ean Hehir, the president and CEO of Trinity Investments, has a Dickensian notion of the hotel industry: a tale of two segments, where strong performance in one is offset by tepid performance in the other. The data support him: STR forecasts RevPAR growth in the higher-end chain scales to best the lower-end chain scales. More specific, STR expects RevPAR in the luxury segment to increase 2.9 % in 2025, 2.2 % in 2026 and 2.5 % in 2027. The predictions are even higher in the upper-upscale segment. Conversely, midscale segment RevPAR is forecast to contract, down 0.7 % in 2025. Meanwhile, economy RevPAR is predicted to be flattish through 2027.

Good for Hehir: His private real estate investment firm solely invests in upper-upscale and luxury hotels, typically in resort or urban markets. Two of its latest acquisitions are perfect examples. In November 2024, Trinity, along with partners, acquired the 266-room Standard, London, followed up by the December buy of the 450-room Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Seattle. Talk about backto-back home runs.

The two deals came on the heels of one of the larger hotel acquisitions of 2023, when Trinity and partner Credit Suisse Asset Management bought the 1,000-room Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, Fla., which is currently operating within

Hilton’ s Curio Collection until it officially reflags under the Hilton Signia brand after a renovation and repositioning.

It might be short of the Holy Trinity, since smart investment, not providence, got Trinity to the finish line on the deals. It’ s all a function of Trinity’ s investment ethos.“ We focus on under-renovated, underasset-managed and underappreciated assets,” Hehir said.“ We are true value-add investors and, as such, need to be able to find opportunities at any point in a cycle.”

Right now could be a good time. Though 2024 was a rather weak year for transactions, hotel deals globally are forecasted to be up some 25 % in 2025, according to JLL.

Part of the acceleration could be due to loan maturities and brands mandating long-put-off, property-improvement plans.“ We’ re starting to see some owners under pressure with lenders, trying to get extensions, and the hotel brands that are going to start enforcing their PIPs,” Hehir said.

In the case of the Diplomat, Trinity and Credit Suisse acquired the hotel from Brookfield for a reported $ 835 million and after it had undergone a $ 90-million renovation in 2018. It later secured a $ 575-millionfloating-rate loan to help pay down existing debt and toward the reposition.

The hotel is connected to its own 200,000-square-foot

Trinity in partnership acquired The Diplomat Beach Resort in Florida in 2023. It is being repositioned under Hilton’ s Signia brand.

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