Exiting a hotel investment: who buys in 2026, sale-and-leaseback and what lowers the price

Most buyers study the purchase carefully and think about the sale as an afterthought. With a hotel this is a costly habit. An apartment can be sold to almost anyone who wants to live in it. A hotel is sold to a narrow group of buyers who each judge it by different numbers, the process is slower, and the price depends on the business, the contracts and the condition of the building. This guide looks at the exit before you buy: who buys hotels in 2026, how yields turn profit into price, the routes out, and the things that lower the price. It follows our hotel real estate guide for private investors and works with the pieces on valuation and holding structures and taxes.

Plan the exit before you buy

Write down three things before the offer: who is the likely buyer in five to ten years, what yield they will accept, and what will have to be true for them to pay your price. If the only answer is that someone will want it, the plan is not finished. A good exit plan shapes the purchase: you choose a structure that can be sold in shares, an operator whose contract a buyer will accept, and a renovation budget that keeps the building competitive.

Who buys hotels in 2026

HVS, a hotel consultancy, reports that European hotel transactions in the first half of 2026 reached 9.4 billion euro. That is 10% below the first half of 2025 but 11% above the ten-year first-half average. There were 183 transactions, 5% fewer than a year earlier, and the number of hotels and rooms sold fell by 19% and 23%. The average price per room rose by 18% to a ten-year high of about 268,000 euro, but HVS says this reflects the better quality of the hotels that sold, not a general rise in values.

The mix of buyers changed:

• Real estate investment companies, in other words property funds and listed property companies, were the largest buyers: about 4.1 billion euro, or 43% of volume, and net buyers of 2.1 billion euro.
• Hotel owner-operators were net buyers of about 768 million euro.
• Private equity firms were net sellers of about 1.3 billion euro.
• High-net-worth individuals were net sellers of about 377 million euro, a reversal from a year earlier, when they were net buyers.

Almost two thirds of the volume was in three countries: the United Kingdom (32%), Spain (16%) and France (14%).

What this means for a private investor: the buyers with the most money want scale, a strong brand and stable income, and they buy large portfolios or single hotels of tens of millions. A small independent hotel is more often bought by an owner-operator, a local investor or another private buyer, and the pool of these buyers is thinner. We did not find public data on buyers of small hotels, so we do not give a figure; treat the market for small hotels as less liquid than the headline numbers suggest. Also note that private buyers and wealthy individuals were net sellers in this period, so you may be competing for the same buyers as other sellers.

How yields set the price

A hotel buyer prices the asset from its net operating income (NOI) and a yield. The price is NOI divided by the yield. Cushman & Wakefield reports European prime hotel yields at about 4.75% in the first half of 2026. CBRE gives lease prime yields for the first quarter of 2026 of 5.00% in Madrid and Barcelona, 6.00% on the Spanish islands, 5.50% in Lisbon and 5.75% in Porto. These are prime figures for the best hotels in the best locations. A secondary hotel in a smaller place needs a higher yield, which means a lower price for the same NOI. We did not find Italian or Greek figures and do not quote them.

A simple illustration, our own arithmetic: a hotel with an NOI of 500,000 euro is worth about 7.7 million euro at a yield of 6.5%, but about 6.7 million euro at 7.5%, which is 13% less. The same hotel, the same business, a different yield. HVS also warns that the return of inflation in 2026 and higher financing costs may limit further falls in yields. Do not build your plan on a yield that is lower at exit than at purchase.

