CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — The Virginia Guesthouse Hotel & Conference Center officially celebrated its grand opening Wednesday.

The 214-room, 25,000-square foot hotel officially opened on April 6. Wednesday’s event gave attendees the opportunity to hear from some of the key figures in the hotel’s development and tour the building, including its rooftop bar “The Perch,” restaurant “Poplar” and Presidential Suite. For those involved in the project, it was a moment seven years in the making.

“It’s a milestone just to get to this point,” General Manager Gregg Hilker told Cville Right Now at the event, “and as a lot of the speakers had said, there’s so many things that go into opening a hotel than just opening the doors and the construction’s finished. There a lot of things to be done [like] hiring staff, the right staff. 
It’s a challenge in itself, and we feel like we’re on our way to doing bigger and better things. So it feels great.”

Virginia Guesthouse Presidential Suite
The Virginia Guesthouse’s premier room, the Presidential Suite, located on the sixth floor.

Hilker was one of four speakers who kicked off the event, followed by UVA President Scott Beardsley, UVA Foundation Chief Executive Officer Deborah Van Eersel and Pyramid Global Hospitality, the company that manages the hotel, Chief Operating Officer Isaac Hicks.

In his remarks, Beardsley highlighted the hotel’s place within the Emmet Ivy Corridor, which has become a major development project for the university. He said that by placing the hotel between the new School of Data Science and the Karsh Institute of Democracy, the university is making “a profound statement.”

“We are asserting that hospitality itself is a civic virtue,” Beardsley said. “We are suggesting that the most complex data and the most vital democratic debate require a living room, a space for communities forged over a shared meal.”

Beardsley also highlighted how the project was rooted in Virginia in its design, with much of the stone and woodwork sourced directly from the Commonwealth.

Multiple speakers referenced the team’s vision of the hotel as a new “front door” to the university.

“As I entered the Guesthouse today and saw students downstairs studying, [I had] just a bright smile on my face,” Hicks said in his remarks. “I walk upstairs, there’s people checking in. This is what it’s all about. This is what it took 10 plus years to deliver.”

Finally, attendees were invited into the hotel’s almost 10,000 square foot ballroom, the largest in Charlottesville, to view a promotional video for the hotel. The video ended with the tagline, “Where who meets Hoo.”

With UVA’s new front door now open just week away from graduation, Hilker said the hotel is already receiving plenty of bookings. The hotel’s restaurants are also receiving plenty of interest and are offering a number of food and beverage options for graduation as well.

The Perch at Virginia Guesthouse
Attendees enjoy the hotel’s rooftop bar, The Perch.

Hilker said the feedback so far has all been positive, with guests enjoying the contemporary, fresh feel of the hotel complete with plenty of natural lighting. He said the hosts have also received plenty of positive feedback for their service as well.

Now that it’s doors are open, Hilker said the focus is on fine-tuning the experience.

“It’s getting better at what we do as a hotel company in the hospitality business, taking care of our guests, maintaining a wonderful asset. making sure that it remains as pretty as it is today for as many years as we can,” he said. “And that’s that’s the fun part of our jobs too. It evolves into other things for day-to-day operations.”