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Two New York state hotels in buildings dating back more than a century are set to reopen after being shuttered during the pandemic.

The Mayfair Hotel — a boutique, 78-room hotel in New York's Time Square — is undergoing a $2.5 million renovation after owner Mayfair Hotel Group signed a new 25-year lease on the building, CoStar News' Andria Cheng reports. The building dates back to 1903 and was sold to the current owner for $1.4 million, or $17,831 per room, in December 2008, according to CoStar records.

Upstate in Buffalo, New York, the Hotel Henry is also preparing to open its doors for the first time in two years. The 88-room hotel, which also features five suites and meeting and banquet space, is in the former Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, which opened in 1880.

The hotel, named for its architect Henry Hobson Richardson, opened in 2017 after a "high-profile" renovation that was expected to cost around $80 million, according to a Hotel News Now snapshot of the project in May 25.

South Carolina-based hotel developer and management company OTO Development has bought the newly constructed AC Hotel by Marriott hotel in the waterfront arts district of St. Petersburg, Florida, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reports.

No price has been disclosed on the deal, which was brokered by Preston Reid at brokerage Berkadia (Reid is now Hodges Ward Elliott). The eight-story hotel has 172 rooms, including 12 suites, and 1,800 square feet of meeting and event space. It is part of Ascent St. Petersburg, which also features a 36-story apartment tower.

The St. Petersburg property marks OTO's seventh under the AC brand and its fourth acquisition in the Tampa Bay region. CoStar records show that ahead of the deal, Greystar Real Estate Partners was the owner of the property and OTO was the operator.

Austin, Texas-based hotel real estate investment trust Summit Hotel Properties plans to expand its investment and footprint in glamping after acquiring a 90% stake in a joint venture to buy luxury treehouse resort, the Onera Fredericksburg in Texas, in October for $5.2 million, HNN's Sean McCracken reports.

The Onera acquisition was just a piece of the nearly $1 billion that Summit invested in the acquisition of hospitality properties last year. It's also part of a strategic partnership with glamping resort brand Onera, which includes right of refusal on the brand's next 10 projects.

Summit is expanding the Fredericksburg property, which had 11 units as of the acquisition, and is already working to develop its second glamping resort.

A British high school's ski trip to Lincoln, New Hampshire, was extended by five days after the hotel in which they were staying "inadvertently 'shredded' their passports," according to a story by British newspaper the Telegraph.

A parent of one of the students told local newspaper the Express and Star that 41 travel documents were destroyed by the hotel. Katie Hibbs, headteacher of the school, said the mistake by the hotel has led to “all those affected having to apply for emergency travel documents."

The Barr Beacon High School students' trip has been extended to include "impromptu sightseeing tours in New York," according to the Telegraph.

In his latest video analysis of U.S. hotel performance, CoStar National Director of Hospitality Analytics Jan Freitag shares two vantage points on hotel industry confidence.

A survey of hotel owners by CoStar hospitality analytics firm STR shows that confidence rates at about a 7 on a 10-point scale for the next three months, but that rating improves over the next two years.

Meanwhile, an executive at private debt lender ACORE Capital tells Freitag that debt markets are anticipating more stability from the Federal Reserve on interest rates, but underwriting loans for hotel projects remains difficult in the face of "a potentially inevitable reduction in demand."

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