NEW YORK CITY-REITs’ sales of lodging properties have shifted into first gear over the past year and a half, but the sector’s acquisitions lately “put dispositions way behind,” said moderator Lou Plasencia during a panel at the New York University International Hospitality Industry Conference Tuesday morning. Chairman and CEO of the Plasencia Group, he cited $595 million in hospitality dispositions between January 2010 and March 2011, versus $7.7 billion in REIT hotel buys during the same time period.

REIT executives on the “REIT Factor” panel said their lack of leverage and, in some cases, lower cost of capital gave them an edge in pursuing an acquisition strategy. Ashford Hospitality Trust’s Monty Bennett and FelCor Lodging Trust’s Richard A. Smith both predicted that the sector would be able to count on these advantages for the next two years.

Asked by Plasencia whether we’re about to see “the dam burst” in terms of a flood of buying opportunities, the Ashford CEO said he wouldn’t call it a dam burst but there would certainly be an uptick. Given the volume of impending loan maturities throughout the hotel sector, Sunstone Hotel Investors president Kenneth Cruse said, “We don’t see those opportunities diminishing,” especially for REITs.

While all four trusts represented on Tuesday’s panel have been acquisitive lately, the four REITs differed in their investment strategies. Sunstone, for example, focuses on primary markets, although Cruse added that this didn’t mean the company would never look at opportunities outside the mainstream. He offered Sunstone’s recent $93.8-million New Orleans buy, the 494-key JW Marriott New Orleans, as an example.

President and CEO of FelCor, Smith said the REIT’s concentration of late has been on entering markets where it hasn’t been before; its $140-million buy of the Royalton and Morgans hotels in New York City last month was a case in point. Dan Hansen, president and CEO of Summit Hotel Properties, which focuses on the limited-service sector, said his company’s sweet spot is the top 50 MSAs. He quipped that all other buyers could continue focusing on New York City and Boston.

When evaluating potential acquisitions, Bennett said Ashford looks at the cost of capital, as well as the REIT’s own current EBITDA multiple compared to that of the asset under consideration. “It’s very easy to assume that the asset you’re going to buy is going to provide faster growth than what you’ve got already,” said Bennett. “That doesn’t mean it’s true.” Cruse concurred, saying that the sector needs to be “more disciplined” in its underwriting, with pro formas “based more on math than on emotion.”

The question of whether REITs might be overpaying came up during an earlier panel Tuesday, “Financially Speaking: IREFAC Insiders.” Neil Shah, president and CEO of Hersha Hospitality Trust and a member of the invitation-only IREFAC roundtable, said the opportunity costs must be considered in evaluating a potential acquisition, and added that he thought other REITs have been “buying into opportunity” lately.