"Increasingly, hotel groups are ready to do asset disposals and private equity groups, with their increasing interest in the sector, are driving the market," Van Marken said. He added that there was more than euro 364.1 billion ($472.1 billion) of private equity in the global market chasing property acquisitions across all sectors.

Lou Pirenc, vice-president at Morgan Stanley, said becoming "asset-light" was a growing trend in the hotel industry. He also predicted that Millennium & Copthorne would be the next big company to announce major disposals, having already tested the waters with the sale of the Plaza in New York City last August. Pirenc went on to say that, now that hotels are eligible for REITs, there are likely to be more brought to market.

But Marvin Rust, managing partner of the hospitality division at Deloitte, said he did not think UK REITs would be attracted to hotels. "I'm still skeptical, due to the volume of money in the market at the moment, with yields dropping towards sub-6%," he said. "If you can do that kind of deal and get away with not paying much tax, I don't see hotel REITs being attractive in the short term."