US Hotels Inspiring Even More Confidence

The Hyatt Centric in Chicago, one of the many new hotels in the CBD. A German investor recently bought it for $110 million.

CHICAGO—The US lodging sector has expanded for nine straight years, and usually, when a property type is that deep into a cycle, investors start shying away. But over the past year, the top buyers of US hotels have grown more interested, not less, in these properties, according to new research from JLL. The firm’s North America Hotel Investor Sentiment Survey collected more than 5,000 data points from hotel investors to measure their expectations for 2018.

“During this recovery, we’ve had eight straight years of 2% GDP growth, which is anemic,” Arthur Adler, Americas chairman at JLL’s hotels and hospitality group, tells GlobeSt.com. But hotels performed well throughout much of this stretch, and with GDP growth now hitting 3%, experts believe strong RevPAR trends will continue in 2018.