Hotel Learning Online

---

Steve Rushmore's course is designed for hotel owners, developers, investors, appraisers, lenders, consultants, and hospitality professionals who need to understand and perform credible hotel market analyses and valuations. Whether you're underwriting an acquisition, ordering a refinancing appraisal, defending a property tax assessment, or building a feasibility model from scratch, this course provides the methodology, software, and professional framework used by the world's leading hotel valuation specialists.

You'll learn the complete Rushmore Method for hotel valuation, from defining a competitive set and quantifying market demand, to forecasting revenues and expenses with a fixed-and-variable model, to applying the discounted cash flow mortgage-equity technique that has set the industry standard for decades. Through real-world case studies, hands-on software exercises, and step-by-step instruction, you'll gain the technical skills and professional confidence to value hotels with the same rigor and defensibility as the most experienced specialists in the field.

Ideal for hotel consultants, appraisers, asset managers, lenders, investors, attorneys, and students pursuing careers in hospitality finance and advisory work, this course provides what most academic programs and generic real estate courses don't: a complete, practical methodology for the most complex asset class in commercial real estate.

Hotel valuation is fundamentally different from valuing offices, retail, or industrial assets. A hotel re-prices its inventory every night, operates as a labor-intensive business with shifting demand segments, and carries economic relationships with brands and operators that materially affect every cash flow line. Generalist methodology produces valuations that often miss reality by 15-20 percent, and in some cases by far more. This course closes that gap.

This comprehensive course is designed to equip hotel owners, developers, asset managers, appraisers, lenders, consultants, and hospitality professionals with the methodology, tools, and analytical framework needed to perform credible, defensible hotel valuations. Whether you're underwriting an investment, building a feasibility study, defending an appraisal under review, or supporting a financing decision, this course provides the practical knowledge to do work that holds up under scrutiny.

Through 75 video lessons, real-world case studies, and the same Hotel Market Analysis & Valuation Software used in actual consulting engagements, you'll learn how to:

• Define a defensible competitive set — the single most important decision in any hotel valuation.
• Quantify market demand through a structured analysis of corporate, group, leisure, and other demand generators.
• Forecast occupancy and average daily rate using penetration analysis and comp set positioning.
• Build revenue and expense projections using a fixed-and-variable model that holds up across the cycle.
• Apply the discounted cash flow mortgage-equity technique, separately accounting for lender and equity investor returns.
• Reconcile across valuation approaches and defend your conclusion under the most rigorous review.
• See the Course Curriculum set forth below to see the extensive material covered in this course.

The cost for the Hotel Market Analysis and Valuation course is $995, which includes the following:

• Access to the course
• Start at any time and proceed at your own pace.
• Unlimited downloads of sample market studies, valuations, articles, and publications.
• The Hotel Market Analysis & Valuation Software used in actual consulting engagements.
• One-on-one Zoom calls with Steve Rushmore.
• Upon completion of the course and a passing final exam, you will receive the Certified Hotel Appraiser (CHA) or Certified Hotel Valuer (CHV) certificate (via e-mail) suitable for framing.
• Your name will appear in the Directory of Certified Hotel Appraisers.

Unlike academic courses or generic real estate methodology, this course offers a practical, hotel-specific framework drawn from over 50 years and 15,000+ hotel valuation engagements across 64 countries.

Who Should Take This Course:

• Hotel Owners and Developers: Learn how to underwrite acquisitions, defend dispositions, and challenge appraisals with the same methodology lenders and investors use.
• Hotel Appraisers and Real Estate Appraisers: Add a hotel-specific credential to your practice. Charge specialist-tier fees on hotel assignments. Defend your work with industry-standard methodology.
• Asset Managers: Build the analytical foundation to evaluate property performance, support disposition timing decisions, and challenge management company forecasts.
• Lenders and Underwriters: Pressure-test borrower projections, assess loan exposure with confidence, and protect institutional capital.
• Hotel Consultants: Sharpen your valuation methodology, build defensible feasibility studies, and add credibility to every advisory engagement.
• Investors, Private Equity Professionals, and Junior Analysts: Learn the framework that underwrites every hotel deal that crosses your desk.
• Attorneys Specializing in Hospitality or Real Estate: Understand the underlying valuation principles that shape every hotel M&A, dispute, and property tax matter.
• Hospitality MBA Students and University Hotel Program Participants: Build real-world skills that bridge classroom theory and the analytical realities of hotel investment.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to perform a complete hotel market analysis and valuation from start to finish — with the rigor, defensibility, and professional confidence of a specialist with decades of experience. You'll leave with the methodology, the working software, and the credential that signals hotel-specific expertise to clients, employers, and the broader industry.

