For years, the prevailing myth in hospitality investing was simple:

Scale = Safety.

This meant big brands, big footprints and big-box revenue models with global loyalty funnels and spreadsheet-pleasing occupancy.

It all made sense—until it didn’t. Because while the world was chasing scale, the smartest money quietly pivoted to scarcity.

In 2025, outsize returns don’t come from flags.  They come from feeling. Across the last five years, the best-performing hospitality assets haven’t been towers with 400 rooms and a thousand anonymous guests per night. They’ve been the 20- to 50-key cultural lodestars—the ones that mean something.

A 22-key boutique in the right market can command a higher multiple than a flagged 300-key tower. Why? Because the market has begun to reward identity, not just efficiency. Buyers are paying premiums for assets that express something meaningful—about a place, a story, or a way of seeing the world.

Investors at the  top end of the market aren’t chasing rooms. They’re chasing relevance, identity, and permanence. Those assets exit faster, and at far higher multiples.

And in the meantime? They yield better. Because the guest doesn’t blink at $1,800 ADR if the experience justifies it.

The owners I work with are not chasing flags or pipeline. They are cultivating narrative. They understand that liquidity follows love—and no one falls in love with a generic convention center hotel.

The lie of scale persists because it is easy to measure. But the truth of value is changing. Scarcity is now the signal. Relevance is the multiplier. Story is the differentiator.

Anyone can deploy capital. But only cultural fluency will deliver  premium returns.