The biggest hotel buyers in 2025 were not all classic trophy-asset investors. Instead, the year’s transaction leaders showed a clear appetite for branded extended-stay and select-service hotels, especially in segments that offer stable cash flow and operating resilience.
Based on Lodging Development’s proprietary database of U.S. hotel transactions completed from January 1 through December 31, 2025, Noble Investment Group LLC led the list with 54 acquisitions. The Atlanta-based hotel investment and development firm has long focused on upscale and upper-upscale hotels, but since 2020 it has broadened into branded upper-midscale, and more recently into midscale and economy extended-stay assets. In 2025, that strategy accelerated with portfolio purchases that included 16 WoodSpring Suites hotels and 35 Sonesta Simply Suites properties.
Those buys were helped by a wave of dispositions from Service Properties Trust, which spent much of 2025 selling Sonesta-branded hotels as part of its broader balance-sheet and liquidity strategy. That seller activity created a steady pipeline of branded extended-stay and select-service assets for buyers like Noble and Laxmi, and it will be covered further in the Top Sellers article.
Laxmi Hotels Group LLC ranked second with 20 acquisitions. The North Carolina-based owner-operator kept a low profile, but its 2025 buying was geographically broad, spanning the Eastern U.S., Southeast, and Midwest. Nearly all of the assets were Sonesta-branded hotels acquired from Service Properties Trust, and the pattern suggests a deliberate focus on proven operating brands rather than on isolated opportunistic purchases.
Churchwick Partners LLC completed eight acquisitions in 2025, again centered on Sonesta ES Suites. The Long Island investment firm entered lodging in 2022 after initially focusing on multifamily and workforce housing, and its continued buying shows that extended-stay hotels can serve as a logical extension of an income-oriented real estate platform.
T2 Hospitality LLC also acquired eight hotels, but its approach was different. The Southern California-based real estate development and investment company, formerly known as Tarsadia Hotels, focused exclusively on upscale and upper-upscale single-asset transactions. The largest of those was the 454-room Washington Marriott at Metro Center in Washington, D.C., which T2 acquired from Host Hotels & Resorts for about $128 million. The deal illustrates how selective buyers continue to pursue high-quality urban assets when the location, brand, and pricing align with their investment criteria.
Baywood Hotels Inc. rounded out the group with seven acquisitions. The Maryland-based management and development company operates a large, geographically diverse hotel portfolio and picked up assets ranging from an Embassy Suites in Flagstaff, Arizona, to a Red Roof PLUS+ in San Antonio, Texas.
Taken together, the rankings show that 2025 was a year when buyers with access to capital and financing flexibility were able to move while others stayed on the sidelines. JLL’s 2025 U.S. Hotel Investment Trends Report found that transaction volume reached $24 billion, up 17.5% year over year, with private equity, foreign capital, and high-net-worth investors becoming more active as debt markets improved.
The transaction data referenced in this article is drawn from Lodging Development's proprietary database of U.S. hotel sales transactions. Lodging Development tracks hotel purchases and sales across all U.S. markets, including acquisition loan information where available. The firm's continuously updated database also covers active development projects, property openings, ownership and management portfolios, and profiles of hotel owners, developers, architects, designers, builders, and general contractors. Lodging Development's clients include hotel owners, developers, investors, managers, architects, designers, builders, and suppliers to the hotel industry. Learn more at lodgingdevelopment.com.