Nearly 200 Virginia Tech freshmen to live at a Holiday Inn Express

If you’re attending Virginia Tech University as a freshman in the fall, you might live at a Holiday Inn.

The university has agreed “in principle” to lease out the Holiday Inn Express hotel on Plantation Road near its intersection with Prices Fork Road for the 2019-20 school year, according to a report in The Roanoke Times. 

The school has been forced to find additional housing after an unexpected surge in enrollment. The university expected 6,600 incoming freshman, but is getting an additional 1,000 students. 

The hotel offers 195 beds, but to meet the needs of incoming students, the university is also searching for another 500 off-campus beds while adding 500 more beds to existing campus housing as well.

Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski told the Roanoke Times that the hotel setting is a good one and will function like a residence hall with resident assistants and programming that “will create an environment very similar to one found in a residence hall.”

The school’s classes begin on August 26, but most students will move into their housing the week prior.

Photo © Thomas Hawk