Refinance your hotel commercial loan

Ardent Capital Group brings the same method to every client: execution and strategy, clear advice for smart lending, and long-term growth. That means the right lender, structure and timing, straight advice so you borrow with confidence, and today's deal built toward where you want to be tomorrow. On a hotel refinance most files present the revenue and stop there. The part that decides the servicing is what the revenue cost to win, and a rebuilt direct-booking share is durable margin that never shows in RevPAR. We put that in front of a credit team that can use it, and stay with the file past drawdown. Every figure is subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval.

We refinance commercial facilities from $50K up to $30M on the property side, with the furniture, fittings and equipment funded separately alongside it. The new limit follows a fresh trade-based valuation and current servicing, not what you originally borrowed.

Because accommodation appetite varies more widely than almost any other asset class, and one bank gives you one view of it. We run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, work out which will fund an owner-operated hotel rather than only one let on a long lease, and which will count a direct-booking share in the assessment, and present to one at a time so your credit file does not collect an enquiry for every conversation. We also model the break costs, valuation and legals against what moving actually gains you.

55% to 65% of the current value on a freehold going concern, with the banks generally sitting at 50% to 60% and non-banks reaching 65%. A property under about twenty rooms, or a resort in a single-destination location, sits toward the lower end because the buyer pool is narrower. Hospitality gears below standard commercial property, so plan around that rather than against it.

It affects the servicing rather than the valuation, and it is the argument most files leave out. Online travel agent commission sits between the revenue a lender reads and the money that actually repays a loan, and it appears nowhere in RevPAR, occupancy or average daily rate. Two hotels with identical numbers on all three can keep very different amounts. If you have moved the direct-booking share since you bought, that is durable margin, so set it out explicitly alongside the trading figures.

On its trade, by a specialist hotel valuer who capitalises the earnings rather than measuring the floor area. Revenue per available room, occupancy and average daily rate are the inputs, which is why two hotels with the same room count can value a long way apart. The building matters for condition and location rather than as the basis of the figure, and the equity at a refinance comes from the trade and the market rather than from what you spent on the last refurbishment.

It can, and it is one of the few levers on this asset that moves the LVR itself rather than what you can service. A hotel let to an established operator on a long lease starts to read as an investment asset with a tenant behind it, and major banks in particular lean that way. The trade-off is real: you give up the trading business you have built, and the lease has to be genuine and long enough to carry the argument. We model both versions before you decide.

Usually, and it is the sensible way to do it. Guest rooms wear out on a cycle and a refurbishment is maintenance of the room rate rather than discretionary spending, because the reviews that drive direct bookings move before the rate does. The complication is that rooms out of service earn nothing while the work happens, so the program costs revenue as well as capital. We size the release against the whole program and set an interest only period across the window rather than trading through it.

Yes, it is possible, and we arrange these. It is also one of the more intricate refinances in commercial finance, and the detail is what decides whether it works. From 10 August 2026 a new arrangement can only be used for business real property, and a trading hotel qualifies. It has to stay the same single property, and it is limited to the balance outstanding plus accrued interest, so there is no top up, no redraw and no cash out inside the fund. Borrowed money cannot fund an improvement either, which bites here because a room refurbishment is exactly that, and it has to come from the resources of the fund. The holding trust is reassigned to the incoming lender rather than dissolved, which carries a legal cost worth weighing against the gain. The operating entity leases the property back in writing, at market rent supported by an independent appraisal, and the rent has to actually be paid. Cross-collateralisation is not available inside super. SMSF lending on accommodation property runs below a standard purchase, generally between 65% and 75%, the major banks have exited SMSF lending, and lenders want a liquidity buffer left in the fund after settlement. We know this sounds complicated, and we can assist to make things clearer. Reach out to our team and we will guide you through the entire process. We structure the finance, tell you which lenders will take a hotel as SMSF security and on what terms, and bring in the SMSF specialists and licensed advisers who set the fund side up. You will not be working it out on your own.

It does, independently of how well it trades. A property under about twenty rooms narrows the pool of buyers who would take it on, and both the valuer and the credit team price that in, pulling the LVR toward the lower end of the band. Resorts face the same thing through location rather than size, and sit nearer 55% than 65%. Neither is fixable, so the useful response is to plan the release against the lower end from the start rather than discovering it at valuation.

Often not. On accommodation a decline usually traces to a lender that will only fund a hotel let to an operator, or to a release sized against a revenue figure without regard to what the channel takes out of it. Both are questions of which lender the file sits with and how the trading case was put. We look at how it was assessed and why the answer was no, then place it where that reason is not the deciding one.

Around three to six weeks with a major bank and two to four weeks with a non-bank lender. A specialist hotel valuation takes longer to commission than a standard commercial one, and SMSF refinances are longer again. We give you a realistic timeline at the start so you can plan the expiry date around it.

The existing loan statements, two to three years of financial statements and tax returns for the operating entity, monthly occupancy, average daily rate and RevPAR figures, a breakdown of bookings by channel with the commission cost, food and beverage and function revenue separately, the lease where the property is let to an operator, personal tax returns and notices of assessment for the guarantors, and a statement of assets and liabilities.

The costs are a valuation, legal and settlement fees, any lender establishment fee, discharge costs from your current lender, and break costs where you are leaving a fixed rate. A specialist hotel valuation costs more than a standard commercial one, which is worth knowing upfront. We put the real numbers against the benefit before you commit to anything.

Most of the time, no. Where the trading case has to be rebuilt before the file can go to a lender, or the structure is a property and operating entity split, a small mandate fee may apply, and we will always be upfront about this before any work begins.

Although we are based in Sydney, we service clients across all major Australian cities, including Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Adelaide, Canberra and Hobart, along with their surrounding regional areas. Wherever your property is located, we can arrange your finance.

Beyond refinancing the property, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers guest-room furniture and fittings, restaurant and bar fit-out, commercial laundry, pool and gym plant, conference audio visual and property management and booking systems. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts and lines of credit sized to seasonal occupancy troughs and commission timing, and we can fold these into the refinance where it makes sense.