He says that except for a handful of specialty transactions, most lenders remain deaf to hotel/motel owners applying for loans when their properties are showing 50% to 60% occupancy levels and their cash flow stream is sagging.

"Most lenders look at the hospitality sector as a business, not actually as a real estate asset per se," Rodstein tells GlobeSt.com in a telephone interview. "That means, at the end of the day, when the cash flow and occupancies of the business are down, there isn't much chance for a mom and pop hotel/motel operator along Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, for example, to get a loan of any kind" yet.

Rodstein says the major hotel chains such as the Marriotts, Hiltons and the Starwoods have "a little better chance" of winning a loan than smaller operators but even the nationals are getting turned down by lenders who formally courted their business.