Following the Presidential Election on November 4, Valley hotels were booked for President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration January 20. However, that trend has changed.

Hotel managers in Harrisonburg were taken by surprise in recent weeks when groups that had booked back in late November begun pulling reservations.

Some managers blame the poor economy, gridlocked traffic and the two hour commute. Others point to competition from Washington D.C.

Cliff Weber, for Beck Company Hotels, says, "It was probably right around the week of Christmas that we started seeing a drop off of inquiries and then the week after Christmas we had received notice that about 5,000 room nights had opened up in the D.C. area and a lot of places, groups that had booked outside of the D.C. area started moving back into an area where they were a lot closer."

Out of 15 hotels checked in Harrisonburg, ten have seen a significant decline in reservations.