During the 1990's downturn, the advent of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), also known as securitized lending, was the vehicle which provided private investors with mortgage capital, and allowed the Resolution Trust Corp. (RTC), the US government-owned asset management company, to orderly transfer foreclosed commercial real estate from lenders back to owners and operators. Today, the billions of dollars tied up in defaulted CMBS securitized debt do not, as of yet, have an exit strategy which could enable a similar recovery.

The CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) Valuation & Advisory Services Hospitality & Gaming Group continuously monitors the major US hotel sale transaction market. The CBRE 2009 Major US Hotel Sales Survey includes 36 single asset sale transactions over $10 million each that are not part of a portfolio allocation. These transactions totaled $2.3 billion, and include 11,700 hotel rooms with an average sale price per room of $193,000. By comparison, the CBRE 2008 Major US Hotel Sales survey included 77 single asset sale transactions totaling $3 billion in trades, and included 18,600 hotel rooms with an average sale price per room of $170,000. By further comparison, the CBRE 2007 Major US Hotel Sales survey included 112 single asset sale transactions totaling $8 billion in trades, and included 36,400 hotel rooms with an average sale price per room of $219,000.

During the second half of 2009, a spurt of transaction activity, culminating in the recently announced sale of Interstate Hotels & Resorts, may have provided a harbinger of heightened lodging asset and corporate deal activity, which is anticipated to occur over the next 12 to 24 months. This notion is further reinforced by the recent successful IPO of Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, a $350 million 'blind pool' REIT, formed to take advantage of sales of distressed hotel positions.