Minibar and Loan Market Update from Bridge, February 2026

My name is Rohit Mathur (and yes, still typing these myself, though I did test how Claude would do… not quite there yet!). I’m the co-founder and CEO of Bridge, a direct lender and marketplace for hotel loans. Before founding Bridge, I spent 10+ years at Citi in capital markets.

Featuring a new section this month covering two deals we’re working on and the terms we’re seeing in the market.

Great seeing many of you at ALIS last month despite the crazy East Coast weather! We officially move into our new office on April 1, 2026. Come visit us in NYC!

TLDR: What’s Moving in the Loan Market

1. ALIS Takeaways: Cautious optimism wins – developers are moving forward but with more conservative underwriting
   
2. Lender‑Driven Deal Activity Increasing: We expect more lender‑initiated transactions as institutions move away from “extend and pretend.”
3. SBA Rule Changes (Effective March 1, 2026): Business ownership requirements are tightening significantly.

Chart of the Month

Hotel rooms under construction in December 2025 dropped to 136,000; a 13% decline. Rooms in the planning phase also fell to 257,000 (down 3% YoY). This likely means even slower supply growth in the coming years.

Only 19% of the pipeline is currently under construction, the lowest share since 2011.

Source: Costar

Key Observations

1. Key Takeaway from ALIS 2026

The mood this year was noticeably different. Last year brought cautious optimism mixed with uncertainty; then came a year of pessimism driven by tariffs, slower travel, and higher costs.

This year? Realistic optimism.

Here’s what we heard repeatedly: “I’m not waiting anymore, but I’m also not being aggressive on my assumptions.”

Developers are moving forward with:

• More equity in deals (65-70% LTC vs. 75-80% LTC requests we saw in 2024)
• Conservative RevPAR projections (using 2025 actuals, which were soft, not 2019 comparables or COVID revenge travel metrics, higher costs)

The institutional money is back at the table, but they’re being selective. Meanwhile, private lenders continue to fill the gap for ground-up construction and value-add plays that don’t fit the bank box.

2. Lender Driven Deal Activity

A recent WSJ headline put it simply: “Lenders to Commercial Real Estate Owners: Pay Up Now.”

While the article focused on office, the theme applies broadly: lenders are finally moving past the extend‑and‑pretend era and are pushing borrowers to refinance or re‑margin.

We at Bridge have heard of more “off market” lender driven deals in the market, although we still don’t see an avalanche of distressed activity in the market yet.

At Bridge, we’re seeing:

• More “off‑market,” lender‑driven situations
• Foreclosure or imminent‑foreclosure opportunities with strong basis plays
• Distressed assets where NOI has collapsed or never existed, meaning LTVs look better on paper than the economics

Our strong recommendation

Require the lender to provide short-term financing (1–2 years) while you stabilize operations and rebuild NOI before securing a new loan.

3. New SBA Rules

As of March 1, 2026, all owners, even passive minority investors, must be 100% U.S. citizens or U.S. nationals with a primary U.S. residence.

Previously

Only 51% ownership is needed to meet citizenship/residency requirements. As recently as early 2025, green card holders could own a majority. A brief exception in Dec 2025 even allowed up to 5% ownership by foreign nationals

How does this impact you?

• Shared ownership? You may no longer qualify. If any owner, regardless of stake size, is a green card holder or foreign national, your business is ineligible for SBA financing as of March 1, 2026. Even a 1% interest held by a non-U.S. citizen disqualifies the entire loan.

• Audit your ownership structure before you apply. Every direct and indirect owner, including silent partners and LLC members, must be a U.S. citizen with a U.S. primary residence. Get ahead of this now before your next acquisition, refinance, or PIP comes due.

• Existing SBA loans are safe… future ones are not. This rule applies to all new applications submitted after March 1st. If a conventional loan becomes your only path forward, expect higher equity requirements and tighter underwriting. Talk to your lender today about your options.

Recent Deal Terms

We have over 50+ capital markets transactions we are currently working on both as a direct lender and marketplace. I wanted to showcase two transactions and terms we’re seeing for these:

Deal 1

Sponsor came to us to refinance and cash out equity from his Choice Economy Branded deal in Texas

• Current Loan $1.1 million
• New Loan Needed: $1.5 – $2.0 million
• Quotes below are all non-SBA conventional bank options

Observations:

• Pricing typically bunches together within 50.0 bps
• LTV and Proceeds are wildly different – highlights how banks look at deals differently, but pricing is detached from risk profile

Most lending in the US market has moved away from US Banks towards private credit only 28% of all the debt is now provided by banks.

Source: Apollo December Report

Deal 2

Sponsor came to us to acquire a Hilton Extended Stay branded deal in the Southwest

• New Loan Needed: $18.5 million, cash out refinance to support new acquisitions
• Sponsor requested a CMBS option

Observations:

• Since loans in the CMBS space are sold to investors, you would expect less variance in the fields
• Looking at Rate + Origination fee, the range is over 50.0 bps difference in price
• 5 Year Treasury + 315 is ~6.95%, and it’s great to see 6s in the rates on the CMBS side now!

Rates

About Bridge

We are the first fintech focused on Hospitality loans and partners with Hilton, AAHOA, Choice, Red Roof and others.

We have two three partnership announcements coming soon!!!

We’ve closed and funded $500.0 million+ in loans in 2025 (Our 1st full year of Hotel Lending) and we only have one goal:

Simplifying access to competitive financing for your hotel loan.

Tools to Help You Get Funded

1. Five-click Pro Forma Generator – Link
2. C-PACE Calculator – determine if your project is CPACE eligible and how much you can get – Link
3. DSCR Calculator – does your deal cash flow – Link
4. Free Offering Memo – Have we generated an Offering Memorandum for you yet? We’ve built an OM for over 150 other projects in the past 3 months- get one now Link
5. Data Room – the cost of not having everything in one place is that lenders move on to the next deal – we’ve built a hospitality focused deal room (Want to see it? Just reply to this email and I’ll give you a live demo)

Where will Bridge be in Q1 2026?

• HYPE AAHOA Conference – Miami, FL – February 2026
• Ground-break on a recently closed Tru – Orlando, FL – February 2026
• AAHOA Mid-Atlantic Town Hall – Stratford, NJ – March 2026
• Hunter Hotel Investment Conference – Atlanta, GA – March 2026
• Southwest Hotel Owners & Trade Show – Salt Lake City, UT – March 2026

Bridge Minibar Update

• We’re excited to be done with “Dry January”
• Bridge is moving to a new NYC office; we’re excited to welcome you there soon, we will have a minibar!

– Rohit