While the U.S. hotel transaction market is still finding its footing in 2026, big deals are happening, it’s just that they’re happening where the assets are almost impossible to replicate, cash flows are strong, and enough buyers are willing and able to pay for scale.
It doesn’t hurt to have Miami-based Trinity Investments involved either.
Trinity’s $1.38 billion sale of the Grande Lakes Orlando Resort, a 409-acre resort which features a 582-key Ritz-Carlton and 1,010-key JW Marriott, to Nashville-based REIT Ryman Hospitality, is not only one of the largest hotel transactions of the year (Trinity and Ryman also collaborated on the largest hotel sale of 2025 with the $865 million sale of the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa to the REIT), according to Trinity, it’s also the largest non-gaming hotel transaction in history.
The sale also comes as the market for large hotel transactions appears to be moving beyond the bid-ask stalemate that characterized the beginning of the year.
Stephany Chen, head of investor relations at Trinity, said the disconnect between buyers and sellers has narrowed for the right assets. At the same time, the scarcity of high-barrier-to-entry properties remains a constraint on transaction volume.
“It comes down to the market, and the capital markets and what investors are looking for,” she said. “The timing plays out a lot with that because of what’s happening in the overall capital markets environment. There’s not much of this type of product out there to begin with. There’s a scarcity value to it. It was the right timing, given broader capital markets.”
Chen spoke with Hospitality Investor about the deal, why it’s so unique for hotel REITs this year, and why Trinity is excited about the current deal market.
Trinity’s Value-Add Strategy
The disposition, which is Trinity’s third in the last 15 months (it also sold the EAST Miami to Blackstone last September for an undisclosed amount, although sources said the total purchase amount was close to $300 million), plays heavily into the company’s value-add formula of purchasing irreplaceable properties in high-growth “SMILE” states like Florida, Texas, Arizona and California and then strategically spending on capex renovations with an emphasis on F&B and amenities (in this case, Grande Lakes has 14 F&B outlets, a 40,000 sq. ft. spa and an 18-hole championship golf course which hosts a PGA event).
Chen said the prior relationship with Ryman helped the deal come together. The asset also fits nicely in Ryman’s increasingly larger portfolio of Marriott-branded hotels.
“They’ve seen what we’ve done with our assets and the strategy that we’ve been able to implement,” she said. “[And they know] what they can still do with the asset. The in-place cash flow and in-place performance, that ticks all the boxes… The high-barriers-to-entry for these markets are obviously huge for them.”
The Grande Lakes property, which benefits from its proximity to the Disney parks and everything else Orlando has to offer, also benefits from the red-hot experiential travel business right now because it serves as a demand source on its own.
“Golf is a huge amenity for some of these types of resorts that we acquire, and a lot of it comes down to the markets that they’re in,” Chen said. “It’s not just resort markets where you’re getting a ton of transient leisure demand, but it’s also markets that are destinations for these groups.”
Notable REIT Acquisitions
The deal, which is expected to close later this quarter, is also the reverse of a 2026 trend of REITs disposing of assets to private capital:
- Braemar Hotels & Resorts has sold five hotels this year (including a three-hotel portfolio sale to multiple buyers in July for assets in California and Florida and the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort & Spa to Sixth Street) as part of its plan to spin off Ashford and become a self-managed REIT with a six- to eight-hotel portfolio.
- Another Ashford REIT, Ashford Hospitality Trust, has sold 16 hotels in the first half of the year, mostly in select-service space.
- Host Hotels & Resorts sold the 444-key Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World and the 125-key Four Seasons Resort and Residences Jackson Hole for $1.1 billion in February.
- Sunstone sold the 821-key Hyatt Regency San Francisco to Blackstone for $279 million in July.
While hotel REITs buy and sell assets every year, the trend toward disposing of assets was notable as many REITs moved toward having smaller portfolios skewed more in the upscale, upper upscale and luxury space.
Ryman, which currently has a portfolio of 10 hotels, has long been a darling of investors because its large-format, group-oriented hotels insulate it from the volatility other lodging REITs can face. It has been dubbed a “one of one” in its sector because it can do things other REITs can’t.
“[Ryman] issued equity in 2023 to buy [the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa]. They issued equity in 2025 to buy [Desert Ridge]. No one else has really issued equity, and no one else has really bought to the scale that they have,” said Michael Bellisario, analyst at R.W. Baird. “Now, some of that’s just their business model and where their stock is traded. The math pencils better for them. It’s a better mousetrap.”
Trinity’s Pipeline
Trinity also made a notable acquisition in May (as part of a joint venture with Sculptor Real Estate) for the 809-key JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort in Florida from MassMutual for $835 million.
Chen said Trinity is encouraged with its current pipeline and what it’s seeing in the market right now. Multiple factors are driving the transaction market’s improvement this year, Chen said. Part of it is the capital market support, but another is a better understanding from owners and investors of the current interest-rate environment.
“The type of assets that we focus on… are outperforming and seeing tremendous growth, which from a lender’s point of view is attractive because of the debt yields that they’re able to achieve,” she said. “As a result, we’re seeing pretty attractive debt pricing, which then contributes to the transaction market… We’re seeing some good product that hopefully we’ll be able to target and see come to fruition.”