Whether you're starting your hotel valuation career or already deep into hotel investment work, this course gives you the methodology, tools, and credential to do better work, command higher fees, and deliver valuations that hold up under any review.

Steve Rushmore's course is designed for hotel owners, developers, asset managers, and hospitality professionals who need to understand and negotiate hotel management contracts from the owner’s perspective. Whether you’re building a new hotel, acquiring an existing asset, or managing a portfolio, this course provides the tools and insights to secure a fair, balanced agreement with a management company.

You’ll learn how to identify and negotiate the most critical contract provisions—such as performance tests, termination rights, owner approval rights, fees, and dispute resolution—so you can protect your investment and maintain control. Through real-world examples and proven strategies, you’ll gain the knowledge to confidently engage with hotel brands, independent operators, and legal counsel during contract negotiations.

Ideal for hotel consultants, appraisers, attorneys, and students pursuing careers in hospitality ownership or advisory roles, this course demystifies one of the most complex agreements in the hotel industry.

Hotel management contracts are among the most complex and impactful agreements in the hospitality industry. While these contracts are essential to aligning the interests of owners and operators, they often tilt in favor of the management company—especially when negotiated without a thorough understanding of the risks, nuances, and leverage points available to owners.

This comprehensive course is designed to equip hotel owners, developers, asset managers, attorneys, and hospitality professionals with the tools, strategies, and insights needed to negotiate balanced, owner-favorable hotel management agreements. Whether you’re developing a new hotel, acquiring an existing asset, overseeing performance as an asset manager, or advising clients in a legal or consulting role, this course provides the practical knowledge required to secure terms that enhance control, reduce risk, and maximize value.

Through engaging video lessons, real-world case studies, and analysis of actual contract clauses, you’ll learn how to:

• Identify and negotiate the key provisions that most affect owner rights and financial returns.
• Understand the implications of base and incentive fees, performance tests, and operator approval rights.
• Protect against long-term inflexible commitments and one-sided termination clauses.
• Use brand leverage, market data, and ownership structure to improve your negotiating position.
• Ensure quiet enjoyment, owner flexibility, and clear exit strategies under a variety of scenarios.
• See the Course Curriculum set forth below to see the extensive material covered in this course.

The cost for the Hotel Management Contract course is $995, which includes the following: 

• Access to the course
• Start at any time and proceed at your own pace.
• Unlimited downloads of sample management contract provisions, articles, and publications.
• One-on-one Zoom calls with Steve Rushmore.
• Upon completion of the course and a passing final exam, you will receive the Certified Hotel Management Contract Negotiator certificate (via e-mail) suitable for framing.
• Your name will appear in the Directory  of Certified Hotel Management Contract Negotiators

Unlike academic discussions or generic legal overviews, this course offers a practical, owner-focused framework drawn from decades of experience in hotel valuation, contract negotiation, and asset management.

Who Should Take This Course:

• Hotel Owners and Developers: Learn how to avoid one-sided provisions and secure terms that give you oversight, flexibility, and performance-based accountability.
• Asset Managers: Gain tools to interpret contract terms, challenge underperformance, and support ownership decisions with expert analysis.
• Attorneys Specializing in Hospitality or Real Estate: Understand key business and operational concerns that influence the legal structure of management agreements.
• Hotel Consultants and Appraisers: Improve your advisory services by integrating contract insights into feasibility studies, valuations, and strategic plans.
• Hospitality MBA Students and University Hotel Program Participants: Build real-world skills that bridge the gap between classroom theory and the realities of hotel ownership, development, and brand negotiations.
• Brand and Operator Development Executives: Learn the owner’s perspective to facilitate more effective, balanced partnerships. 

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to read and interpret hotel management contracts with a critical eye—understanding not just what the clauses say, but how they affect owner control, property performance, and investment value. You’ll leave with a negotiation checklist, sample language, and the confidence to advocate for terms that align with your goals.

Whether you are signing your first agreement or managing a portfolio of branded assets, this course gives you the edge to negotiate smarter, protect your investment, and build more productive operator relationships.

Steve Rushmore's course is designed for hotel owners, developers, asset managers, and hospitality professionals who need to evaluate hotel brands and negotiate franchise agreements from the owner's perspective. Whether you're flagging a new build, converting an existing property, or renegotiating a brand at term renewal, this course provides the tools and insights to select the right brand and negotiate a franchise agreement that protects net operating income, preserves flexibility, and maximizes long-term asset value.

You'll learn how to evaluate brands on the economic terms that actually matter — not just royalty rates, but the full all-in fee stack including marketing contributions, loyalty assessments, technology fees, reservation charges, and PIP capital requirements. Through real-world case studies and proven negotiating strategies, you'll gain the knowledge to confidently engage with brand development teams, attorneys, and consultants throughout the brand selection and franchise negotiation process.

