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Finding the best hotel financing companies in Savannah means finding a lender that understands a market unlike any other in Georgia. Savannah is the fastest-growing hotel market in the country by inventory, where inventory has grown 13.7% in five years and another 1,426 rooms are under construction — a record for the market — even as near-term RevPAR softens. That combination of a marquee construction pipeline and a short-term demand dip creates very specific capital needs, and most local banks are not built to underwrite them. This guide walks through what Savannah hotel owners and developers are financing in 2026, how to evaluate a hotel lender, the loan programs that fit each deal type, and how AVANA Capital — a direct, nationwide hospitality lender — funds hotels across the Historic District, Pooler, and Tybee Island.
Why Savannah is one of Georgia’s hottest hotel-investment markets in 2026
Savannah is punching far above its size. Inventory is up 13.7% over the past five years, 478 rooms have delivered so far this year — the strongest pace since early 2022 — and 1,426 rooms are under construction, a record for the market. The pipeline is stacked with high-profile projects. A 168-key Ritz-Carlton is planned inside the Savannah Skyscraper for early 2028, backed by a reported $104.5 million construction loan. On Hutchinson Island, a 444-room, $398 million Signia by Hilton is slated for mid-2028, part of more than $1 billion invested into the island over 25 years. The 221-room Recess Hotel & Club is targeted for 2026, and the 148-room Tempo by Hilton opened in April 2026.
Demand is being reshaped by a generational economic driver. The Hyundai Metaplant, which employed 1,444 workers in early 2026 and — after Hyundai raised its target to 500,000 vehicles a year — is now expected to need roughly 14,000 workers rather than the 8,500 first announced, is expected to create roughly 40,000 regional jobs when supplier growth is counted. Add Gulfstream, the Port of Savannah, a $5 billion-plus tourism economy, and a $100 million Convention Center expansion completed in Q1 2025 — now the second-largest in Georgia — and the long-term fundamentals are among the strongest in the Southeast.
The near-term picture is softer, and that matters for financing. RevPAR fell about 2% year over year in the second quarter of 2026 — one of only four U.S. markets to post a decline that quarter — and the market is repositioning toward a higher-end audience as supply lands. For owners, that softness is not a reason to sit out — it is a window for well-capitalized buyers and repositioners. Recent trailing-twelve-month sales volume of roughly $110 million across about 11 deals is a sign that experienced sponsors are moving while pricing is favorable.
What hotel owners and developers in Savannah need financing for
Savannah’s capital needs split cleanly along the market’s split personality: a booming build pipeline layered over a short-term demand dip. Understanding which bucket your deal falls into is the first step toward the right loan.
- Ground-up construction and brand conversions. The Ritz-Carlton, Signia by Hilton, Recess Hotel & Club, and Tempo by Hilton show a pipeline that spans luxury towers to select-service. New builds and flag conversions need construction financing sized to hospitality cash flow, not generic commercial underwriting.
- Acquisition and repositioning. With RevPAR down about 2% year over year and supply still landing, motivated sellers are trading. Buyers need acquisition capital that can move quickly on value-add assets in the Historic District, Pooler, and coastal submarkets.
- PIP and renovation capital. Franchisors mandate property improvement plans (PIPs) on a set cadence. Independent and flagged owners alike need funding for FF&E, guestroom refreshes, and brand-standard upgrades — often on a deadline.
- Refinancing near-term maturities. Loans written at higher rates or approaching maturity during a soft-demand stretch call for a bridge or a permanent refinance that buys time to stabilize.
How to choose a hotel financing company in Savannah
The best hotel financing companies in Savannah share one trait: they underwrite hotels as operating businesses, not as generic real estate. Use these criteria to separate the best hotel lenders in Savannah from a generalist.
Direct lender, not a broker or marketplace. A direct lender uses its own balance sheet and makes the credit decision in-house. Brokers and lead-generation marketplaces add a layer between you and the capital, which slows execution and muddies accountability. Ask who actually approves and funds the loan.
Hotel-specific underwriting. Savannah hotels carry seasonality, flag-versus-independent risk profiles, and RevPAR volatility that a generalist bank often misprices. A hospitality specialist reads your STR report, PIP schedule, and franchise agreement fluently — and sizes the loan to how the asset actually performs.
