stayAPT Suites and My Place Hotels: Small-Brand Extended-Stay Financing in 2026 and What Lenders Need to See

The two independent extended-stay brands most often built in 2026 are stayAPT Suites and My Place Hotels (My Place). They finance like a hybrid of a flagged hotel and an independent one. The fees are low: stayAPT charges $40,000, a 5% royalty and 2% marketing; My Place charges $50,000 in its 2026 FDD, a royalty tiered by occupancy from 0% to 4.75%, and 3% marketing plus a 1.5% loyalty fee. The prototypes are small, stayAPT at 59, 88 or 103 suites and My Place at 64 or 71 units. The cost per key is at the bottom of the segment: about $89,000 to $109,000 for a 64-unit My Place and roughly $130,000 for a stayAPT, per third-party summaries of their franchise disclosure documents. Both are on the SBA Franchise Directory, stayAPT as S6781 and My Place as S8873 (added July 2026). Both are financed with SBA 7(a) or 504, a USDA-guaranteed bank loan, or a conventional construction loan plus C-PACE at 55% to 65% of cost.

What a lender does differently with a small flag is discount the distribution. stayAPT has 42 hotels open and 23 in its secured pipeline. My Place has about 82 open and 120-plus in its pipeline, per January 2026 trade reporting, and the brand itself claims an STR occupancy index of about 111%. Neither has the comp-set depth of a WoodSpring or the loyalty program of a Hilton, so the loan is sized on the hotel's own market study, usually at a debt yield one point higher than a major flag would get. On a 71-unit My Place at $8.5 million all-in, the worked example below carries a 504 at 85% leverage for an owner-operator and a $5.1 million conventional loan at 60% for an investor. This guide gives the costs and fees with their sourcing, the prototypes and counts, the SBA position, how lenders treat small flags, the lenders and the stacks. Bridge structures loans on independent and small-brand hotels with the right SBA, USDA or bank lender and lends directly above $10 million.

Key takeaways

• stayAPT: $40,000 fee, 5% royalty, 2% marketing; 59-, 88- and 103-suite prototypes; 42 open.
• My Place: $50,000 fee (2026), royalty tiered 0% to 4.75% by occupancy, 3% marketing plus 1.5% loyalty.
• Cost per key: My Place about $89,000 to $109,000 (2024 FDD); stayAPT about $130,000 (2023 FDD), both third-party.
• SBA approved: stayAPT S6781 (transient test; comfort letter barred), My Place S8873 (July 2026).
• Lenders size small flags on the market study at a debt yield about one point above a major brand's.

What do stayAPT and My Place cost, and what are the fees?

The fee loads in the 2026 schedules are among the lowest in the extended-stay segment. stayAPT's 7% sits 1.5 to 2 points under WoodSpring's 8.5% and Everhome's 9% in the 2026 schedules; My Place runs 4.5% to 9.25% depending on occupancy, under both until the hotel passes 60% occupancy and slightly above them after. The costs sit at or below the segment floor, which HVS's 2026 survey puts at a $170,000 to $197,000 median for limited-service and midscale extended-stay hotels. My Place's $89,000 to $109,000 per key is in WoodSpring territory, and its occupancy-tiered royalty is a structural concession no major brand offers. The low fee is the obvious draw, but it is the wrong reason to pick a small flag: a lender gives back the two or three points of fee savings in a higher debt-yield floor, so the net loan is close to a WoodSpring's at the same cost. Both franchisors provide their FDDs through their development teams, so the Item 7 figures should be confirmed against the current documents before a pro forma is final.

How do lenders treat a small flag?

Three ways, and an owner should expect all of them.

1. The market study replaces the brand average. With no deep Item 19 and no loyalty program, the lender sizes on an STR study of the market's extended-stay set and the hotel's own projections. It haircuts them 5% to 10% for the thinner distribution.
2. The debt yield floor is about one point higher. A major-flag extended-stay build is sized at an 11% to 12% debt yield in 2026; a stayAPT or My Place at 12% to 13%. On $800,000 of NOI that is about $500,000 to $600,000 less loan.
3. The exit is discounted. A buyer's lender applies the same haircut at sale, so the cap rate is 50 to 75 basis points wider than a flagged comparable. That matters for the takeout test and for any CMBS execution, which small flags rarely get.

