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Harborby Signalry
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Owner / assetThis close

Job brief

Finance a hotel acquisition without borrowing a CIM

How and who for the hotel job—verified when attested.

When I need debt to close, I want a term I can survive in a PIP year — not a compliment that dies if ADR misses 10%.

Usable on this screen

Scoped brief

Hotel debt underwrites operations. Rebuild the T12 first. Then compare term sheets on the ugly clauses, not the headline rate.

Outcome
A term sheet compared on recourse, IO, PIP holdback, franchise consent, and the down-left sensitivity cell.
Catalog budget band
Lender / broker fees as quoted — Harbor is not a lender. A worksheet range, not a quote.
Catalog timeline
6–12 weeks in a grown-up file. Not a promise.

  1. Step 1

    Do not finance a CIM

    Rebuild rooms. Name NOI. If the lender accepts seller numbers because the clock is short, that is their credit file — not your truth.

  2. Step 2

    Compare the ugly clauses

    Recourse, IO, PIP holdback, ground-lease consent, insurance, prepay. A pretty rate with a mean servicing story is still a mean loan.

  3. Step 3

    Shock the file

    ADR −10% and a PIP year. If debt service dies, write it down before you toast. Harbor’s sensitivity table is a start.

  4. Step 4

    Score a compliment term that dies on the miss, not 'the rate was pretty'

    Harbor is not a lender. A loan that cannot survive the PIP year is the fail.

Provider shortlist

  1. People

    Sable Underwriting Desk

    Boutique acquisition underwriting

    Catalog score 8.9. A post-job shape, not a verification. Stable id sable-desk.

  2. Software· demo

    Ledgerlight Accounting

    Hotel accounting & night audit export

    Catalog score 7.8. A post-job shape, not a verification. Stable id ledgerlight.

Download markdownFull who listRecord a result

Leave a record

The next hotel starts from what you leave

Harbor by Signalry stays hotels only. A description, a claim, and a reported result each leave a stable id behind. Nothing here is a price, a customer, or a verification.

  • Buyer

    Describe your job

    No account. Harbor by Signalry opens the closest catalog brief, when not to buy, and a shortlist. A weak sentence stays on the catalog.

    Open a brief

  • Supplier

    Join as a supplier

    Company, jobs served, regions, and a hotel reference. The packet is queued as unverified pending. The form cannot mark it verified.

    Start a claim

  • Hotel

    Record a result

    A metric, before and after, and the dates. It is shown as reported until a person checks the evidence. Verified Outcome is not insurance.

    Record a result

AdviceSurvive the PIP year, or the term is theater.

VerifiedMonarch Park Inn: closed at 1.42x stressed DSCR across 3 lender term sheets on identical T12.

Name a verified-outcome priceSit a 30-minute pilotHow ranking works

Situation

What is actually on fire

When I need debt to close, I want a term I can survive in a PIP year — not a compliment that dies if ADR misses 10%.

Approaches

Two or three paths — with the give

Balance-sheet hospitality lender

When. A conversation when the story is odd

You give. Relationship and possibly recourse

CMBS

When. Execution on a standardized select-service

You give. Servicing that is not a conversation

Who to involve

  • · Owner / asset manager
  • · GM
  • · Controller
  • · Brand or operator liaison

First 7 days

YAML-shaped: day / theme / tasks / owner / risk / exit. Advice until a case is verified.

  1. day: 1

    Write the fail in one sentence

    • · Write the fail in one sentence. Job: Finance a hotel acquisition without borrowing a CIM.
    owner:
    Owner / asset manager
    risk:
    The exit is not written down
    exit:
    A note the next shift can open

  2. day: 2

    Pull the last 7 days of the live number

    • · Pull the last 7 days of the live number. If it is missing, that absence is the finding.
    owner:
    Owner / asset manager
    risk:
    The exit is not written down
    exit:
    A note the next shift can open

  3. day: 3

    Name who owns the workaround today (desk,

    • · Name who owns the workaround today (desk, HK, night audit, owner).
    owner:
    Owner / asset manager
    risk:
    The exit is not written down
    exit:
    A note the next shift can open

  4. day: 4

    Walk one peak hour

    • · Walk one peak hour. Write what the system claims vs what the floor did.
    owner:
    Owner / asset manager
    risk:
    The exit is not written down
    exit:
    A note the next shift can open

  5. day: 5

    Ask vendors the worksheet questions

    • · Ask vendors the worksheet questions. Discard anyone who cannot answer with a caveat.
    owner:
    Owner / asset manager
    risk:
    The exit is not written down
    exit:
    A note the next shift can open

  6. day: 6

    Pick one approach

    • · Pick one approach. Write when-not-to-buy on the same page.
    owner:
    Owner / asset manager
    risk:
    The exit is not written down
    exit:
    A note the next shift can open

  7. day: 7

    Run the smallest test that would change Mo

    • · Run the smallest test that would change Monday. No annual contract yet.
    owner:
    Owner / asset manager
    risk:
    The exit is not written down
    exit:
    A note the next shift can open

Decision worksheet

Questions, red flags, bands

Take this to a vendor call. Budget bands are Advice — a Harbor shape, not a quote.