Ideal for hotel consultants, appraisers, attorneys, asset managers, and students pursuing careers in hospitality ownership or advisory roles, this course demystifies one of the most economically consequential decisions in hotel ownership.

Hotel franchise agreements are among the most expensive long-term commitments in the hospitality industry. While the headline royalty might be quoted at 5 percent, the true all-in cost of carrying a flag over a 20-year term typically lands between 11 and 16 percent of total revenue — a difference that translates to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on a single property. These contracts are built around brand-favorable language, and they often tilt sharply against owners who negotiate without a full understanding of the economic levers, hidden fees, and PIP risks involved.

This comprehensive course is designed to equip hotel owners, developers, asset managers, attorneys, and hospitality professionals with the tools, strategies, and insights needed to select the right brand and negotiate franchise agreements that protect owner economics. Whether you're developing a new hotel, converting an existing property, advising a client on brand selection, or representing an owner at the franchise negotiation table, this course provides the practical knowledge to make brand decisions with confidence and negotiate from a position of clarity, structure, and leverage.

Through engaging video lessons, real-world case studies, and analysis of actual franchise term sheets and agreements, you'll learn how to:

• Build an all-in cost model that reveals the true 10-year carrying cost of any brand offer.
• Identify and negotiate the seven economic levers in a franchise agreement (royalty is the smallest).
• Avoid the PIP trap, why a $4 million brand-quoted renovation typically becomes $9 million, and how to negotiate a cost cap that prevents it.
• Demand and structure proper area protection and encroachment language to defend your market.
• Negotiate termination economics including liquidated damages, transferability, and buyout math.
• Compare brands on standard terms, key money, and concession history to drive better deals.
• See the Course Curriculum set forth below to see the extensive material covered in this course.

The cost for the Hotel Brand Selection and Franchise Negotiations course is $995, which includes the following:

• Access to the course
• Start at any time and proceed at your own pace.
• Unlimited downloads of sample franchise agreements, term sheets, evaluation tools, and publications.
• Brand determination guides, franchise offering and marketing information request templates, and a structured franchise evaluation and rating system.
• One-on-one Zoom calls with Steve Rushmore.
• Upon completion of the course and a passing final exam, you will receive the Certified Hotel Franchise Negotiator (CHFN) certificate (via e-mail) suitable for framing.
• Your name will appear in the Directory of Certified Hotel Franchise Negotiators.

Unlike brand-marketing presentations or generic legal overviews, this course offers a practical, owner-focused framework drawn from decades of experience in hotel valuation, brand evaluation, and franchise contract negotiation.

Who Should Take This Course:

• Hotel Owners and Developers: Learn how to evaluate brands on real economics, avoid the PIP trap, and negotiate franchise agreements that protect long-term returns and exit value.
• Asset Managers: Build the analytical framework to evaluate brand performance, advise on flag changes, and support owner decisions on renewals and conversions.
• Attorneys Specializing in Hospitality or Real Estate: Understand the economic substance behind every clause you paper, advise clients on what's actually negotiable, and add strategic value to every franchise engagement.
• Hotel Consultants and Appraisers: Improve your advisory services by integrating brand and franchise economics into feasibility studies, valuations, and strategic plans.
• Hospitality MBA Students and University Hotel Program Participants: Build real-world skills that bridge classroom theory and the realities of brand selection and franchise negotiation.
• Brand Development Executives: Learn the owner's perspective to facilitate more effective, balanced partnerships and reduce friction in development pipelines.
• Lenders and Investors: Understand how franchise economics affect underwriting, asset value, and exit potential on every branded property in your portfolio.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to evaluate any hotel brand offer with a critical eye — understanding not just what the term sheet says, but what the all-in economics will look like over the full life of the agreement. You'll leave with brand evaluation tools, a structured rating system, sample negotiation language, and the confidence to advocate for terms that align with your investment goals.

Whether you're flagging your first hotel or managing a portfolio of branded assets, this course gives you the methodology to select brands wisely, negotiate franchise agreements from a position of strength, and build long-term brand relationships that work for both sides.

My talk, entitled, "How to Succeed in Life Without Wasting Your Time," describes how I was able to create a global hospitality consulting organization by focusing my efforts towards a set of written goals.

As a mediocre student at the Cornell Hotel School who found himself on strict academic probation discovered the benefits of creating a "Life Plan" which eventually became HVS. 

A C-minus English student who overcame learning challenges to author six textbooks and more than 300 articles. 

A shy and quiet youngster who now lectures extensively at the world's leading hotel schools and professional organizations. 

This all shows how developing a set of goals to overcome your personal shortcomings can lead to success "without wasting your time".