Investors and lenders optimistic notes STR survey

Hotel investors and lenders are showing growing signs of optimism, according to the most recent Hotel Investors Gauge, a quarterly survey from STR Analytics. "While there remains a significant amount of uncertainty with the future of the global economy, investors and lenders in the hotel industry are focusing on the simple fundamentals of strong demand levels, limited supply growth and an expectation of room rates continuing their recovery," said Steve Hennis, director at STR Analytics. Some key findings: investors' return expectations for acquisitions declined to 18.5 percent from 20.0 percent in prior survey, illustrating that investors are getting more confident in the lodging sector's recovery; developers' return expectations also declined slightly to 20.6 percent; lender terms remain mostly unchanged from the prior survey. Loan-to-value ratios ranged between 62.5 percent and 70.0 percent and the average LIBOR spread was 350bps.