“There is a lot of interest in lodging as a sector,” Adler says. For one thing, “it's a much better hedge against inflation,” as operators can raise room rates whenever necessary. Furthermore, for the last few years, supply and demand have mostly stayed in equilibrium. And it's still somewhat difficult to finance new hotel construction, so that balance will most likely hold for some time. Developers in the largest market, New York City, did go on a building spree in the past few year, adding many thousands of new hotel rooms. But occupancy remained very strong, and rental rates kept growing.

Surveyed investors expressed a more confident outlook for three-quarters of the North American markets, versus one year ago. Los Angeles, Washington, DC and San Francisco received the most positive performance expectations, followed by Boston, Vancouver and Hawaii.

But investors' confidence is not just reserved for coastal markets with big tourist trades. “Different investors are looking at different markets,” Adler says. The coastal markets receive a lot of attention from overseas buyers, institutional investors and the big public REITs. And in regions such as the Midwest, investors tend to be private equity, family offices and owner-operators, all on the hunt for bigger yields.

The biggest complaint that JLL hears from all of these groups is that “there is just not enough properties on the market for them to acquire.”

“It's encouraging that after the ninth consecutive year of RevPAR growth, the hotel investment community is expressing a renewed vigor,” says Lauro Ferroni, global head of research for JLL's hotels and hospitality group. “As the buyer pool for hotels remains diverse, we're optimistic about transaction volumes for the year.”