Hotel Deals Are Picking Up, But Closing Them Requires Creativity
No Vacancy Live and No Vacancy News
Release Date: 06/11/2026
How Asheville Shapes This Embassy Suites
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A major hotel brand doesn’t need to make every property feel the same. I toured the Embassy Suites Downtown Asheville with Jack Benton, Area Director of Sales & Marketing, and this hotel takes plenty of inspiration from its surroundings. Appalachian textures, mountain-inspired design, open public spaces, meeting areas that connect naturally with the rest of the hotel and guest rooms with unobstructed views give the property a strong sense of #Asheville. The hotel also packs in more than you might expect. Its 188 suites include flexible connecting-room configurations, its meeting spaces...
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How Short-Term Rentals Use Data to Price Smarter
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A popular band you’ve never heard of announces a tour, demand suddenly takes off in a market, and a short-term rental owner misses the signal and leaves money on the table. That’s one of the examples Anurag Verma, co-founder of PriceLabs, and I get into while walking along the Chicago River. PriceLabs watches what’s happening across individual markets and combines those signals with an operator’s own data, giving #ShortTermRental owners a much broader view of demand than one property alone provides. And the scale gets pretty wild. PriceLabs works across 600,000 listings and prices...
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The Hidden Technology Behind Every Hotel Booking
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The hotel room someone books online sits at the end of a massive web of technology, partnerships and decisions most of us never see. Danielle Von Weyhrother, Head of Sales North America at HBX Group, joins me on No Vacancy to pull back the curtain on #HotelDistribution. HBX connects hotels with airlines, travel agencies, OTAs, loyalty programs and more than 100,000 clients worldwide, helping hotels reach demand far beyond the obvious booking channels. Then #AI changes the equation. Danielle explains why rates, inventory and room photos don’t tell technology enough about a hotel. The details...
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India's Hotel Boom Is Bigger Than You Think
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Something enormous is happening with hotels in India, and I don't think enough people realize the scale of it yet. I brought Bruce Ford, SVP of Lodging Econometrics, back to No Vacancy because the numbers coming out of #India are pretty staggering, but the real story goes much deeper than the size of the pipeline. Global hotel companies are making major moves across the country, investment is accelerating, and Bruce sees development spreading into markets that barely register on most people's radar today. And this isn't simply another #HotelDevelopment boom. Bruce explains why this cycle looks...
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FNA 218: Red Roof, Red Jackets & Really Bad Advice
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Friday Night Audit gives hotel company presidents a dangerous combination: cocktails, bad ideas and three people absolutely convinced they know how to run the business better. Red Roof President Zack Gharib made the mistake of joining us this week. We insisted our advice was genius. Zack knew better. Between drinks, Craig Sullivan started designing a red-jacket tradition for Red Roof, Suzanne Bagnera battled technical problems, I kept one eye on a pork butt creeping toward 205 degrees, and Zack kept the whole thing moving despite the rest of us. Then we reached the Final Four of the Friday...
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Why This 14-Room Fantasy Hotel Gets Millions of Views
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What happens when you build a hotel around elves, orcs, fairies and leprechauns — and commit fully to the idea? Ancient Lore Village has just 14 rooms, yet some of its social videos draw millions of views, including one that topped 25 million. Now CEO Melissa Blattner is taking the concept much further. I spoke with Melissa about why immersive storytelling connects so strongly with guests and what separates a real experience from something a hotel simply calls an “experience.” Plenty of hotels deliver perfectly good stays. Far fewer create something guests remember, talk about and share....
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The Dirty Dancing Hotel Lost Its Lake. Here’s What Happened Next
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What if the biggest problem at your hotel isn’t what you’re missing? Heidi Stone knows that trap well. She took over Mountain Lake Lodge — the Virginia resort made famous by Dirty Dancing — when the lake had dried up and the property had plenty working against it. Her answer wasn’t to obsess over everything that was wrong. That mindset changed the property, and it shapes how she looks at independent hotels today. If you own or operate a hotel, there’s a very good chance you’re spending time and money fixing the wrong things. Heidi explains where she’d look first — and why...
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Why Hotel Companies Are Betting Big on Asia Pacific
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Some of the biggest hotel construction opportunities in the world right now are taking shape across Asia Pacific — and India is accelerating fast. I spoke with Lodging Econometrics’ Bruce Ford about where hotel companies are placing their bets next. India’s hotel pipeline nearly tripled over the past three years, and Bruce expects a construction wave there for the next five to seven years. China brings a different story, with huge numbers of rooms opening, major renovation activity and development patterns that look very different from what we typically see in the U.S. If you want to...
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SBA Hotel Loans Just Got Bigger: How Owners Access Up to $10 Million
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What if the SBA’s $5 million hotel loan limit doesn’t actually limit you to $5 million? At LendingCon, SBA Regional Administrator Tyler Teresa explained how hotel owners now use the 7(a) and 504 programs together for as much as $10 million in total financing. Congress never raised the $5 million limit. The SBA found another route. Then Tyler dropped another number every hotel buyer should hear: 15%. Under the 504 program, hotel buyers contribute 15% toward the deal. Tyler also took me through an $8 million hotel acquisition and showed exactly where the 7(a) and 504 pieces fit. I spend...
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Hotel Deals Are Moving Again. Here’s What’s Driving Them
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Waiting for “uncertainty” to disappear before making your next hotel deal? Dan Lesser has a technical term for that: a cop-out. I caught up with the LW Hospitality Advisors president and CEO at LendingCon 2026, and Dan sees considerably more activity in the hotel market than all the hand-wringing might suggest. He says the first half of the year has been phenomenal, people continue to travel, substantial hotel transactions are getting done and there’s money available for acquisitions, refinancing and construction when the economics work. Then we got into what could drive even more deals....
info_outlineDuring last week's NYU IHIF, I talked with Ryan Bosch of Arriba Capital because hotel transactions have picked up, but closing deals still takes a lot more creativity than people may realize.
Ryan sees a growing performance gap between hotels where owners continually invested in their properties during the last six years and hotels where owners delayed CapEx. Now that gap is showing up in value, refinancing pressure, and whether some owners decide they’re better off selling.
Deferred CapEx has split hotel performance inside the same markets
Owners who continually invested in their properties now have stronger assets
Some owners now face refinance pressure and larger cash-in requirements
More sellers need a transaction, not another round of market testing
Buyers still want “meat on the bone” so they have room for value creation after closing
Creative capital stacks and alternative financing help more hotel deals close
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