The biggest US hotel deals from the first half of 2026
The biggest US hotel deals from the first half of 2026
JW Marriott Marco Island and pending Caesars Entertainment sales are among highest-priced
With a price tag of $835 million, the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort was one of the top hotel deals closed in the first half of 2026. (CoStar)
https://www.costar.com/article/871829592/the-biggest-us-hotel-deals-from-the-first-half-of-2026?
By Bryan Wroten
Hotel investors have made some sizeable deals across the U.S. during the first half of the year.
The pace of high-priced transactions builds off the momentum built last year as buyers sought out desirable properties in major urban and resort markets.
The slideshow below highlights some of the biggest individual hotel deals in the U.S. during the first half of 2026, along with a list of other big and otherwise noteworthy announced or closed deals.
Noteworthy US hotel deals
Caesars Entertainment
Price: $17.6 billion
Buyer: Fertitta Entertainment
Seller: Caesars Entertainment
Takeaway: The deal was announced May 28, 2026, and no expected closing date has been shared. The all-cash transaction valued at $17.6 billion includes Fertitta Entertainment assuming $11.9 billion of debt from Caesars Entertainment. The Caesars Entertainment portfolio comprises more than 50 resorts across North America.
Golden Entertainment Portfolio
Price: $1.16 billion
Price per square foot: $239.73
Date: April 30, 2026
Buyer: Vici Properties
Seller: Golden Entertainment
Takeaway: The portfolio included the Strat Hotel Casino & Tower; Aquarius Casino Resort; Edgewater Casino Resort; Arizona Charlie's Decatur; Arizona Charlie’s Boulder; Pahrump Nugget Hotel and Casino and an additional facility in Pahrump. The deal was a triple-net sale-leaseback transaction.
Host Hotels & Resorts’ Four Seasons sale
Price: $1.1 billion
Price per key: $1.9 million
Rooms: 600
Buyer: BDT & MSD Partners
Seller: Host Hotels & Resorts
Takeaway: Host sold the 444-key Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World and the 125-key Four Seasons Resort and Residences Jackson Hole.
Price: $700 million
Price per square foot: $2,348.14
Date: Feb. 10, 2026
Where: Lincoln, Rhode Island
Buyer: Gaming and Leisure Properties
Seller: Bally’s Management Group
Takeaway: The sale involved a 165,000-square-foot casino, 136-key hotel with a 29,000-square-foot convention center.
Price: $279 million
Price per key: $340,000
Rooms: 821
Buyer: Blackstone Real Estate
Seller: Sunstone Hotel Investors
Takeaway: The pending deal announced June 23, 2026, is expected to close in late July or early August. Sunstone has already directed nearly $70 million in proceeds to repurchase common and preferred stock.
WoodSpring Suites Portfolio
Price: $110.16 million
Price per key: $64,230
Date: Jan. 14, 2026
Rooms: 1,715
Buyer: Noble Investments Group
Seller: Gold Coast Premier Properties
Takeaway: The portfolio included 14 hotels as well as an additional land parcel separately deeded from a hotel.
Alibad Capital to manage new fund in Saudi Arabia, develop two Marriott hotels in Medina
Project has total investment of $393 million, includes 295 branded residential units
Pictured is the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, the second holiest site of Islam in Saudi Arabia, which attracts visitors from across the world. (Getty Images)
https://www.costar.com/article/337501254/alibad-capital-to-manage-new-fund-in-saudi-arabia-develop-two-marriott-hotels-in-medina?
Knowledge Economic City has announced a 1.5 billion Saudi riyal ($393 million) fund to develop two hotels and 295 branded residential units in Islam’s second holiest city, Medina, Saudi Arabia.
Alibad Capital is slated to manage the fund in the city, which is the site of the Prophet’s Mosque or Al-Masjid an-Nabawi.
A Saudi Arabian publicly listed joint-stock company, KEC’s task is to develop and transform Medina as part of the country’s Vision 2030 project into “a modern connected city by developing vibrant lifestyle destinations within the sacred boundary of the [Great Mosque of Mecca]," according to its website.
The firm will develop the first phase of the Multaqa Hospitality Project, which includes two hotels under the umbrella of Marriott International, it said in an announcement on the Saudi Exchange.
The agreement is for a “non-binding term sheet with Al Bilad Capital to appoint it as the fund manager for the establishment, offering and management of a closed-ended private real estate investment fund to finance the development of Multaqa Hospitality Cluster 1 within the company’s Multaqa Almadinah project.”