The routes out

• Sale of the operating hotel. The usual route, as an asset deal or a share deal (see holding structures and taxes). It works best when the hotel has clean accounts, a licence, a trading history and an operator with a contract that can be transferred.
• Sale to the operator or to an owner-operator. Owner-operators were net buyers in 2026. A good operator may want to own the building, and a sale to them can be quicker, but they know the numbers as well as you do.
• Sale and leaseback. You sell the building to an investor and the operator keeps the hotel by signing a long lease with the new owner. It suits an investor who owns both the building and the operating business and wants cash while keeping control of the brand and management. A summary we found reports European sale-and-leaseback volume of about 1.7 billion euro in the first half of 2026, down 48% from a year earlier and the lowest half-year in five years, but it may cover all property types, not hotels only. One April 2026 deal in Milan involved four hotels under leases with fixed and variable rent. Flexible leases are replacing rigid fixed ones, and the buyer's price depends on the strength of the tenant.
• Changing the operator or the brand. Sometimes the best way to raise the price is to replace a weak operator, upgrade the rooms or move to a stronger brand, then sell. This takes time and capital and has its own risk (see how to choose a hotel operator).
• Conversion or mixed use. Some hotels are worth more as housing or as mixed-use projects. CBRE counted 73 changes of use in Spain in 2025, covering about 392,000 square metres, with more than 90% of them to housing or to hotels, and 62% tied to a sale. But a change of use is never by right: it needs planning permission, and many places protect tourist use. We found no general rule on hotel-to-residential permission, so check the zoning before you count on it. See also buying an operating hotel or a building to convert.
• A partial exit. You can bring in a partner, recapitalise the company or sell a minority share, and keep the rest.
• Vendor financing or an earn-out. Part of the price is deferred or depends on future results. It can widen the circle of buyers, but it keeps you tied to the hotel.

How long it takes

Do not plan a hotel sale in weeks. A hotel-software guide gives four to twelve months from preparation to closing: four to twelve weeks of preparation, 60 to 120 days of marketing, and 60 to 120 days of due diligence and closing. It has a US slant, so treat it as a rough guide. A data-room vendor reported an average of about 190 days for transactions in southern Europe in 2022, for all property types. A sale can stretch if the buyer needs time to arrange a loan, if the operator or the franchisor must approve the transfer, or if due diligence finds a problem. Start preparing a year before you want the money.

What lowers the price at exit

Buyers lower the price, or walk away, for these reasons:

• Short remaining term on the management agreement, lease or franchise, or a contract that cannot be transferred or has a heavy break fee.
• A weak operator record, or revenue that depends on one tour operator, one source of demand or one short season.
• Deferred spending: a renovation or brand upgrade that the next owner will have to pay for.
• Problems with licences, classification, planning or fire approvals, or rooms that are not licensed.
• Poor energy performance, or a building that will need costly upgrades to meet rules.
• Accounts that cannot be checked: cash revenue that is not recorded, or numbers that do not match the bank statements.
• Open disputes, employment liabilities, and a title with charges or unclear rights.
• A short land lease or a title that limits what the buyer can do.
• Fragmented ownership: if units have been sold to many owners, selling the whole building can become almost impossible.

Most of these can be fixed in the years before the sale, and the cost of fixing is usually less than the discount a buyer applies.

Taxes on exit

A sale triggers tax on the gain, and sometimes transfer tax and VAT, depending on whether you sell the building, the business or the shares. The rules and rates differ by country, and the structure you chose at purchase decides which route is cheaper (see holding structures and taxes). A Polish tax resident also has a Polish side to the gain; in headline terms 19% on a share sale, which is general knowledge that we did not search for, and the foreign tax is usually credited. Model the net amount after tax, not the sale price. See also total cost of ownership abroad.

Who this is for, and who should not

This guide is for anyone considering a hotel as an investment, and for owners who plan to sell in the next few years. If your plan depends on selling quickly, on a higher yield than today, or on a buyer who will accept a promise of guaranteed income, rethink the plan. A buyer will test every promise against the accounts.

An exit-readiness checklist

• Three to five years of clean, checkable accounts.
• Contracts that can be transferred, with a remaining term a buyer will accept.
• Licences, classification and permits in order.
• A maintenance and renovation plan that is already funded.
• A structure that allows both an asset sale and a share sale.
• A realistic yield and price range from a recent comparison, not from the seller's brochure.
• A buffer of time: start the process about a year before you need the money.

FAQ

Is a hotel harder to sell than a flat? Usually yes. The buyer pool is smaller, the process is longer, and the price depends on the business.

Can I sell the building and keep operating the hotel? Yes, with a sale and leaseback, but you then pay rent to the new owner for years.

Should I convert the hotel to apartments? Only after you have a planning decision in hand. A change of use is not automatic.

How we help

We help you check, compare and negotiate, and we think about the exit with you at the start of the project: which buyers are realistic, which structure keeps the options open, and what to fix first. Browse the hotels in our catalogue to see what is on the market; we do not promise a buyer, a price or any return.

This article is informational only and is not legal, tax or investment advice. Figures are indicative, come from market and professional sources and change over time; confirm current terms with local counsel and a tax adviser before you buy or sell.