There is evidence of improving liquidity, but no verified national boutique-only transaction total in the public sources reviewed. The following series answer different questions.
| Dataset | Observation period | Reported activity | Pricing evidence | Publication date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JLL US hotel investment | Full-year 2025 | $24 billion, up 17.5% year over year | Broad investment-market context | January 30, 2026. (jll.com) |
| LWHA major single-asset sales above $10 million | Q1 2026 | 110 transactions; approximately $4.6 billion; approximately 17,500 rooms | Approximately $262,000 per room | May 6, 2026. (lwhospitalityadvisors.com) |
| LWHA major single-asset sales above $10 million | Q2 2026 | 107 transactions; approximately $3.8 billion; approximately 17,300 rooms | Approximately $218,000 per room | August 3, 2026. (lwhospitalityadvisors.com) |
| MSCI Real Capital Analytics, as summarized by HVS | First half 2026 | Almost 1,000 hotels sold, nearly 14% more than a year earlier | Average $137,000 per key; 8.2% average cap rate where reported | September 30, 2026. (hospitalitynet.org) |
| HVS commentary using transaction-market evidence | Q3 2026 through mid-September—not the complete quarter | No complete-quarter count supplied in the cited passage | Average $142,000 per key and 8.4% cap rate | September 30, 2026. (hospitalitynet.org) |
Why do the transaction benchmarks differ so much?
The denominators differ. LWHA explicitly screens for larger single-asset transactions; the HVS summary reports a much broader hotel-sale count. Neither is restricted to independent or soft-branded boutiques. The published summaries also do not establish identical weighting, price-availability or capitalization-rate reporting rules. (lwhospitalityadvisors.com)
Consequently:
- Do not average the datasets together.
- Do not read the change between LWHA’s quarterly prices per room as a repeat-sales price index.
- Do not apply an all-hotel average capitalization rate directly to a small seasonal resort.
- Keep transaction count, dollar volume and number of properties distinct in an investment committee paper.
These are analytical safeguards, not adjustments that make unlike samples comparable.
Where was capital concentrated?
JLL’s 2025 data identified New York at $3.7 billion across 29 trades, Phoenix at $1.5 billion across 22 trades, and Washington, DC at $1.2 billion across 22 trades. JLL explicitly noted the influence of large transactions. Those figures indicate capital-market activity, not necessarily depth of liquidity for a small independent hotel. (jll.com)