business was booming from Oct. 3 to Oct. 6 as visitors struggled to find available hotel rooms. The Georges, a hotel headquartered on Main Street, has four separate buildings and 33 rooms, each with a unique design. From Friday to Sunday, there were no vacancies.
John Gomes, the general manager of The Georges, said that Parents Weekend is the “biggest part of revenue generation” and an opportunity for employees to show off the brand and take pride in their service.
Many of the visitors are repeat guests who employees get to know on a personal level during their stay.
But some retail locations didn’t see the same impact, business owners said.
Celtic Tides, a shop on Jefferson Street that imports goods from Scotland, Ireland and Wales, did not see an impact on income.
Mary Jo Morman, an owner of the store, said that while there were lots of visitors, sales did not go up.
Morman said she thinks that many parents, especially those who were visiting Lexington for the first time during their children’s first semester, might have been focused on paying tuition instead of spending money on shopping.
“We made lots of new friends,” Morman said, and she said she was hopeful that they would come back to Celtic Tides on future trips to Lexington.
Tommy’s Arcade, located on Nelson Street, felt the same limited impact. The arcade’s namesake and owner, Tommy Stuart, said that the majority of his business occurs during the winter and picks up as the temperatures drop.
Not all restaurants see consistent increases in revenue every Parents Weekend, said Chad Ruley, a part owner of Globowl Cafe on Nelson Street. According to Ruley, over four years of business, the cafe has seen two major influxes and two smaller impacts of revenue due to the increase in visitors.
For cafes that operate primarily during the day, there was a similar constrained impact on revenue — many families were at Washington and Lee events and did not have the time to sit down. In the evenings, restaurants were packed and many required reservations.
Kasey Potter, the owner of Pure Eats on Main Street, said that her restaurant doesn’t have the space to hold all of the extra food required for Parents Weekend. As a result, they have an agreement with other local businesses to share fridge and freezer space to make sure all of their ingredients stay fresh.
But Potter said this year’s Parents Weekend broke records compared to those of previous years.
“We were blessed with good weather and great people,” Potter said.
