Sell Your Hotel or Motel in Florida
Florida hospitality is a permanently bid market: year-round demand, international flow through the South Florida hubs, and a coastline that cannot be replicated. Whether you own a flagged select-service hotel, an independent boutique, or a family-run motel on a corridor the market has rediscovered, the exit paths differ, and picking the right buyer pool is worth real money.
To sell a hotel or motel in Florida, expect buyers to underwrite your trailing twelve months of room revenue (RevPAR), operating margins, and the real estate together, since hospitality always sells as a going concern with the property. South Florida assets draw operators, investors, and conversion buyers eyeing residential or workforce-housing plays. Independent and exterior-corridor properties often clear best with value-add or conversion buyers, while flagged hotels trade on income to hospitality investors.
Live market check: 46 hospitality listings are actively listed for sale across our five-county South Florida footprint today, at a median asking price of $4.3M. Data from our live MLS feed, refreshed daily.
How buyers underwrite the business and the building.
Hotel buyers underwrite the trailing twelve months first: occupancy, average daily rate, RevPAR, and margins after payroll and OTA commissions. STR-style market data puts your numbers in context, and buyers pay up when your property underperforms its competitive set for fixable reasons, because that gap is their upside. Clean monthly operating statements are the price of admission to serious bids.
The flag question shapes the buyer pool. Franchised properties carry brand standards and property improvement plan (PIP) obligations a buyer inherits; an upcoming PIP is effectively a price adjustment and should be negotiated as one. Independents trade with more buyer freedom and attract conversion capital. Older exterior-corridor motels on strong corridors increasingly sell best to buyers converting to workforce housing, residential, or redevelopment, where the dirt outbids the room revenue.
These sales run confidentially as a rule: staff, brands, and OTA relationships all argue for quiet marketing. Buyers sign NDAs before seeing financials, tours run as ordinary inspections, and the transaction sequences franchise applications, liquor licenses where present, and management transitions so the property never misses a night of operation.
Typical shape: flagged limited-service hotels commonly trade on income (frequently discussed as a revenue multiple or per-key price benchmarked to the competitive set), while independents and motels range from income value to land value depending on the corridor and conversion potential. Per-key values in South Florida span an extremely wide band by location and condition; typical patterns, not promises.
One transaction. Both halves valued.
Our business brokerage practice values the going concern and the real estate separately, then packages them into one confidential process. Start with the inquiry form and nothing leaves the room.
Frequently asked
How is a hotel or motel valued?
Primarily on trailing-twelve-month income: RevPAR and margins produce net operating income, capitalized at hospitality cap rates, cross-checked against price per key for comparable sales. Motels and independents on strong corridors get a second valuation as conversion or redevelopment plays, and the higher of the two is your market.
What is a PIP and how does it affect my sale?
A property improvement plan is the renovation scope a franchisor requires, typically triggered at sale. Buyers price the PIP cost directly into their offer, so knowing your likely PIP exposure before marketing, and deciding whether to sell flagged or independent, is part of pricing the deal correctly.
My motel is older but sits on a great corridor. Who buys that?
Often a conversion or redevelopment buyer rather than a hotelier: workforce housing converters, residential developers, and land-bank investors all hunt exactly that profile in South Florida. When the dirt is worth more than the room revenue, we market to the dirt buyers, and the price reflects it.
Will staff or the brand find out during marketing?
Every engagement runs under NDA. Buyers see a blind teaser first (business type, region, revenue range) and receive financials only after signing and being vetted. Employees, customers, suppliers, and competitors do not learn the business is for sale until you decide, typically at closing.
What records do buyers expect?
Trailing 24 to 36 months of monthly P&Ls, occupancy and ADR reports, OTA production breakdowns, payroll summaries, franchise agreement and any PIP correspondence if flagged, and capital expenditure history. Hospitality buyers underwrite fast when the data room is complete.
How long does a hotel sale take?
Typically 4 to 8 months: confidential marketing and offer rounds, 45 to 75 days of diligence and financing, plus franchise application or license transfer timelines where applicable. Conversion sales without franchise involvement often move faster.
Get both halves valued, confidentially.
The real estate valuation is free and takes one business day. The going-concern valuation starts with a confidential conversation. Neither obligates you to anything, and nobody hears about either.