What Access Point Financial reported
Access Point Financial released The State of Hotel Construction Loans on 13 October 2026. The report tracks where hotel capital is going. Developers have shifted focus from ground-up development to brand conversions and renovations. APF calls the pair “flips and PIPS.”
The economics of a conversion
A renovation bypasses the construction loan cost a new build carries. APF states that a like-new hotel comes with a lower price tag on that basis. The report names extended-stay as the exception among new development, on lower operational overhead and resilient customer demand.
The report also flags record early-stage pipeline activity in luxury. At the close of the 2026 first quarter, the luxury segment held 59 hotels under construction.
Construction cost inflation
The Turner Building Cost Index tracks United States non-residential construction costs. The index rose 8.0 per cent in 2022 and 6.0 per cent in 2023, after an average of 1.9 per cent growth across 2020 and 2021. It reached 1552 in the second quarter of 2026, up 5.15 per cent year over year.
APF places the index inside a wider cost stack. The report names the cost of capital and tighter lender selectivity as the other inputs, and treats construction and material inflation as one component among them.
Debt pricing for hotels
Hotel 10-year fixed CMBS debt ran at 5.85 per cent to 6.85 per cent as of July 2026, by the report’s numbers. Multifamily and industrial 10-year fixed CMBS ran at 5.50 per cent to 6.30 per cent in the same month. Hotel construction and bridge financing priced higher, at roughly 8 per cent to 10 per cent and above. Structure and leverage set the level.
Supply growth through the cycle
APF traces United States hotel room supply growth back to 2000. The report puts the long-term average at roughly 1.5 per cent to 2.0 per cent a year. Growth held near 2.0 per cent to 2.3 per cent across 2000 and 2001, then fell to 1.1 per cent to 1.4 per cent a year between 2002 and 2005. It climbed back to 2.5 per cent to 2.8 per cent in 2008 and 2009. Growth dropped below 0.5 per cent in 2011 and 2012, averaged 1.4 per cent a year from 2014 to 2019, and contracted 4.0 per cent in 2020. It reached 0.2 per cent in 2023 and 0.5 per cent in 2024.
The report cites Lodging Econometrics for the recent figures. That pipeline data shows 2025 closing at 1.3 per cent growth with 640 new hotels, 2026 on track at 1.3 per cent with 661 hotels, 2027 at 1.4 per cent and 2028 at 1.5 per cent.
The refinancing wave
About 48 billion dollars of CMBS-era hotel loans mature across 2025 and 2026, by the report’s figure. Many of those loans refinance at debt service about 40 per cent higher than the original. APF states that the wave pulls lender and sponsor capital toward existing assets.
The lender pool has narrowed. The report states that most debt funds and life insurance companies are largely out of hotel construction lending. Projects that win funding are branded and above a minimum size, sit in markets with clear demand, and are structured to stabilized risk.
Where margins sit
Gross operating profit per room remains near 90 per cent of 2019 levels, per the report. That margin leaves a thin cushion for higher construction and debt costs. APF attributes the pressure to a combination of cost of capital, tighter lender selectivity and margin compression.
The report also measures a rise in lending volume. Dollar volume for hotel loans rose 85 per cent year over year in the first quarter of 2026 and a further 19 per cent in the second quarter. APF states its own strategy as “Build, Baby, Build.”
The advice the report gives
APF tells owners to bring a project to shovel-ready condition. The report asks for plans at least 80 per cent complete and bid at that stage. Permits should be ready to pull within 90 days, with no entitlement or zoning risk outstanding. The report also asks owners to explain their construction experience.
The report’s own source lines
APF is a direct hotel capital provider and lender. Its site lists senior bridge loans, construction loans, mezzanine loans and preferred equity, and its address at 1 Ravinia Drive in Atlanta, Georgia. The supply counts in the report come from Lodging Econometrics pipeline data. The construction cost series is Turner Construction’s own index.
The day-use lines the report does not carry
The report states no day-use line. It carries no hourly rate, no daytime window, no part-day occupancy figure and no revenue figure for a part-day slot. Its two margin measures, revenue per available room and gross operating profit per room, run on the overnight sale.
A conversion or a PIP sets the condition of the same room a day-use operator sells by the hour. The report’s cost-of-capital and margin findings therefore bear on the daytime operator as much as on the overnight one.
Atlanta’s day-use shelf
Dayuse.com listed 20 day-use properties on its Atlanta page on 16 October 2026. The page carries its own average of 87.80 US dollars for a day room in the city, and its card list runs across Peachtree Center, Buckhead, Midtown, Downtown Decatur, College Park and the airport corridor.
APF works from 1 Ravinia Drive in Atlanta.