NEW YORK CITY-PKF Consulting’s recent data analysis should give hotel-hungry REITs plenty of reason to feel optimistic about property values for the coming year. As part of its preliminary Hotel Horizons document, the firm examined figures from the Smith Travel Research and Moody’s Analytics October 2011 domestic economic forecast, and PKF’s discoveries build upon earlier positive predictions.

Most significantly, the consultants anticipate that RevPAR will continue to increase by 6.2% going into 2012. This may give REITs like Ashford Hospitality – which just made a $1.28-billion purchase of the 28-property Highland Hospitality portfolio–and Pebblebrook Hotel Trust more reason to celebrate their recent acquisitions. In another PKF document, the 2011 Hospitality Investment Survey, in-house analysts Scott Smith and Bill Morton report that over the past year deal volume among REITs has increased to the extent that entities are “aggressively” chasing hotel properties.

But why are REITs whipping out the plastic now? Simple: Smith and Morton further reveal that lower interest rates in 2011 lead to increased investor confidence. From 2010 to 2011, interest rates fell from 7.71% to 6.69%. Similarly, this year saw overall capitalization rates drop 1.1% down to 9.23% - a factor that made hotel property investment all the more bright and shiny. In a statement discussing their analysis, Smith and Morton said this drop of 110 basis points was indicative of “survey respondents’ reaction to the more attractive debt environment.”