This Hollygrove Lenders page covers loans for Fort Pierce, Florida hotels and motels: room refreshes and FF&E, St. Lucie County, FL lodging counts, case goods and bedding room by room, PTAC units and laundry equipment, nightly revenue and payroll, why mortgage and refinance requests are outside its scope, purchases matched to funding types, a worked refresh and the records behind a request.
At a glance
- Traveler accommodation employers (hotels, motels and similar lodging)
35 (County Business Patterns 2023)
- Employees at those properties
671 (County Business Patterns 2023)
- Annual payroll
$20 million (County Business Patterns 2023)
Hotel and Motel Loans for Room Refreshes and FF&E
Lodging properties replace furniture, fixtures and equipment on a cycle: beds and bedding, case goods, televisions, wall-mounted heating and cooling units, carpet and vinyl plank, bathroom fixtures. Back-of-house equipment, from commercial washers and dryers to property management systems, wears out too.
A room refresh fits a term loan or equipment financing, and the gap between nightly revenue and fixed bills fits working capital.
Traveler Accommodation Employers in St. Lucie County, FL
County Business Patterns counted 35 traveler accommodation employers in St. Lucie County, FL in 2023, with 671 employees and $20 million in annual payroll (County Business Patterns 2023). 31.4% had fewer than five employees. The office ZIP, 34950, held 4 of these lodging employers (ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023).
Nonemployer Statistics counted 93 lodging businesses with no paid employees in 2024 (Nonemployer Statistics 2024), such as small inns run by their owners.
Case Goods, Bedding and Wall Units Room by Room
Case goods are the room's hard furniture: headboards, nightstands, desks, dressers and luggage benches. Beds, mattresses and linens are replaced more often. A refresh of a floor or a building replaces these together so rooms match.
Quotes from hospitality furniture suppliers list items per room and installation. Partners financing case goods know they have limited resale value once installed, so they lean on the property's revenue.
PTAC Units, Laundry Equipment and Property Systems
Packaged terminal air conditioners (PTACs) heat and cool each room and are replaced as they fail or in batches. Commercial washers, dryers and ironers run the laundry. Key card locks, property management systems and Wi-Fi equipment complete the property's systems.
These carry serial numbers and vendor quotes, which makes them easier to finance as equipment than case goods. A property replacing PTACs in batches can finance each batch as it goes, matching the payment to the units actually installed, instead of borrowing for the whole building before the old units fail.
Nightly Revenue and the Lodging Payroll Calendar
Room revenue arrives nightly, through card payments and booking platforms that pay out on their own schedules. Payroll, utilities, franchise fees and supplier bills follow fixed calendars. Occupancy and rates move from month to month, so a property's cash can run short even in a profitable year.
A line of credit or working capital covers those gaps. A partner reads twelve months of revenue reports to see how far the low months fall.
Why Mortgage and Refinance Requests Fall Outside This Page
Buying or refinancing the hotel building, or financing its construction, is commercial real estate lending, which Hollygrove Lenders does not arrange. This page covers what goes inside the building and the operating cash that runs it.
An owner planning a purchase of the property itself should speak with a commercial real estate lender.
Lodging Purchases Mapped to Funding Types
| The purchase | Funding type to start with |
|---|---|
| Case goods, beds and bedding | Term loan |
| PTAC units, laundry equipment, locks | Equipment financing |
| Property management systems | Equipment financing (loan or lease) |
| Payroll and bills in low months | Line of credit |
A refresh often splits between the two: equipment financing for units and machines, a term loan for furniture and installation.
A Twenty-Room Refresh With Invented Figures
Illustration only, invented figures: a motel refreshes 20 rooms at $4,300 each for case goods, beds and a new PTAC unit, $86,000 in all (our arithmetic). Financed over 72 months at an invented 10% annual rate, the invented payment is about $1,593 a month and $114,712 in total (our arithmetic).
The owner checks that the payment fits in the weakest revenue month of the past year, and that the refresh supports the room rates the property needs. A refresh done one floor at a time keeps rooms selling during the work and lets the owner finance each floor as it is completed rather than all at once.
Daily Revenue Reports and Franchise Agreements for a Lodging Request
- Daily or monthly revenue reports, with occupancy and average rate.
- Bank statements showing card and platform deposits.
- The franchise agreement, if the property is flagged, including any required renovations.
- Recent returns for the property and a current income statement.
- Supplier quotes for the refresh, listed per room.
Fort Pierce, FL figures and the restaurant page cover related hospitality businesses.
By Hollygrove Lenders · Updated