.jpg)
HOTEL NEWS
U.S. Hotel Sales Top $3 Billion in the Second Quarter
November 11th, 2025 at 4:21 PM EDT
Braemar Hotels & Resorts Inc. has closed on the previously announced sale of the 369-room Marriott Seattle Waterfront in Seattle, Washington, for $145 million. Plus, other hotel news.
​​​​​
The DJIA fell 201 points while the Nasdaq was down 65, the S&P 500 fell 16 points, and the 10-year treasury yield was down .01 to 4.27%. Lodging stocks were mixed.
JP Morgan summarized the second quarter of 2025 earnings season for the hotel group as outlooks reflecting an abundance of caution, as half its covered companies lowered RevPAR and EBITDA guides. No surprise in that C-Corps fared better than the lodging REITs. The third quarter outlook is lower than most expected, but the fourth quarter is more optimistic than expected.
The LWHA second quarter 2025 Major U.S. Hotel Sales Survey includes 89 single asset sale transactions over $10 million, which totaled nearly $3.3 billion and included approximately 14,500 hotel rooms with an average deal size of $36.7 million. In comparison, the LWHA first quarter 2025
_______________________________________________________
Investors close San Francisco's biggest hotel deal of the year
Mayor touts sale of the Hilton Union Square and Parc 55 as evidence of city’s comeback
_______________________________________________________
IHG opens world’s tallest hotel
Ciel Dubai Marina, Vignette Collection stands at 1,237 feet
No stranger to superlatives, Dubai has said — yet again — it is home to the world’s tallest hotel.
Officially opened on Nov. 17, the 1,004-room Ciel Dubai Marina, Vignette Collection by IHG Hotels & Resorts rises 1,237 feet, or 377 meters, making it the tallest hotel in the world. The hotel spans 82 floors, and its spa is set to open in winter 2026.
It takes over the mantle from the 505-room Gevora Hotel, also in Dubai, which rises to 1,169 feet, or 356 meters. Parts of the 251-room, 16-story Rosewood Guangzhou in China are higher than both the Dubai hotels in the CTF Finance Centre tower that rises 1,740 feet, or 530 meters. In order for a hotel to unofficially qualify for the title of world's tallest, however, it has to comprise 80% of the building in which it is in.
The owner of the Ciel Dubai Marina, according to CoStar, is Dubai-based Immo Prestige Holding, and First Group Hospitality is operating the hotel.
_______________________________________________________
Marriott International has ended its licensing agreement with apartment-hotel brand company Sonder Holdings, citing Sonder's "default."
In a news release, Marriott said the licensing agreement “is no longer in effect due to Sonder’s default.” Though it did not provide further information, multiple news releases and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings by Sonder indicate financial troubles. On Oct. 21, Sonder filed an 8-K stating the Nasdaq Stock Market sent it a notice of delisting or failure to satisfy listing rule or standard because it did not maintain a minimum market value of publicly held shares of $15 million for the preceding 30 consecutive business days. It has until April 20, 2026, to regain compliance.
On Nov. 5, Sonder filed an 8-K stating its board of directors decided to postpone the 2025 annual meeting of stockholders scheduled for Nov. 6.
Marriott has removed all of Sonder’s properties from Marriott’s booking channels, according to the news release. Marriott’s third-quarter earnings release shows that as of Sept. 30, Sonder had 140 properties with 7,688 rooms available through Marriott’s system. In a separate release, Marriott said the removal of these rooms means the company expects net rooms growth for 2025 to approach 4.5%.
“There are no changes to the rest of the outlook metrics that Marriott provided on Nov. 4, 2025,” it said, referring to its third-quarter earnings release.
Marriott said it is contacting guests who booked Sonder rooms directly through Marriott’s channels to address their reservation and booking needs. It advised guests who booked through a third-party online travel agency to contact the OTA about their stays. It has also provided an FAQ page for guests to answer questions about Sonder reservations.
Sonder did not respond to a request for more comment by press time.
The 20-year licensing agreement between Marriott and Sonder was announced in August 2024. At the time, Sonder had more than 200 apartment-style accommodations, mostly in gateway cities across North America, Europe and the Middle East. It also had more than 1,500 rooms in its pipeline.
Sonder had gone public just a few years before in January 2022 through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company. In a video interview with CoStar News Hotels at the 2023 International Hotel Investment Forum, Sonder co-founder Martin Picard said the company was then working toward free cash flow through unit growth and operational efficiency.
