- Institutional investors spent $2.31 billion in hotel deals.
- Luxury hotels command an average valuation of $0.178 million per key.
- Pan-India portfolios draw $1.6 billion across 10 deals.
"A hotel is not conventional real estate. A residential or commercial asset may be valued through land, construction, approvals and rental or end-use value. A hotel is different. Its value is linked to profitability," said Nandivardhan Jain, NEOSIS founder and CEO. "Its real worth depends on how much revenue it can generate, how efficiently that revenue converts into profit, and how much free cash flow finally reaches the owner. The building is important, but the business inside the building determines value."
Luxury hotels are seeing fewer deals overall, but they are commanding the biggest price tags. The report tracked 29 luxury transactions covering 13,155 rooms worth around $2.33 billion, working out to about $0.178 million per room.
Budget hotels tell a different story. There were 48 budget deals covering 14,903 rooms, valued at $596 million in total, or roughly $0.04 million per room. The report puts the luxury premium down to limited supply, prime locations and strong brand names, while budget and midscale hotels keep drawing investors who want scalable, value-driven plays.
Pan-India hotel portfolios pulled in the most money overall, with around $1.6 billion spread across 10 deals covering 17,259 rooms. On the city front, Bengaluru, the National Capital Region, Mumbai, Chennai and Goa stood out as the busiest markets for hotel investment.
The report also points out that hotel ownership in India has widened well beyond the usual hotel operators. Developers, high-net-worth individuals, corporates and other strategic investors are all getting involved now, buying into the market through different routes.
Some are picking up individual operational hotels, others are going after full portfolios, while some are eyeing insolvency-led deals through the National Company Law Tribunal, brownfield projects, under-construction properties, land-linked developments or partial stakes.
Ritesh Agarwal, founder and Group CEO of PRISM, said hotel investment rewards discipline more than enthusiasm and capital is important but not enough.
“The real value lies in identifying the right asset, understanding whether the underperformance is fixable, accounting for the true all-in cost, managing the first 100 days with urgency, and maintaining a capital structure that can withstand volatility. Turnarounds require hands-on management, not just capital.” he said.
Another recent report by JLL estimates that India’s hotel transactions could reach nearly $1 billion in 2026, driven by strong investment activity and growing investor interest.