Full-stack product range. The strongest lenders offer construction, bridge, SBA 504, and conventional financing under one roof. That lets a single relationship carry a project from ground-up construction through stabilization to permanent debt without re-shopping the deal at each stage.
Certainty of execution. In a market where sellers are motivated and PIP deadlines are fixed, speed and reliability win deals. Prioritize lenders with a track record of closing hotel loans across market cycles, not just in boom conditions.
Best Hotel Financing Companies in Savannah
Choosing among the best hotel financing companies in Savannah means weighing national hospitality specialists against Georgia-based lenders that know the Southeast market firsthand. Below are five of the top hotel lenders in Savannah, spanning direct nationwide hospitality lenders and Atlanta-headquartered credit platforms with a genuine Georgia nexus.
1. AVANA Capital
AVANA Capital is a direct, nationwide commercial real estate lender with a dedicated hospitality practice, having originated more than $1.7 billion in loans over 23-plus years across all 50 states. As a balance-sheet lender, AVANA makes its credit decision in-house rather than shopping the deal to a third party, which is what makes it a strong fit for the time-sensitive acquisitions and PIP deadlines that define Savannah’s market. Its product set spans SBA 504, bridge, construction, and conventional financing, so a single relationship can carry a project from ground-up construction through stabilization to permanent debt. The AVANA-IHG co-lending construction program — which supports hotels across IHG’s brand family — adds deep flag-construction expertise for the branded projects driving Savannah’s pipeline.
2. Peachtree Group
Peachtree Group is an Atlanta-based private equity and commercial real estate lender founded in 2007, giving it a firsthand read on the Georgia and Southeast hospitality market. Its credit division (formerly Stonehill) is a direct lender focused heavily on hotel assets, offering permanent, bridge, mezzanine, and preferred-equity capital primarily for limited-, select-service, and compact full-service properties. The Mortgage Bankers Association has ranked the platform among the ten largest U.S. hotel commercial real estate lenders. Its loans typically support acquisitions, recapitalizations, refinancings, and renovations.
3. Access Point Financial
Access Point Financial is a direct hospitality lender founded in 2011 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It provides bridge, capex, construction, mezzanine, preferred-equity, and permanent financing to hoteliers nationwide, with programs designed specifically for the hospitality industry as an alternative to conventional bank debt. The firm closed and committed to roughly $1.6 billion in hospitality financings through September 2025 across dozens of hotel assets, primarily flagged under Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, and Choice. Its capital commonly funds acquisitions, construction take-outs, brand-mandated PIPs, conversions, and value-add repositioning.
4. Live Oak Bank
Live Oak Bank is an FDIC-insured bank headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, and one of the most active SBA lenders in the country. It maintains a dedicated hospitality lending team and offers SBA 7(a) financing paired with conventional loans and lines of credit for hotel owners. For independent and owner-operated hotels — a common profile in Savannah’s Historic District and on Tybee Island — its SBA-focused approach can be a practical route to acquisition or refinance capital.
5. Largo Capital
Largo Capital is a hospitality finance group with more than four decades in commercial real estate and over $1 billion in hotel financing completed. Rather than lending off a single balance sheet, Largo Capital works through a network of correspondent lenders — including life insurance companies, banks, agencies, and conduits — to source acquisition, refinance, cash-out, PIP, and value-add or repositioning capital for hotel operators. That breadth of capital sources can help owners compare structures across multiple institutions for a given deal.
Hotel loan types available in Savannah (SBA 504, bridge, construction, conventional)
Savannah borrowers draw on four core hotel loan programs. Each maps to a different point in the ownership lifecycle.
SBA 504 hotel loans finance owner-occupied hotels with as little as 10% down, pairing a bank first mortgage with a fixed-rate CDC debenture. They are the natural fit for independent and boutique operators buying or building a property they will run — a common profile in Savannah’s Historic District and on Tybee Island. Explore how SBA 504 hotel loans preserve working capital for the operating business.
Hotel bridge loans provide short-term, flexible capital for acquisitions, repositioning, PIP renovations, and near-term maturities. In a market with RevPAR down about 2%, a bridge lets you buy or reposition now and refinance into permanent debt once performance recovers. See AVANA’s hotel bridge financing for value-add and transitional deals.
