2026 will not be the easiest transaction environment I’ve seen over the last 30 years, but it may be the most strategic. Owners who’ve been in a holding pattern through 2024 and 2025 will likely see better entry points as financing conditions improve and a wave of maturities force decisions. With debt markets loosening and liquidity improving, lenders are re-engaging selectively with those who have strong, defensible financials.
Why the Economic Winds Are Shifting in 2026
For the past few years, uncertainty froze decision-making, but that stalemate is officially coming to an end. There are dozens of factors that are affecting this transition, but I think that there are a few that are really pushing this momentum.
The first being liquidity. With hotel transaction volumes rebounding in 2025 and U.S. occupancy forecasted to stabilize around 62–63%, banks, debt funds, and CMBS lenders are becoming more active. Large-ticket loans, which have been off the table, are now back for consideration. Those who are looking for some capital will be more able to find it, but it’ll be highly selective.
Owners who extended, amended, or waited through volatility are now facing real refinancing decisions. Billions of dollars in hotel loans are scheduled to mature through 2026 and 2027.
As one industry executive recently put it, “there’s a bit of inevitability to deals getting done this year. With the market being so slow and deals being few and far between compared [to] last year, hoteliers are going to have to make moves whether they want to or not.”
Together, these structural shifts are creating a perfect storm that’s pulling institutional capital back into hospitality.
Being Deal-Ready Is a Strategic Advantage for 2026
The biggest difference in this transaction market is that lenders are underwriting on Day-One math, not three-year projections. And, you’re only going to get one chance to show your numbers. And if you can’t show it cleanly, someone else will.
Ronnie Givargis, senior vice president of Northmarq, described the deals getting done today as having “limited underwriting friction,” explaining that “lenders are backing transactions where the story is simple, defensible and rooted in current performance rather than aggressive forward assumptions.” The less guesswork required, the more confidence capital has to move.
As a hotel broker, I’ve seen transactions fall through, not because the asset wasn’t strong, but because the numbers weren’t organized in a way that made the story easy to underwrite. One deal, a $16M resort, nearly derailed because certain expenses were not clearly delineated in the financial reports. Countless other deals were dead on arrival due to inadequate financial reporting. And these attempts were made in easier markets than this one.
Clear, consolidated financial reporting will separate the winning deals in 2026.
Where Many Owners Get Stuck
At ALIS earlier this year, one member of our team, Gregg Suffredini, spoke with multiple hotel owners who described similar bottlenecks when preparing for refinancing, recapitalization, or sale, such as:
- Delays getting financials from management companies
- Additional delays reconciling numbers with accountants
- Inconsistent account classifications across properties
- Multiple rounds of clarification just to parse what expenses actually represent
Unfortunately, the reality for many hoteliers is that transaction-ready reporting is often harder to compile than it should be because many of their financial details are spread out across separate systems.
Reporting infrastructure rarely becomes a sticking point until a refinancing opportunity appears, a buyer calls, or a loan maturity forces a decision. And by that point, you don’t want to rebuild your reporting foundation at the same time you’re negotiating terms.
Instead of struggling with that possibility, many hoteliers are adopting (or have adopted) a modern financial infrastructure that gives them real-time visibility into performance, standardized reporting across properties, and a single source of truth that can be handed to lenders without reconciliation cycles.
It’s just like that old proverb: the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. The same applies to your financial reporting foundation.
If the right opportunity shows up in 2026, the question isn’t whether this year will be the perfect cycle to make a deal; it’s whether your financial foundation can quickly and cleanly show the math to make the deal work. If you’re considering firming that foundation for 2026, let’s talk.
Charlie Fritsch is CEO and Founder of Hotel Investor Apps, Inc., makers of HIA, the ERP purpose-built for hospitality. With over 30 years of hotel brokerage and commercial real-estate and capital funding experience, Charlie created HIA with the express intent of simplifying and elevating hospitality financial management. Charlie is committed to always expanding HIA’s capabilities to further consolidate and streamline hospitality back-office functionality.
