Brand affiliation and the hotel asset market

Brand affiliation represents a signal about the future operating performance of a hotel that reduces information asymmetries between hotel buyers and sellers. However, information asymmetries vary across property-level and locational characteristics of hotels. We hypothesize that hotel brand affiliation as a signal is most valuable to investors when information asymmetries are higher due to hotel characteristics such as a lower-tier hotel class, suburban location, or poorer building condition. Using a sample of 23,323 hotel transactions from 1986 to 2021, we provide evidence that branded hotels with characteristics indicating higher information asymmetries achieve a higher transaction price and shorter marketing time than similar independent hotels. Transaction price and marketing time do not differ between branded and independent hotels with characteristics indicating lower information asymmetries.