"The hotel business is still extremely profitable, but as we steer clear of this possible recession, which I see as still just a downturn, things will flatten out," Heiser tells GlobeSt.com. "There's remains a good chance things could bounce back in the latter part of this year, but if we actually go into a recession, it will take a bit longer."Shoring up the industry is the fact that not much development is in the pipeline, says Heiser, in part because financing is difficult to obtain, especially for larger hotels requiring $25 million or more.

"The big capital companies are still looking for repositioning and re-branding opportunities," explains Heiser, "but to a certain extent they are out of the buying market. For the most part it hasn't been accretive for them over the past 18 to 24 months, so a lot of them have been net sellers rather than buyers, selling off non strategic properties and using the capital to buy back stock when the price was down low, and to reduce debt."

Heiser cautions, however, that these are general trends and that the situation will vary on a market-by-market basis. Not much, though, GlobeSt.com is finding.