Ask the vendor

  1. 1. Who types the status / number — a person, or your product?
  2. 2. What would have happened anyway in 90 days without you?
  3. 3. Show a property of this size and stack. Demo-labeled categories do not count as proof.
  4. 4. What can your agent never do (folio post, mark clean, change a rate)?
  5. 5. What is the kill-switch if guest comments move?

Red flags

  • · Headline rate shopping.
  • · Ignoring franchise and ground-lease consent.
  • · An IO period that hides a PIP year.

When not to buy. Harbor is not a lender. Do not take a compliment term that dies if ADR misses 10%. Read recourse, IO, PIP holdback, and franchise consent.

Do it in-house

Time and a named owner. No vendor. Use the 7-day plan first.

Lender / broker fees as quoted — Harbor is not a lender

Typical Harbor band for this job — advice, not a quote.

Full program

People + system + 90-day proof. Only if the 7-day plan already failed.

Vendor checklist

Score the call. Keep it on this browser.

Weighted questions — yes/no, scale, or text. Must-pass ids persist on this browser. Pass threshold 70. A no on a must-pass is a walk-away — not a maybe.

Brand
Stack shape — not a partnership

  1. property context · weight 2 · must pass

    Can they name your key count and whether you are independent, soft-brand, or major — without a discovery theater?

  2. property context · weight 2 · must pass

    Do they treat your PMS as a shape (Opera-class / Mews-class / Cloudbeds-class) — not a fake partnership slide?

  3. control · weight 3 · must pass

    Who types the status / number — a person, or your product?

  4. vendor · weight 2

    What would have happened anyway in 90 days without you?

  5. vendor · weight 2

    Show a property of this size and stack. Demo-labeled categories do not count as proof.

  6. vendor · weight 2

    What can your agent never do (folio post, mark clean, change a rate)?

  7. vendor · weight 2

    What is the kill-switch if guest comments move?

Does not clear

0 / 100

must_pass: hotel-financing-for-acquisition-ctx-rooms, hotel-financing-for-acquisition-ctx-stack, hotel-financing-for-acquisition-q1

A must-pass failed. Walk away.

How

The brief

Hotel debt underwrites operations. Rebuild the T12 first. Then compare term sheets on the ugly clauses, not the headline rate.

  1. Step 1

    Do not finance a CIM

    Rebuild rooms. Name NOI. If the lender accepts seller numbers because the clock is short, that is their credit file — not your truth.

  2. Step 2

    Compare the ugly clauses

    Recourse, IO, PIP holdback, ground-lease consent, insurance, prepay. A pretty rate with a mean servicing story is still a mean loan.

  3. Step 3

    Shock the file

    ADR −10% and a PIP year. If debt service dies, write it down before you toast. Harbor’s sensitivity table is a start.

  4. Step 4

    Score a compliment term that dies on the miss, not 'the rate was pretty'

    Harbor is not a lender. A loan that cannot survive the PIP year is the fail.

Tradeoffs

  1. Balance-sheet hospitality lender

    You get. A conversation when the story is odd

    You give. Relationship and possibly recourse

  2. CMBS

    You get. Execution on a standardized select-service

    You give. Servicing that is not a conversation

Pitfalls

  • · Headline rate shopping.
  • · Ignoring franchise and ground-lease consent.
  • · An IO period that hides a PIP year.

Success criteria

  • · T12 rebuilt before term sheets.
  • · Ugly clauses in a one-page compare.
  • · A written miss case.

Who

Ranked for this job

Rank is post-job score, then listed order. Not for sale. Software marked demo is an archetype.

Agencies & contractors

Systems

AI agents

None ranked in AI agents yet. Harbor will not invent a provider.

Loading the compare table…

Compare

When to pick whom

People do the work beside the desk. Software is a system — demo-labeled when it is a category shape. Agents draft; they do not post money or mark a room clean.

ProviderKindScoreFeePick whenWalk away when
Sable Underwriting DeskPeople
8.9
$35–75k buy-side memoFirst-time or small-fund buyers of a single boutique.Institutional portfolios with an in-house desk.
Ledgerlight AccountingSoftware· demo
7.8
Demo · $250–600 / monthOwner-operators tired of a generic bookkeeper file.Multi-brand portfolios with a shared-service finance team.

Open graph

Hotels on this job

This job is not pinned to a house yet. Open the graph to place it on a building, or the investment desk if the work is a sale file. Harbor will not invent a house.

Open hotelsBuy / sell desk

Evidence

Peer case studies

Owner / asset
8.4

Debt sized on stressed DSCR survived the rate cap quote

Monarch Park Inn · 124 keys · Raleigh, NC

Claim.
Acquisition financing sized on stressed T12 DSCR and debt yield rather than broker pro-forma LTV.
Evidence.
Executed loan agreement, rate-cap confirmation, and three-lender covenant comparison matrix.
Caveat.
A 124-key cash-flowing select-service acquisition; heavy transitional turnarounds require bridge-to-stabilization covenants.

Read the case

Verified

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