The largest hotel sellers in 2025 were driven by very different motivations, but the common thread was portfolio reshaping. Some owners were reducing debt, some were winding down troubled platforms, and others were pruning assets after large-scale acquisitions or recapitalizations. Based on Lodging Development’s research on U.S. hotel transactions completed from January 1 through December 31, 2025, Service Properties Trust stood far ahead of the field with 112 hotel sales.
Service Properties Trust’s disposition activity was especially significant because it involved 112 Sonesta-branded hotels totaling 14,631 keys and generating $858,752,000 in sales proceeds. That volume made SVC the defining seller of the year and one of the most important sources of deal flow in the market. The company’s sales also helped feed the buyer activity seen elsewhere in the rankings, particularly among investors focused on branded extended-stay and select-service assets.
Hospitality Investors Trust Inc. ranked second with 29 hotel sales. Formerly American Realty Capital Hospitality Trust Inc., the company has been liquidating its portfolio since 2019 after a series of accounting fraud charges, a suspended dividend, and a steep share-price decline. Its sales continued in early 2020, paused during the pandemic and around its May 2021 Chapter 11 filing, then resumed in 2022. By the end of 2025, the company had sold more than two-thirds of the roughly 150 hotels it accumulated between 2014 and early 2017, marking one of the clearest long-running unwinds in the sector.
Starwood Capital Group sold approximately 25 hotels, primarily select-service properties located in the eastern, midwestern, and southern U.S. Like Highgate, Starwood’s selling activity reflects the natural turnover that follows large portfolio investments, especially when owners have already captured the value-creation phase and are ready to rotate capital into new opportunities.
American Hotel Income Properties REIT LP was another notable seller, with 18 hotel sales in 2025. The company sold a mix of select-service hotels operating under Hilton, Marriott, and IHG flags across the eastern, midwestern, and southern United States. Its dispositions suggest a continued focus on streamlining the portfolio and refining asset quality in a market where financing costs and operating expectations remained under pressure.
Highgate affiliates sold about 15 hotels in 2025, most of them from portfolios acquired in 2021 and 2022 through joint ventures with Cerberus Capital Management LP. Nearly half of those sales came from the former CorePoint Lodging portfolio, which was dominated by La Quinta Inns. That pattern suggests a disciplined recycling of capital after years of portfolio assembly and repositioning.
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.