“There’s a whole evolution that’s happened over the last year,” Picard said. “For the longest time, we were being asked to deliver on very high growth numbers; and now we’re having to recalibrate and balance profitability with being an attractive company from a growth standpoint.”
In a note to investors, Michael Bellisario, senior research analyst at Baird Capital, said the news is negative and the public market doesn't like deletions in any form. Given the licensing agreement had a multi-year fee ramp, Baird estimates the run-rate earnings impact in 2026 will be between $10 million to $15 million.
"Net, net — we expect investors (once again) to refocus on the 'quality' of net unit growth, which has been increasingly topical over the last 18 to 24 months (for Marriott and the broader sector)," he said.
Bellisario also noted that since the agreement is ending due to Sonder's default, he expects Marriott to try to recoup the unamortized portion of the $15 million it provided to Sonder as key money for milestones met.
Among other upsets at Sonder, both its CEO and chief financial officer left this year.
Sonder has also repeatedly filed its quarterly earnings reports late. The company most recently filed its second-quarter 2025 release on Oct. 14. Sonder reported revenue of $147.1 million, an 11% year-over-year decrease, and a net loss of $44.5 million, a 236% year-over-year decrease.
There are several news stories and online posts about guests dealing with the fallout from the license agreement ending. Business Insider spoke with a few guests who are now dealing with canceled reservations, including those who have had to find new accommodations in the middle of their stay.
"I didn't believe it when I saw the email, I had to check that this wasn't a phishing attempt or something. Then I saw the articles and posts on X," David Klingbeil, an NYU course instructor, told Business Insider, about finding out he had to leave halfway through his two-week stay at the Sonder Flatiron in New York.
When asked about guests' being upset over their stay cancelations, Marriott referred back to its initial statement, saying "Marriott’s immediate priority is supporting guests currently staying at Sonder properties and those with upcoming reservations" and that it was contacting those who booked directly through Marriott's channels.
_______________________________________________________
Government shutdown didn't hurt overall US hotel performance as much as feared
Despite travel hassles and some local challenges, the U.S. government shutdown didn't ding overall hotel performance in October in a significant way, according to CoStar data.
On this month's episode of Tell Me More: A Hospitality Data Podcast, co-hosts Isaac Collazo of STR and Jan Freitag from CoStar Group tackle two main topics: October hotel performance in the U.S., and the role ultra-luxury hotels play in propping up collective numbers.
First, October numbers and the government shutdown: Revenue per available room and occupancy fell for the month while average daily rate was up 1.5%, "the best increase of the past six months," Collazo said, though still well below the rate of inflation.
And while total room night occupancy during the shutdown was down significantly more so than it was before the shutdown, Collazo reminds listeners that we can't blame the government for all of that, because the shutdown period coincided with 2024's hurricane period.
Recently released TSA data shows screenings during the shutdown period were up 2%.
"Folks aren't talking about that," Collazo said. "A lot of us were traveling during that time period — if you had to travel, you traveled, right? For business, we traveled. It was an inconvenience, but you didn't stop."
"There was just so much to happen this month," he said. "It really was actually a decent month, all things considered. ... Still not a great month, but it wasn't as bad as I think people feared."
Ultra-luxury stays strong
This month, both Freitag and Collazo analyzed elements of what they consider "ultra-luxury" hotels — how they compare with standard luxury-class hotels and how their performance is a high tide, raising the boats of other classes.
Freitag segmented out hotels around the world commanding the highest ADR in their markets. He found that while those hotels are consistently able to command double the rates of their standard luxury counterparts, they also post much lower occupancy levels.
"I think it's part of the allure," Freitag said. "Part of ultra-luxury is exclusivity. And when I talk to operators, they say they have guests who just show up ... with their entourage, we need to be able to accommodate that, and if you're running a lower occupancy, you can do that."
Collazo analyzed a set of 319 U.S. hotels that fit an ADR criteria that makes them stand out from other standard luxury hotels.
He compared their October performance to the rest of the hotels in the country, showing that the ultra-luxury hotels collectively commanded RevPAR growth of 9.1% and ADR gains of 4.1% in the month.
Excluding those super-high-end hotels, U.S. total hotel RevPAR would have been down 1.3% in October, instead of 0.9%.
"That's a 40 basis-point shift from 319 hotels." he said.
​
-
​