ATLANTA — The U.S. hotel transactions landscape is seemingly starting to open up, but in order to take advantage of the opportunities, certain fundamentals are required.
Relationships throughout the process, raising enough capital and having conviction in dealmaking are some of those fundamentals, panelists said at the "Transactions reimagined" session at the 2026 Hunter Conference.
Ben Brunt, managing principal and chief investment officer at Noble Investment Group, said Noble has been "super active" with hotel transactions over the past two years while many other private equity firms have waited on the sidelines for the market to clear up a bit.
But just because the Atlanta-based company has been active doesn't mean it's been a walk in the park to get these deals done.
"Nothing is easy. Everything takes a bit longer today than I would say in times past," he said.
What does give Noble an edge over some competitors in the space is its commitment to the hospitality segment while others jump ship to different sectors, Brunt said. Noble has found opportunities in the market by staying focused on its segments and knowing which markets it wants to invest in.
"We've never been out of the market. Because we're not an allocator, we didn't shift gears and say, 'OK, well, hotels are not interesting right now. Let's go do data centers,'" he said. "We're always in the market."
Ruby Huang, senior vice president of portfolio management at Brookfield Asset Management, said Brookfield has also been active over the past two years. In that time frame, Brookfield has generated more than $660 million in gross proceeds from selling single assets from the Hospitality Investors Trust select-service hotel portfolio it restructured back in 2021.
There are a lot of quality hotels in the market, she said.
"When you pair up buyers and sellers in certain markets, I think that there are some great opportunities, especially the capital markets right now," Huang said. "There's going to be great opportunities to be able to align all of those stars to be able to put together a perfect transaction."
There are opportunities for a win-win deal for both buyers and sellers in the current environment, she said. Brookfield is motivated to sell assets to recycle capital and move on from hotels it has held for long enough, but the company is also working with advisers who bring in deals that can offer incremental efficiencies.
"We are winning on both sides," Huang said.
Amit Patel, co-founder, principal and CEO of Spark GHC, said building relationships for each step in the buying process has helped bring hotel deals in. This means having connections with third-party management companies, brokerage companies and institutional groups.
"We're able to find really good deals, high-quality assets that require soft goods PIPs, good in-place debt yields ... and transact pretty quick," he said.
While there has been a pickup in hotel transaction activity, some lenders who don't always deal in the space are showing signs of hesitancy due to broader economic trends such as the war in Iran and the price of oil spiking, said Jared Schlosser, head of credit originations and C-PACE at Peachtree Group.
"It's hard to lend on anything with uncertainty; it's extremely hard to lend on hotels," he said.
Firms that have a focus in other real estate segments may consider against deploying capital in hospitality for this reason. But all of the exterior headlines to the hotel industry "is just noise," Schlosser said.
"When you're in the hotel business and you're a good operator and you have a sound business plan, you're going to be successful regardless of what's going on economically, particularly over a three- to five-year horizon," he said.
What gets a deal done
To close the session, each panelist was asked what they felt was most important to getting a hotel deal done this year.
First and foremost, it takes conviction, Brunt said. Lending partners want to see a quarterly distribution and know that there are systems in place that will drive results.
"You need to know the market, have the relationships from a debt and equity standpoint, articulate it, sell it however you approve deals through your investment committee process. And then have the courage to follow through with your business plan, relative to creating the opportunity through operating leverage," he said.
Getting a deal across the finish line is difficult for a handful of reasons. It takes some extra elbow grease and determination to work it all out, Schlosser said.
"In 2026, raising money is hard. The market is hard. Underwriting P&Ls is hard. Business plans, increasing cash flow, all of it is difficult, and you either have enough grit to persevere and get deals done or you don't," he said. "The real estate business is supposed to be hard, and I think it's just gotten back to being hard again."
It may sound simple, but it comes down to working with the best partner at each stage of the transaction, Huang said.
"Start with working with the best adviser to pair up the buyer and seller, buying the best vendor to secure your debt, the best project managers execute your PIPs and obviously the best operator to execute your business plan," she said.
In a similar vein, Patel said relationships are key.
"It comes down to the relationships that you have across the process, whether it's from your lenders, your investors, franchisee folks — [whatever] it takes to get the deal done, you do what you're going to say you're going to do and you do it," he said.