An increase in the sale of hotels nationally from $5.7 billion in the second quarter of last year to nearly $8.4 billion during the second quarter of this year is being largely attributed to investor interest in upgrading older and sometimes declining properties.
“As prices decline and the number of new hotels under construction dwindles, new owners are stepping in to buy rundown lodging and whip them into shape,” the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
The sales of such properties have been largely on the increase since the first quarter of 2024, when they accounted for $4.5 billion in transactions. The trendline, far up over where things stood two years ago, showed its greatest strength in the fourth quarter of last year when it hit the $10.3 billion mark.
Hotels have always been a stable presence in real estate circles with sites like the commercial real estate service Loopnet regularly listing such properties.
Currently that service has more than 750 such properties for sale, including most recently the 110-room Ormsby House in Carson City, Nevada, which was built in 1972 and is now listed for $16.7 million; the Hotel Coral Reef in Kapaa, Hawaii, built in 1953, with an asking price of $10.8 million; and Las Vegas’s Lucky Cuss Motel, built in 1955, and listed for $1.6 million.
Hotel sales nationally were up by almost 30% during the first two quarters of this year compared with the same time in 2025, with sales particularly strong in the luxury sector.
But, notes the Journal, “deals for middle-tier, or so-called select-service hotels” have particularly been on the rise.
The trend is also being spirited by lower short-term interest rates, as well as a decrease in new hotel properties. An additional factor: many major hotel brands have been pushing owners to take on expensive renovations, prompting those low on cash to put the properties on the market instead.
Updating hotels, meanwhile, remains a constant for the industry, even in cases where a hotel is not up for sale.
According to the industry site Lodging Econometrics, for example, Houston in the second quarter of this year saw 35 brand hotel renovations; followed by the District of Columbia metro area with 33 projects; and San Antonio with 33.
August 27, 2026
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