A 288-room JW Marriott will complement another Marriott-branded hotel with 327 rooms.
According to Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Statistics, more than 1.7 million international pilgrims came to the two Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina during the Hajj period in the country, which spanned from May 25 to May 30 in 2026.
KEC added the fund will broaden to include the “participation of financial institutions in supporting its development strategy, particularly in the hospitality sector and other strategic asset classes.”
International capital is now permitted full ownership in hospitality projects.
According to legal firm Clyde & Co., a February 2025 change in Saudi investment law — Ministerial Decision 1086 pursuant to Royal Decree No. M/19 — now allows 100% ownership in some sectors.
The Multaqa development is adjacent to the Haramain Highspeed Railway, a 280-mile network that opened in 2018 and links Medina and Mecca to Jeddah, King Abdulaziz International Airport and King Abdullah Economic City.
There has been concern that the U.S.-Iran conflict and subsequent falls in energy prices and demand might force the Saudi government to reduce the scope of or cancel some hospitality projects.
CoStar News Hotels reported in May that, ”despite shifts and setbacks, hoteliers investing in Saudi Arabia are confident in the long-term strategy of the country’s ruling officials to build economy-boosting tourist hotspots across the country, with the goal of lessening its dependence on oil in the long run.”
This Texas Mini Golf Road Trip Is Stranger — and Sweeter — Than You’d Expect
Larry Bleiberg
https://www.fodors.com/world/north-america/usa/texas/experiences/news/why-texas-is-a-mini-golf-lovers-dream-destination
With a putt-through Alamo, WWII battlefields, and a towering Peter Pan, Texas offers what may be the craziest mini golf road trip in America.
I place my aqua-colored golf ball on the green and line up my shot. Ahead of me towers a 13-foot orange-haired boy with a feather in his cap, his leg straddling the fairway. Looking past him, I spy a roaring tyrannosaur, a toothy shark, and a giant armadillo.
If every journey begins with a single putt, it’s time to start. I pull back my club, tap the ball, and the game is on.
My adult son, Harrison, and I had flown to Texas for a three-day miniature golf road trip from Austin to San Antonio. On our journey, we planned to visit two classic courses that qualify as historic landmarks, and a few new additions, including an astonishing 18-holer designed as a trip across the battlefields of World War II. Our 130-mile Hill Country route also offered ample opportunity for feasting between games.
In some ways, it was familiar territory. Harrison was born in Dallas, and we had been playing miniature golf since he was a toddler, with me leaning over to help him hold a putter nearly his height. Over the years, we had played on vacations and birthdays, and even celebrated a college break with a mini-golf beach trip.
But Texas offered new challenges, starting with Austin’s Peter Pan course, a beauty dating to 1948. The property, perched on a hill south of downtown, is a special place, said owner Margaret Dismukes Massad. Her father designed many of the hazards, including the namesake Peter Pan, a giant shoe, and, of course, a menacing T. rex.
A giant sneaker themed hole at Peter Pan Mini Golf in Austin, Texas.Larry Bleiberg
“You feel like you’ve just stepped into another world,” she said.
But like other Neverlands, Peter Pan’s future is precarious, she told us. The Massad family owns the course, but not the property it sits on, and in booming Austin, there’s a fear it could be razed for condos. “We have a lot of uncertainty,” she said.
To my son and me, the message was clear: Play it while we still can.
There’s no denying Austin’s love for the spot, which has welcomed generations of families and first dates, leading to many marriage proposals. With a BYOB policy, it even welcomes players to bring a cooler along for the game.
As Harrison and I putted, we soaked in the kitschy scenery.
Our progress was slowed by a father and his six-year-old son putting ahead of us. But there was no rush on this warm, breezy night. Looking at the pair ahead of us, I hoped that they—like us—would be playing together for decades to come.
Our own round came to an end with me winning, thanks to three unexpected holes-in-one, which may have been a personal best. To celebrate, we strolled a few blocks to Terry Black’s BBQ to review our game over astonishingly tender beef brisket that has won Michelin recognition. Topped with barbecue sauce and pickles, it was sweet, salty, and smoky, and one of the best things I had tasted in ages.
It has everything you’d expect, including a putt-through Alamo, an oil jack, and a rattlesnake the size of a Saint Bernard.
The next day took us to Wimberley National, a new Texas-themed course in the Hill Country town. It has everything you’d expect, including a putt-through Alamo, an oil jack, and a rattlesnake the size of a Saint Bernard. Shaded by live oak trees, we played a leisurely game, and I wasn’t even upset when Harrison won.
