Taiwanese hotel investors are buying more upscale hotel properties in the United States than they formerly did, says PKF Capital’s Managing Director Rod Apodaca.

“We’ve seen an important upward shift in the quality of hotel properties acquired by the Taiwanese hotel investment community,” Apodaca says.  Many investors have shown interest in properties valued at more than $10 million, he says.

Apodaca, who has helped many Asian firms with hotel transactions, made his comments at a press conference sponsored by the Taiwan Hotel and Motel Association of Southern California.

With higher priced properties, owners need more help with strategic positioning of the properties to maintain higher valuations, he says.

The industry is moving beyond old-fashioned selling methods, Apodaca notes. PKF Capital uses a “structured” process for handling hotel transactions that incorporates Web-based research tools for access to market and property information, limited scheduled property tours, specific time performance requirements and other analytical techniques that greatly improve and shorten the sales process, he says.

“Hotels in the U.S. are still strong investments as proven by the continued demand from the buying community. Good deals are still getting done by quality buyers,” Apodaca says.