CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA-It's a big nut to swallow. More than half of all outstanding debt held by hotel REITs—52%, in fact, just north of $16 billion—is set to come due between 2014 and 2016. So says locally based SNL Research.

According to the firm, the remainder of the year in terms of maturities is but a drop in the bucket, weighing in at less than $190 million, only 1.1% of the total. “But debt maturities are currently set to ramp up steadily over the next few years,” says the firm's Agha Nawazish Ali Khan. The overall number rises to 14.2% next year.

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So who are the “Big Winners” in terms of holding the most debt? SNL breaks it down by year. In 2013, “Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc. led the US hotel REIT group in terms of debt maturity volume in 2013,” the analyst says, “with $106.5 million, or 8.1% of its debt maturing this year. However, the company expects to refinance its $106.5 million mortgage on its Marriott London Grosvenor property, which is slated to mature in October.”

LaSalle Hotel Properties came in second, according to SNL, “with 5.2% of its total debt maturing.” That's on a $59.9-million mortgage coming due in December. “However,” says Ali Kahn, “CFO Bruce Riggins said during the company's April 18 earnings call that they intend to pay off the mortgage secured by the Hotel Solamar in San Diego.” Once that is done, “34 of our 40 hotels will be unencumbered by debt,' " Riggins is quoted as saying.

In third place is Sotherly Hotels Inc., which has a $7.3 million mortgage due on its Crowne Plaza Hampton Marina property in June, representing 4.8% of the company's total debt maturing in 2013.

Next year, the roster of course changes. Leading the pack is InnSuites Hospitality Trust (with 55.6% of its total, or $11.6 million coming due); Chesapeake Lodging Trust (45.1%, $190 million); and Ryman Hospitality Properties (30.8%, $336.6 million).

Of course, for those holding outstanding paper, the current low-interest-rate environment will help, “if it continues,” says Ali Kahn. “The median weighted average interest rates for public hotel REITs have trended downward over the past 10 years. At the end of the first-quarter, the median for hotel REITs' cost of debt stood at 5.21%, 2.6 percentage points lower than the median of 7.8% posted for the same period in 2003.”