But nothing could prepare us for our next stop, Memorial Mini Golf. Peter Pan’s owner had recommended it the night before, casually describing it as a tribute to World War II. We were skeptical, with Harrison summing up our concerns concisely. “It’s either going to be scarily realistic,” he mused, “or cartoonishly offensive.”
But somehow it threaded the needle and avoided both.
The course opened in 2021, founded by former history teacher Brian McKinney, whose grandfather had served in the conflict. He asked his friend John Weber, a metal artist, to create course hazards. And the rest is mini-golf history. The greens offer a chance to putt through the most important moments of the war, from the Battle of Britain to the North Africa Campaign. There’s even a small museum.
Weber puts golfers in the spirit of the game when he distributes balls at the check-in desk. “I say, ‘Here’s your ammunition.’ Then I give them clubs and say, ‘Here’s your weapons.’”
He volunteered to join us for a game, and we saw that with 700 yards of greens, the course offered the most colorful and rugged artificial turf this side of an NFL stadium. Each hole starts with a sign providing a historical account of the event it honors, defining vocabulary words like “beachhead,” “convoy,” and “strategic bombing.” It’s all keyed to Texas education guidelines for social studies and geography.
Writer Larry Bleiberg and son.Larry Bleiberg
The Normandy hole has a fittingly treacherous layout, giving players the choice of working around sandbags or putting up a long ramp through an Allied glider. Harrison never made it across, giving up after a dozen tries.
“We lost him on the beaches,” Weber said, then pointed to the Eiffel Tower dominating the next hole. “Let’s go liberate Paris!”
Mini golf has taken us many places, but this was new territory.
Another hole led us across a miniature Rhine River bridge, complete with a landmine warning sign in German. The final hole had us putting across Japan and ending on a runway.
My son and I returned to the car speechless, knowing we’d be talking about the course for decades to come. Mini golf has taken us many places, but this was new territory.
After all the excitement, we ended our day in Gruene, a picture-postcard historic district famous as home to the state’s oldest continually operating dance hall.
Here we found one of Texas’s newest offerings, a nine-hole course that’s a loving tribute to the town.
The two of us putted through cowboy boots and across the bridge of a giant guitar. One hole led through the front door of a miniature Gruene Hall, letting us symbolically follow in the footsteps of Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, and hundreds of other musical legends who have played there.
Harrison was charmed by both Gruene and its postage-stamp-sized course, which he declared a love letter to the Lone Star State. It took us both back to the endless Texas road trips I had dragged him on so many years ago.
We wrapped up the day at the town’s sprawling Gristmill River Restaurant, overlooking the Guadalupe River. It’s famous for hand-squeezed margaritas, towering plates of onion rings, and fork-tender chicken-fried steak. We needed the fuel. Tomorrow, we would conclude our pilgrimage on San Antonio’s historic Cool Crest putting greens.
I had designed our trip around the site, one of the oldest operating miniature golf courses in the world.
It opened in 1929 at the height of the nation’s first mini golf craze, before the era of windmills and fiberglass hazards. Instead, the challenge was designed into the landscape. The holes rely on geometric angles and terraces, with underground pipes taking golf balls to secondary greens.
We were putting over greens nearly a century old, an Art Deco masterpiece that had been welcoming families since the Hoover administration
Cool Crest had recently been sold, but the new owner, one of the city’s oldest family restaurant groups, says it’s dedicated to preserving the landmark. We found it sparkling with fresh paint and turfed with new greens. In the evenings, it comes alive with a beer garden and live music. Shaded by palm and mesquite trees, it was a breezy hilltop escape.
We started on the newer 1959 course, and when I nailed a hole-in-one right out of the gate, I knew I was going to like it. It played like a billiards game, requiring bounce boards and strategy to work around hazards.
My putting was spot-on, and I was ready to claim another victory. But then disaster struck on the 18th, a volcano-shaped hill with the hole on top. Just like Harrison at Normandy, I fell apart, with the ball rolling back to me again and again. Eventually, I gave up.
Throughout our play, we had kept a rough score, and now we were tied. Our final game on Cool Crest’s original 1929 course would settle our Lone Star putt-off.
I should have been tense, but each hole felt joyous. We were putting over greens nearly a century old, an Art Deco masterpiece that had been welcoming families since the Hoover administration.
As I lined up the last shot, Harrison watched, leaning on his putter with the same focus I’d seen in that six-year-old back at Peter Pan. I sank the putt, and we finished even. In that moment, the winner didn’t seem to matter. We were going through history and making our own.
