From Rooftop Cocktails to the Largest Ballroom in the City: Inside Charlottesville’s Newest Hotel

“We saw there were sort of interesting opportunities to not just connect the guests to their guest room and the amenities, but then to connect guests with each other, and then connect the guests with the university [community]… and then to have those folks connect with the landscape,” he says.

Many of the methods to achieve this goal are self-evident. The 214 guestrooms and suites are outfitted in tasteful shades of blue and orange, the official colors of the university, and you’ll find “libraries” decked out in UVA-inspired art and memorabilia on each floor—the latter of which the team hopes will encourage guests to mingle and engage with one another.

Other design choices are more subtle, but just as intentional. “There's nothing here by chance… Everything has been considered,” says Joy. If you walk into the 10,000-square-foot ballroom, one of the hotel’s defining features, look up at the ceiling. The honey hue of the material, Joy explains, is color-matched to heart pine, harkening back to the wood used in the Jeffersonian structures on the Lawn.

Carpeting within the hotel also has a slight botanical theme—natural beauty is abundant around Charlottesville—and the statement chandelier on the way to the on-site restaurant, Poplar, has its own story. According to Joy, it’s a nod to the often-photographed Pratt Gingko tree on Grounds. “It’s a monumental tree right next to the Rotunda, and it turns vibrantly yellow after all of the other trees,” he says. It also tends to hold onto its leaves the longest, eventually dropping them all, rather dramatically, at once. You’ll also notice photographs of moments and details across Grounds throughout the hotel—many by university-associated photographers Dan Addison and Sanjay Suchak.

Together, these design choices, both distinct and discreet, create an atmosphere that welcomes social guests, groups, visiting parents, and students (and potential students) into the UVA fold. Everyone is welcome to gather at The Perch, the indoor-out rooftop bar on the seventh floor of the Virginia Guesthouse, or grab a beverage at The Counter Café, a full-service coffee shop and grab-and-go marketplace.

The Living Room and The Study, both common areas on the ground floor, were created specifically for student engagement and to activate the aforementioned guest and larger community connections. On a delightfully warm day in Charlottesville, the outdoor terrace, with its views of the restored stormwater stream running alongside the hotel, is the place to pull up a seat.

But one of the main advantages of booking a room at the Virginia Guesthouse is the central location. Some of the rooms look out upon Carter Mountain, home to the family-friendly Carter Mountain Orchard; others grant views of the Rotunda or the university’s practice fields. And if you’re in Charlottesville for a show or event at John Paul Jones Arena, you’re just a short walk away.

Whether you’re cheering on the Cavaliers at Scott Stadium, shopping along Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall, or hopping between some of the area’s top wineries—Pippin Hill, King Family Vineyards, and Blenheim Vineyards—the Virginia Guesthouse puts you in the middle of it all.

In the coming years, the hotel will be joined by the Karsh Institute of Democracy (slated to open in 2027) and the Center for the Arts (slated to open at the end of 2029). But for now, it’s holding down the fort as the centerpiece of the Ivy Corridor—and taking its place as the most exciting new addition to Charlottesville’s hospitality scene.

Double rooms from $219 per night.

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