Hotel construction loans fund ground-up development and major conversions, released through a draw schedule tied to construction milestones. With a pipeline that includes a Ritz-Carlton, a Signia by Hilton, and the Recess Hotel & Club, Savannah is a construction-heavy market. Learn more about hotel construction loans for new builds and brand conversions.
Conventional hotel loans provide permanent, longer-term debt on stabilized properties with proven cash flow — the takeout after construction or a bridge. Review conventional hotel financing for stabilized assets.
AVANA Capital: a direct hotel lender for Savannah’s Historic District, Pooler, and coastal submarkets
Among the best hotel financing companies in Savannah, the differentiator is rarely the product list — most lenders can name four loan types. It is whether the lender can price coastal hospitality risk and fund every submarket where Savannah hotels trade.
What sets a hospitality specialist apart is fluency in how hotels actually earn. AVANA underwrites RevPAR trends, the flag-versus-independent distinction, coastal seasonality, and PIP timelines — the exact variables that make Savannah’s soft-demand-plus-strong-pipeline market hard for a generalist Savannah bank to price. That specialization lets AVANA fund deals a local box would pass on.
AVANA works across every Savannah submarket. In the Historic District and Plant Riverside, that means construction and repositioning capital for landmark and boutique assets. On Hutchinson Island, it means convention-adjacent development in step with the island’s $1 billion-plus investment. In Pooler and the Gateway corridor, it means select-service and extended-stay financing near the airport and I-95 — well positioned for Hyundai Metaplant-driven business travel. On Tybee Island, it means loans for coastal boutique properties. And in Midtown and Southside, it means acquisition and PIP capital for flagged limited-service hotels.
Financing new hotel construction and brand conversions in Savannah
Savannah’s construction pipeline is the clearest signal of investor conviction, and it demands a lender who can size a loan to hospitality cash flow and manage a draw schedule against real milestones. The 168-key Ritz-Carlton in the Savannah Skyscraper — reportedly backed by a $104.5 million construction loan — and the 444-room, $398 million Signia by Hilton on Hutchinson Island show the scale of what is being financed here.
Construction financing releases capital in stages as the project hits verified milestones, which protects both sponsor and lender. For flagged projects, brand standards and franchisor requirements shape the underwriting from day one. AVANA’s construction program, strengthened by the AVANA-IHG partnership, is built for exactly this — ground-up hotels and brand conversions where flag expertise and a single, reliable capital source decide whether the deal closes on schedule. Because AVANA can carry a project from construction draw through to permanent takeout, sponsors avoid re-underwriting the deal at each stage.
SBA 504 and bridge options for independent and boutique Savannah hoteliers
Independent and boutique operators dominate the Historic District and Tybee Island, and two programs fit them especially well.
SBA 504 is the owner-operator’s tool. With as little as 10% down and a fixed-rate CDC debenture, it lets an independent hotelier acquire or build a property they will run without draining working capital. That matters most in a boutique-heavy market where operators are also the on-site managers. SBA 504 can also fund PIP capital and FF&E, helping owners meet franchisor upgrade requirements without a separate financing round.
Bridge financing is the timing tool. With Savannah RevPAR down about 2% year over year, some assets will not qualify for permanent debt yet — and some owners face a maturity landing at the wrong moment. A hotel bridge loan funds the acquisition, the reposition, or the PIP now, then gives you a runway to stabilize and refinance into an SBA 504 or conventional loan. Used well, bridge-to-permanent turns a soft-cycle dip into an entry point rather than an obstacle.
How to apply for hotel financing in Savannah, GA
Getting to a term sheet quickly comes down to preparation. Assemble a complete loan package before you engage a lender.
- Define the deal. Identify the loan type — acquisition, construction, bridge, PIP, or refinance — and the amount and timeline you need.
- Gather property financials. Pull two to three years of operating statements, STR reports, and current RevPAR and occupancy figures.
- Document the plan. For construction, include budgets, plans, and the franchise agreement; for repositioning, include the PIP scope and pro forma.
- Prepare sponsor information. Compile ownership structure, hotel operating experience, and a personal financial statement.
- Submit for review. Send the package to a direct hospitality lender who can underwrite and commit in-house.
If you are evaluating opportunities across the Southeast, AVANA finances hotels in nearby markets as well — including Jacksonville, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, and Myrtle Beach — and anchors the broader hospitality lending program that supports all of them.
Savannah hotel financing FAQ
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