This Japan Deal Is Insane: 8-Nights for $1,699, Including Flights, Hotels, and Bullet Trains
Anek.Soowannaphoom/Shutterstock
https://www.fodors.com/world/asia/japan/experiences/news/8-night-japan-vacation-package-with-airfare-for-1-699
Experience the neon-lit streets of Tokyo, the tranquil temples of Kyoto, and the culinary playground of Osaka on an eight-night Japan vacation that bundles flights, hotels, and bullet train transfers for just $1,699 per person.
Japan remains one of the most sought-after destinations on the planet, beloved by foodies, history buffs, and adventurers alike. Right now, a remarkable package allows travelers to experience the country’s greatest cities while saving hundreds. For just $1,699 per person, this eight-night adventure bundles round-trip flights, accommodations, intercity bullet trains, and a classic day tour of Mt. Fuji. The booking window closes on July 22, making this a time-sensitive opportunity to secure a highly curated itinerary at an exceptional price point.
What’s Included in the $1,699 Offer
This comprehensive package, provided via Travelzoo, takes the logistical stress out of navigating a densely populated country. The baseline offer includes:
– Roundtrip flights into Tokyo and returning from Osaka
– Eight nights at well-reviewed hotels: three nights in Tokyo, two nights in Kyoto, and three nights in Osaka
– Internal bullet train transfers between the cities
– A classic Mt. Fuji day tour from Tokyo
– Daily breakfast to start your mornings right
– Air and hotel taxes
SeanPavonePhoto/iStock
The Itinerary: Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka
The journey begins in Tokyo, a rush of neon dreams and meticulous order. Hop the pristine train system, eat everything, and let the city’s contrasts dazzle you. Spend your time shopping the youth culture epicenter of Shibuya and Harajuku, exploring old-school Tokyo at the magnificent Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa, or discovering sushi heaven amid the sleek cocktail bars of Tsukiji and Ginza.
During the Tokyo leg, the package includes a day tour to Mt. Fuji and Hakone. Just a couple of hours outside the city, you will be treated to views of Lake Ashi, rejuvenating hot springs (onsen), and the postcard-perfect shot of Fuji-san from the water.
Next, ride the included high-speed bullet train to Kyoto for a temple-and-garden interval. Graceful, romantic, and rooted in centuries of ritual, Kyoto invites travelers to slow down. Wander through the pathway of 10,000 vermilion gates at Fushimi Inari Taisha, stroll the lantern-lit alleys of Gion (where you might spot a passing geisha), and lose yourself in the towering stalks of the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove.
The trip wraps up with three nights in Osaka—Tokyo’s unruly cousin. Louder, warmer, and infinitely tastier, Osaka brings vibrant, unfiltered energy. Start with a slice of history at Osaka Castle before diving into the retro signs and offbeat charm of Den Den Town and Shin-Sekai. Come evening, the bright lights and sizzling takoyaki stands of Dotombori showcase peak Osaka flavor and fun.
Chanchai Duangdoosan/Shutterstock
Travel Dates and Departures
The $1,699 baseline price is available for select departure dates in August – September 2026 and December 2026 – January 2027, flying out of Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, and San Francisco. Traveling during these early fall and winter windows offers the priceless advantage of experiencing Japan with lighter crowds.
Surrounding dates in July and October – November 2026, as well as February – June 2027, are also on sale starting at just +$100 more per person. Departures from Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Miami, Newark, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., are available, starting at an additional +$100 per person (exact departure dates vary by city).
How to Book
Book by July 22 to secure these savings. This offer is part of a larger Japan sale, which features alternative itineraries that swap time in Osaka for Hakone and Hiroshima, or add visits to Hong Kong, Seoul, Taiwan, Beijing, or Shanghai. Check out the partner’s website for full calendar dates and upgraded options.
The Fine Print: Prices are per person, based on two travelers sharing a room, and are subject to availability and change. While air and hotel taxes are included, local city tax is not and must be paid directly at the hotels. Baggage is not included but can be added from $129 per bag round-trip (check with your reservation agent when booking). Once booked, this deal is entirely nonrefundable. This exclusive offer requires a Travelzoo membership to purchase, which costs $50 annually or $1 for a 30-day trial.
Some or all of this article was crafted with help from AI. All deal content comes from Travelzoo, and all destination content comes from Fodor’s Travel. An editor reviewed and vetted this article before publishing.
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