SBA 7(a) Hotel Feasibility Study in Missouri

A mid-sized 7(a) ticket with a franchise tilt

Missouri hotel and motel borrowers drew 162 SBA 7(a) approvals across FY2017 to FY2026, totalling $302.8 million in gross dollars. Missouri ranks 18 among states on loan count here, and within Missouri itself lodging sits 5 of 39 among financed classes. The median loan is $1.5 million with the central half of approvals spanning $754,000 to $2.9 million. Missouri's median stands at 0.68x of the nationwide 7(a) figure for hotels, so borrowers here are usually asking for noticeably less than the typical hotel borrower elsewhere. Only that ratio sets this cell apart from both of its parents.

Lenders and counties behind the volume

Franchise affiliation is common: 62.3% of the loans carry a franchise flag. On the lender side GBank comes first with 18 loans and $44.8 million, then OakStar Bank with 16 loans and $27.4 million. The Bank of Missouri holds 8 loans worth $6.2 million, Peoples Bank holds 7 worth $13.5 million, and Simmons Bank holds 7 worth $6.3 million. These are SBA's records of who holds, or held, each loan, and they say nothing about how any of these institutions underwrites. Geography is lopsided. Taney County accounts for 39 loans, well ahead of Jackson with 18, Saint Louis with 8, and Platte, Boone and Camden with 7, 6 and 6 respectively.

Timing, cancellations and charge-offs

Approvals have been uneven. The count fell to 9 in FY2020, climbed to 23 in FY2023 at $53.2 million, and reached 20 in FY2025 before settling at 14 in FY2026. Cancellation after approval touched at least 9.4% of the approvals made through FY2024, and the stricter count that adds every unpaid commitment lands on 9.4% too. The seasoned cohort holds 75 disbursed loans from FY2017 to FY2021; a floor of 2.7% is charged off to date, with 1.3% gone within five years of approval. Neither number is settled, because open loans can still default; lenders ought to read them as minimums.

Questions a Missouri lodging analysis must answer

Underwriting a lodging project here starts with the Taney County question: if the project sits in a leisure market, demand must be shown across seasons, not just peak months, and a project elsewhere in the state needs its own demand case from corporate, group and regional travel. Because the median is below the national figure, the study should reconcile the proposed cost per room with what lenders in the state have been funding. Debt service coverage needs a downside case, and the appraisal must support the value the loan relies on. With a franchise flag on most loans, brand fees and required improvements belong in the operating budget.

The classification offers a caveat: lodging of every service level sits under one NAICS code here, which means a select-service plan cannot isolate itself inside these Missouri counts.