Hotel Feasibility Study in Oklahoma

A record year for Oklahoma hotels

Oklahoma's hotel lending finished the period at its peak. FY2026 brought 20 hotel approvals worth $71.2 million, the largest dollar year in the series, after 18 loans worth $48.7 million in FY2022 and only 6 a year in FY2017 and FY2018. Over FY2017 to FY2026 the state approved 126 hotel loans worth $306.3 million, ranking it 28 of 53 for lodging, and within Oklahoma the class comes 3 of 39 by loan count. The location quotient of 1.26x gives lodging more weight in the state than nationally. The median loan, $2.1 million, is 0.97x the national hotel median, and our screen, which needs a gap from Oklahoma's all-class figures and from hotels nationally at once, flags nothing.

Brands, development companies and the twin metros

Franchised properties account for 69.8% of loans. Oklahoma hotel approvals cluster between $1.3 million and $3.7 million in their middle half. SBA 504 carried 18 loans, with Metro Area Development Corporation holding 7 worth $17.8 million and Rural Enterprises of Oklahoma, Inc. holding 6 worth $16.1 million; 7(a) carried 108. No single 7(a) lender dominates: Celtic Bank Corporation holds 7 loans worth $20.3 million, Peoples Bank and Trust Company and Arvest Bank 6 each, and Bank of Hope and Readycap Lending, LLC 5 each, the first worth $19.1 million. Oklahoma County and Tulsa County hold 24 approvals apiece, and Carter County, with 10, is the largest outside them.

Outcome floors

At least 9.4% of the state's FY2017 to FY2024 hotel approvals ended in cancellation, rising to 11.5% at the ceiling, close to the national hotel rate. Among 52 Oklahoma hotel loans that funded in FY2017 to FY2021, 1.9% are charged off so far and 0.00% within five years, above the national hotel floor but not flagged as distinctive. The large FY2026 vintage is too new to have any record.

A surge of new approvals is the context any Oklahoma hotel study now has to address. Demand should be built from the generators near the site, such as energy, highway travel, government, university or event business, and tested against the rooms already open and the rooms recent lending is bringing. Price the project in full: land or purchase, construction, and the improvement plan the flag requires, quoted now rather than estimated. Debt service coverage should be shown on stabilised occupancy and average rate after franchise fees, management and replacement reserves, with a downside reflecting new competing supply. Appraisers value an operating hotel from the income it earns, which means this forecast has to meet the standard an appraiser can adopt, and should explain its ramp-up period rather than assume it away.

Because lodging has one code, Oklahoma's numbers combine hotels with motels and full-service with limited-service properties; none can be broken out.