Hotel Financing 2026: Charting Risks and Opportunities in a Tense Geopolitical Context
EXTENDAM and Bpifrance hosted the second edition of the Club Banques Tourisme, a webinar bringing together lenders, investors and industry experts around hotel market trends and, more specifically, hotel financing in 2026. Here are the key takeaways from this discussion.
The webinar’s central theme on hotel financing
In a more uncertain world, hospitality remains an investment conviction. But tomorrow’s performance will be less automatic: it will depend on the quality of asset selection and the collective ability to finance a modern, high-performing and competitive French hotel offering.
In a “permacrisis” environment — marked by a succession of monetary, inflationary, geopolitical and energy shocks — the hotel sector continues to demonstrate greater resilience than many other real estate asset classes.
That said, the environment remains more complex than in recent years. Rising interest rates, energy price volatility, cost pressures and second-round inflation effects are weighing on valuations, transactions and operating performance. The market has become markedly more selective, with widening gaps between countries, hotel categories, properties and operators.
Even so, the fundamentals of hospitality remain solid. Tourism demand remains strong, driven by a growing desire to travel and experience new things, dynamic international clienteles, the redirection of certain flows toward Europe, and the strength of events-driven demand. Spain and Italy are showing particularly dynamic performance, while France remains very well positioned, especially in the upscale and leisure-destination segments.
The core challenge in hotel financing for 2026 is therefore not whether to keep financing hospitality, but how to select the right projects. In an increasingly demanding market, performance depends on a precise combination: the right location, the right category, a product suited to new usage patterns and, above all, high-quality investors and operators — a conviction also reflected in EXTENDAM’s hotel investment strategy.
The collective message to lenders is clear: France must keep investing to maintain the competitiveness of its offering against countries like Spain and Italy, which have pursued ambitious development and modernisation policies for their hotel stock over several years.
Hotel financing: key messages from each speaker
Four speakers took part in the webinar to share their reading of the market and the challenges of hotel financing.
Béatrice Guedj, Head of Research & Innovation at Swiss Life Asset Managers, noted that performance will no longer come solely from choosing hospitality as an asset class, but from the ability to select the right geography, the right category and the right operators.
Vanguelis Panayotis, Chairman of MKG Consulting, summed up the sector’s challenge in one line: the question isn’t about investing in yesterday’s hospitality, but financing the right offering, in the right location, with the right players.
Virginie Si-Hassen, Director of Partnerships and Strategic Tourism Plans at Bpifrance, stressed the shared responsibility of banking partners and investors to help build a high-performing French hotel stock.
Bertrand Pullès, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of EXTENDAM, pointed out that political turbulence is cyclical, whereas the strength of hospitality’s fundamentals is structural and continues to outperform most other real estate asset classes.
Hotel financing 2026: the essentials in 7 points
- Hospitality remains one of the most resilient real estate asset classes in a permacrisis environment.
- Tourism demand remains structurally strong: consumers continue to prioritise travel and experiences.
- The market is becoming more selective, with widening performance gaps between countries, categories, assets and operators.
- Upscale and leisure destinations remain the most dynamic segments, while economy and business hospitality require closer attention.
- Spain and Italy show that an ambitious investment policy in hotel supply delivers results.
- France has every asset needed to remain a leading destination, but must keep modernising and developing its hotel stock.
- For lenders, the watchword is selectivity, not retreat: a good product, in the right location, with the right investor and the right operator, deserves financing.
This Club Banques Tourisme confirms hospitality’s place as a conviction asset class for 2026 — provided the focus stays on selection quality rather than volume. To go further, explore all of EXTENDAM’s news and analysis on the European hotel market.
