NEW YORK CITY—By numerous measures, including general economic indicators, the hotel industry's record-breaking run of success won't slow down any time soon.

Our GDP growth forecast for the year is 2.6%, which I'd characterize as mediocre, but that's really the story of the economy, said Greg LaBerge, national director, Marcus & Millichap's national hospitality group, during a webcast on the state of the hospitality sector. “We're in the 75th month of the growth cycle—the average lasts 56 months—and while the recovery has been slow and choppy, its longevity is significant.”

Oil prices have nosedived from $100 a barrel in recent years to around $45, giving prospective travelers motivation to travel, he noted. “Because of the extension of oil prices across the supply chain, it's putting $100 per person, per month into the pocket of each person for discretionary income. We're expecting prices to stay at $40 to $50 a barrel for the foreseeable future.”

Job growth too, is at healthy levels, providing the incomes and confidence for travel, according to LaBerge. “We've been averaging about 210-220,000 job additions last few years, that's allowed us to earn back the 8.7 million jobs we lost in the recession. Further, the pace at which we've earned them back, is faster than the pace of the previous cycle. That's pretty telling and significant.”

Supply growth, while on the rise, has a ways to go before it hits concerning levels, stated Marcus' Pete Nicols, national director of the hospitality group. “Supply and demand alike have been growing by about 1.7%. As we're moving into the rest of 2015, 2016 and 2017, we see a closing of the gap so by 2017, when supply will outpace demand growth for the first time in seven years.”

However, he continued, “Given the slow rate of increase, it's not a drastic jump. It's slow and it's not flooding the market.”

There's good news in the lending climate too, added Emil Iskander, director. “Most common hotel lending benchmarks—the short term rates of prime and Libor—generally have been unchanged. The last increase was in 2006.”

He adds, “Hotels' top line numbers have been remarkable and fundamentals are strong, continuing to feed lenders'appetites. But we have seen a decrease in participation by CMBS lenders. That could be explained by a flight to quality, an increase of the minimum loan size to $10 million and the shift to mid to upscale brands. However, international banks are increasing lending. If that continues, it will continue to prolong the growth we're seeing.”

The only source of “headwinds” on the horizon, LaBerge noted, is the US dollar's strength. At least one hotelier has felt the impact.

“We have two hotels in the Burlington, VT area and we're about an hour from the Canadian border,” said Jeff Long, president, Long and Cox Properties. “We usually do a lot of business with Canadians, but they're not traveling as much; we have seen a drop of as much as 50%.”

But even he could see the silver lining. “The good news is, business is still pretty good. If the dollar weaknes relative to Canadian dollar, we may see some growth and more US travelers.”