The LW Hospitality Advisors (LWHA) Q1 2015 Major US Hotel Sales Survey includes 38 single asset sale transactions over $10 million, none of which are part of a portfolio. These transactions totaled roughly $3.2 billion, and included approximately 11,300 hotel rooms with an average sale price per room of $280,000. By comparison, the LWHA Q1 2014 Major US Hotel Sales Survey identified 31 transactions totaling roughly $2.5 billion including 8,100 hotel rooms with an average sale price per room of nearly $310,000. Comparing Q1 2015 with Q1 2014, the number of trades and total dollar volume has impressively increased, sales price per room decreased roughly 10 percent. Southern California, South Florida, and New York City have been the most active transaction markets.

Increasing sums of foreign direct investment in the US lodging sector, which shows no signs of let up has led to select transaction prices continuing to exceed prior record levels. On the heels of the recent $1.95 billion sale of the Waldorf Astoria New York, the largest ever sale price of a US hotel, the brand new 114 room Baccarat Hotel New York has traded for $230 million or a record per room sale price of $2 million. Additionally, by a wide margin, two trades set new high water marks for California hotels, namely the $1.7 per room sale of the 47 room Malibu Beach Inn and the $1.4 million per room trade of the 250 room Montage Laguna Beach. Chinese investment in trophy assets is not the first wave of foreign buying of irreplaceable American hotels. Japanese conglomerates were big buyers during the 1980s, and there has been a steady stream in recent years of petrodollars from Middle Eastern and Asian government funds.