The offsets are real. A 7% fee load against 9% is two points of NOI, which at a 12% to 13% debt yield is about $460,000 to $500,000 of loan on $3 million of room revenue. And a cost per key 20% to 40% below the major brands means the equity dollars are smaller even at lower leverage. Specialist lenders read extended-stay cash flow better than generalists, so bring the market study and the stay-length mix to a lender that already holds the segment.

Are stayAPT and My Place SBA approved?

Yes. The SBA Franchise Directory effective October 15, 2026 lists stayAPT Suites as S6781, since August 19, 2021, with the extended-stay transient test and a note that "the Comfort Letter may not be used with SBA transactions," and My Place Hotels as S8873, added July 14, 2026. The transient test, more than 50% of revenue from guests staying 30 days or less, is the one to watch on both brands, whose apartment-style suites attract monthly guests; a start-up meets it in projections. A 7(a) runs to $5 million at a rate capped at 10.00%, which is prime plus 3.00 points. A 504 pairs a bank first mortgage with a 6.97% fixed 25-year debenture capped at $5.5 million and 15% to 20% equity on a hotel, combinable to $10 million since July 2026. Every owner must be a U.S. citizen or national since March 1, 2026. Both brands' projects sit well under the 504 cap. The rules and brand table are in the SBA Franchise Directory check for hotel brands.

Who finances a stayAPT or My Place?

Hotel debt funds mostly sit out; a $6 million to $12 million small-flag build is under their minimums. Bridge closed more than $500 million of hotel loans in 2025 and charges a 50-basis-point placement fee on acquisitions and refinances of $10 million or more. Neither franchisor discloses a key money or development-loan program; My Place's affiliate builds the hotels, and stayAPT's private-equity backer funds its corporate units, 27 of the 40 in the Lodging count.

How do lenders size a My Place or stayAPT loan?

Off the stabilized NOI with the small-flag haircut. In the example, a 71-unit My Place runs 68% occupancy and a $100 ADR, about $68 of RevPAR; for context, My Place's 2023 Item 19 average was 63.22% occupancy across all hotels and 64.93% franchised, and the brand claims a 111.2% occupancy index. The stack from there:

• Room revenue: 71 units at about $68 of RevPAR is about $1.76 million a year.
• Total revenue with other income: about $1.8 million.
• Deductions in the example: the occupancy-tiered royalty (4.75% at 68%), 3% marketing plus 1.5% loyalty, a 4% FF&E reserve and a small 24-hour payroll.
• NOI at a 40% margin: about $720,000.

A 103-suite stayAPT at $130,000 per key is a $15 million project all-in with land. In the example it runs a $90 ADR and 76% occupancy, about $68 of RevPAR, books about $2.6 million of room revenue, and earns NOI at the same 40% margin of about $1.1 million. The conventional loan sizes to about $8.5 million at 57%. The 504 sizes to a $5.25 million debenture, just under the $5.5 million cap, with a $7.5 million bank first; that stack covers only about 1.0x at that NOI, so the owner-operator needs the hotel ramped before the takeout. The requirements and draw process are in hotel construction loans in 2026.

Worked example: a 71-unit My Place 3.0

Building cost $7.4 million (the 2024 FDD's 64-unit range scaled to the 71-unit prototype), land $1.1 million, $8.5 million all-in, $120,000 per key.

The 504 stack covers at the brand's claimed occupancy premium and needs $1.3 million of equity; the conventional stack needs $2.4 million and covers comfortably. In the example, if the lender applies a 10% distribution haircut to the NOI, to about $650,000, the 504 falls to about 1.06x and misses its 1.15x test, so the owner-operator either adds equity or proves the occupancy before the takeout. The conventional lender trims the loan to about $4.8 million at the same NOI. The economy extended-stay comparison, with WoodSpring, ECHO and ESA at similar cost per key but deeper distribution, is in the cost per key of an economy extended-stay hotel.

When is a small flag the wrong choice?

• Avoid it if the exit is a sale inside five years to a flagged-hotel buyer. The distribution discount shows up in the cap rate.
• Avoid a pro forma that uses the brand's index claims without a market study. Lenders will not.
• Avoid monthly-stay demand on an SBA loan. Both listings carry the transient test, and the apartment-style product attracts the guests who fail it.
• Avoid relying on stayAPT's comfort letter in an SBA file. The directory note bars it.
• Avoid a market where a WoodSpring or ECHO at the same cost per key is coming. The major flag wins the lender's comp set.