Why Hotel Transactions Frequently Require an ALTA Survey
Hotels are odd properties to survey. A single site can have a pool built in the 90s, a parking deck added ten years later, and a new lobby wing tacked on last year. Add a shared driveway with the restaurant next door, and you have a property that looks nothing like the flat, simple parcel most people picture when they hear the word “survey.”
That is exactly why hotel deals lean so heavily on an ALTA survey. Lenders, franchisors, and title companies all want one clear picture of the site before money changes hands. Here is why this comes up so often in hotel transactions, and what each part of the survey is really checking.
Franchise Brand Standards (PIPs) Often Trigger the Survey Requirement
Hotel brands are picky. When a property changes hands or gets refinanced, the franchisor usually issues a Property Improvement Plan, known as a PIP. This is a list of upgrades the hotel must make to keep the flag.
Before approving that PIP, the lender or franchisor often wants proof that the site still supports the brand’s rules. Does it have enough rooms? Enough parking? Enough land for the required building footprint? An ALTA survey answers these questions with hard numbers, not guesswork.
Skip this step, and a buyer might close on a deal only to learn the brand won’t approve the flag change. That is a costly surprise to catch after closing instead of before.
Parking Ratios and ADA Stall Counts Get Extra Scrutiny
Cities set parking rules based on room count. Franchise agreements often add their own minimums on top of that. So a hotel might need more parking than the local code alone would require.
This is why Table A Item 9, the parking item, gets so much attention on a hotel survey. The surveyor counts every striped space, checks compliance with the ADA stall requirements, and confirms the total against both the zoning code and the brand standard.
If the count comes up short, it can delay financing or force the owner to restripe the lot before closing. Better to know that early.
Reciprocal Easement Agreements Complicate Shared-Pad Boundaries
Many hotels do not stand alone. They sit as one pad within a larger shopping center or mixed-use development, sharing driveways, stormwater systems, and even signage rights with neighboring buildings.
These shared rights usually come from a Reciprocal Easement Agreement, or REA. The agreement itself is a legal document. The survey is what shows how those rights actually sit on the ground.
A surveyor has to map where the shared driveway crosses the boundary line, where stormwater drains run, and whether the hotel is holding up its end of any shared maintenance area. Get this wrong, and a hotel could unknowingly block access that a neighboring tenant is legally entitled to use.
Pylon and Monument Signage Placement Affects Encroachment Findings
Highway visibility sells rooms. That is why hotels often invest in a tall pylon sign or a large monument sign near the road.
The catch is that these signs need to sit inside a recorded easement or within the hotel’s own property line, respecting any setback rules. A survey checks this directly. If a sign leans into a setback, sits on someone else’s easement, or crosses a boundary line entirely, that shows up as an encroachment on the report.
Fixing a sign encroachment after the fact can mean relocating expensive infrastructure. Catching it during due diligence is far cheaper.
Layered Legal Descriptions From Additions and Renovations Must Be Reconciled
Hotels grow in phases. A wing gets added. A parking structure goes up. A restaurant pad gets carved off and sold separately. Each of these changes can come with its own legal description, recorded at a different time by a different attorney.
Over the decades, these descriptions can drift apart from what is actually built on the ground. A lender wants one clean, current legal description that matches reality before funding a loan.
The survey is what reconciles all of this. The surveyor pulls every recorded document, walks the site, and confirms that the boundary on paper matches the boundary in the field. When it doesn’t, that gap has to be resolved before closing.
