OUTLOOK 2027 · CHAPTER 5 OF 6 · OWNERS AND INVESTMENT

Hotel Investment Trends 2027: Proof Before Spend

The hotel investment trends for 2027 come down to shorter horizons and harder questions about every investment, from a renovation to a brand flag.

Edited by Alon Shkuri · Updated 8 Nov 2026This chapter is open for a partner. Partner this chapter

Owners want proof before they spend

Emmanuel Dissez, head of hotel asset management at Schroders Capital, bought a hotel in Barcelona in late 2021 and was selling it in early 2026, barely five years later, with the exit in mind the whole time. Clare Anna Gamon, chief commercial officer of London Rock Partners, sees a new generation of owners who think in five- and ten-year turnarounds rather than the horizons of their parents.

Spending has to clear the market. Rastko Djordjevic, managing director EMEA at JLL Asset Management, has seen excellent renovations miss their expected return because there is only so much room for ADR growth, and Maxime des Monstiers of Capital Hospitality Europe saw building costs rise by about 30%. Brands face the same test. Martin Hendricks of Black Label Hotels calls a flag worth it when the ADR gap exceeds the franchise fee, and Rogier Ensel warns that moving from unbranded to branded does not always close that gap.

“When you think that we bought in late twenty one and we're selling in early twenty six, that's, barely five years. And one of the key success of this particular project is that we had, all the time, the exit in mind.”
Emmanuel Dissez, Head of Hotel Asset Management, Schroders CapitalListen from 16:56
“What we found was, particularly after COVID, a lot of the owners were next generation owners. And therefore, investment timelines were completely different to that perhaps of their fathers or their parents. And they wanted to talk about five year turnarounds and ten year turnarounds.”
Clare Anna Gamon, Chief Commercial Officer, London Rock PartnersListen from 02:35
“We have seen on the market that some hotels or some owners, they renovate. They do an excellent job in renovation. The product is fantastic. But the market, there's only so much room for ADR growth, and you may overinvest, and you may not get the return you're expecting.”
Rastko Djordjevic, Managing Director EMEA, JLL Asset ManagementListen from 09:07
“What's our ADR? What's the ADR of the competitors? And you can see there is a gap between. And that gap, if the gap exceeds your franchise fee, it's happy days.”
Martin Hendricks, Founder & CEO, Black Label HotelsListen from 32:38
“Moving from unbranded to branded and expecting a better outcome in performance is sometimes not the reality and even where even the big brands are not able to bridge the gap for moving from unbranded to branded.”
Rogier Ensel, Owner, RevGenListen from 21:32
“For the CapEx program, it was tough because as we already said, all the prices and all the crisis with which, with the COVID, made all the prices, from plaster to screws and everything rise up to, by 30%, let's say.”
Maxime des Monstiers, Head of Operations & Asset Management, Capital Hospitality EuropeListen from 20:29

Rastko Djordjevic in Owner, operator, advisor: what a hotel asset manager really does

What to do in 2027

Write down the exit you expect before you approve a renovation or a repositioning.
Test every renovation against the highest rate your market will pay.
Compare the ADR premium of a brand with its total cost, including what is not in the contract.

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All six chapters with every quote and the steps for 2027, in one PDF for your team or your board.

How we made this

We read the guest contributions in the 131 episodes of the Future of Hospitality podcast, recorded with hotel operators, owners, investors, consultants and suppliers. AI helped sort the transcripts by topic. The editor chose the trends and checked every quote and every number word for word against the transcript.

Quotes are verbatim. Only words that were said twice in a row, such as “the the”, are left out, and names the transcript misspells, such as ChatGPT, are spelled correctly. Nothing is added or reworded. Every quote links to the moment in the episode where it was said. Edited by Alon Shkuri; see our editorial policy.