A working reference for the vocabulary used across Realivo mandates — hotel, commercial and business brokerage in the sub-institutional segment. The terms below are the ones that appear in NDAs, teasers, data rooms and LOIs we handle every week. If you plan to engage as a buyer or seller, this is the language we will use with you — see Partners for the process and Trust & Compliance for how KYC, AML and mandate documentation work in practice.
EU Fifth Anti-Money-Laundering Directive — extends AML checks to beneficial ownership and high-value real estate.
5MLD requires transparency on ultimate beneficial owners and applies to real estate agents on transactions above defined thresholds. Realivo's KYC and source-of-funds procedures are aligned with 5MLD across all EU mandates, and with equivalent UK regulations post-Brexit.
Average Daily Rate — rooms revenue divided by rooms sold.
ADR isolates pricing power from occupancy. Combined with occupancy it produces RevPAR. In Realivo underwriting ADR trend over three years is a stronger signal than a single peak year — declining ADR with rising occupancy typically flags a value-add repositioning opportunity.
Anti-Money-Laundering — legal framework governing source of funds checks in real estate transactions.
Realivo applies AML procedures aligned with UK Money Laundering Regulations and EU 5MLD. Source of funds and source of wealth are verified before closing — for the buyer, the equity, and for the seller, the entity behind the asset. Non-compliant parties are declined without exception.
Asset Purchase Agreement — binding contract to acquire the real estate and defined assets directly.
In an APA the buyer takes the property, FF&E and specified contracts, leaving liabilities behind. It is preferred when the seller SPV carries legacy risk or when regulatory transfer of licences is straightforward. Choice between SPA and APA is a tax and liability call, not a preference.
Mandate where Realivo represents the buyer and sources off-market hotel or commercial assets.
On a buy-side mandate, Realivo builds an acquisition brief, screens off-market opportunities across Spain, Portugal, UAE and CEE, runs first-pass filtering, and coordinates NDA, LOI and due diligence. Fee is documented in the mandate and disclosed in the LOI.
Capital expenditure — investment in the asset that extends life or adds value, above routine maintenance.
Realivo distinguishes maintenance capex (kept in NOI) from repositioning capex (modelled separately). Deferred capex — postponed roof, HVAC, PIP — is quantified in the data room, because unaccounted deferred capex is the single most common source of post-LOI renegotiation.
Stabilised income assets with a moderate improvement lever — between core and value-add.
Core-plus hotels have solid occupancy and brand, but a defined upside — soft refurbishment, revenue management, F&B contract renegotiation. Risk sits between core (stabilised, minimal work) and value-add. Realivo maps every teaser to one of these buckets to speed buyer filtering.
Secure virtual repository holding all documents required for buyer due diligence.
A Realivo data room typically contains title, cadastral, licences, three-year financials, STR benchmarks, tax filings, employee census, capex history and material contracts. Access is granted per user, logged, and revoked at LOI expiry or upon seller instruction.
Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation — proxy for cash operating profit.
EBITDA is the standard multiple base for hotel operating businesses (management companies, brand licences) as opposed to real estate. Realivo separates real-estate NOI multiples from business EBITDA multiples in every teaser — mixing them inflates apparent yield.
EU General Data Protection Regulation — governs handling of personal data in buyer, seller and staff records.
Realivo processes buyer identification, seller ownership records and hotel staff data under GDPR. Data room access is logged and restricted to legitimate transaction purpose; staff census is shared only after LOI. UK GDPR applies equivalently to the Realivo Group Ltd entity.
Gross Operating Profit — revenue minus departmental and undistributed operating expenses.
GOP measures operational efficiency before ownership costs (rent, insurance, tax, capex reserve). It is the standard hotel operating benchmark under USALI. Realivo uses GOP margin — GOP over total revenue — to compare assets across markets on a like-for-like basis.
Investment-Committee-ready — file complete enough for a fund's IC to vote on the deal.
IC-ready means the data room, financials, licence status, environmental, structural and legal have been packaged so a fund's investment committee can decide without further seller requests. Realivo prepares sell-side files to this standard when the buyer universe is institutional.
Internal Rate of Return — annualised discount rate that makes deal cash flows net to zero.
IRR is time-weighted and sensitive to exit timing and leverage. Realivo does not promise returns to any buyer — target IRR belongs in the buyer's own model, not in seller-provided materials. This is a firm compliance line, not a stylistic choice.
Know-Your-Customer — identification and verification of buyer, seller and beneficial owners.
KYC is performed on both sides of every Realivo transaction: passport or corporate registry, ultimate beneficial owner (UBO), sanctions screening. It is a legal requirement under UK and EU AML rules and a prerequisite for NDA release on sell-side mandates.
Letter of Intent stating price, structure and conditions before binding legal drafting begins.
The LOI is the first formal document after NDA and buyer qualification. It sets headline price, deposit, exclusivity, due diligence period, and expected closing. Realivo prepares LOIs only for verified principals with documented Proof of Funds — never on speculative interest.
Loan-to-Value — ratio of senior debt to asset value used to size acquisition financing.
Institutional hotel acquisitions typically use 50–65 percent LTV senior debt against appraised value. Realivo does not arrange financing but confirms buyer capital structure before mandate release — leveraged buyers must show term sheet or POF equivalent alongside equity.
Written engagement authorising Realivo to represent a seller or a buyer on a specific transaction.
A mandate defines scope, exclusivity, term, fee structure and disclosure obligations. Realivo operates on sell-side and buy-side mandates for hotels, commercial assets and hotel-operating businesses — always in writing, never verbal, with commission conditions clearly documented.
Multiple on Invested Capital — total distributions divided by total capital invested.
MOIC is a hold-period return measure used by funds alongside IRR. A 2.0x MOIC over five years communicates a different risk profile than the same MOIC over ten. Realivo does not project MOIC on behalf of sellers — projections are the buyer's underwriting responsibility.
Non-Circumvention Non-Disclosure Agreement adding a circumvention clause for multi-party broker chains.
Realivo uses NCNDA when a mandate involves co-brokers or introduced counterparties. It preserves confidentiality plus prevents any party from bypassing the introducing broker to close directly — a standard protection in off-market and cross-border hotel transactions.
Non-Disclosure Agreement binding both sides to confidentiality before hotel or mandate details are shared.
A bilateral NDA is signed at the earliest stage of any Realivo engagement. It protects seller identity, asset details, and commercial terms — no name, address or financials are released until the NDA is in place and, where required, buyer registration is confirmed.
Net Operating Income — GOP minus fixed ownership costs, before debt service and tax.
NOI is the number used to derive cap rate and valuation on income-producing hotels. Realivo normalises NOI for one-off items, deferred capex and management fee at market rate — reported NOI without these adjustments is not a basis for pricing.
Assets marketed privately to a vetted buyer list — never listed on public portals.
The core of Realivo's flow. Off-market hotels are shared under NDA with pre-qualified family offices, funds and operators only. This protects seller confidentiality, avoids staff and guest disruption, and keeps price discovery inside an institutional buyer pool.
Proof of Funds — bank or custodian confirmation that the buyer holds the equity to close.
Realivo requires POF from every buyer before releasing hotel identity or data room access. Accepted formats: recent bank statement, custodian letter, or lender term sheet for the debt portion. POF is one of the three checks — POF, KYC, mandate — that defines a verified principal.
Revenue Per Available Room — total rooms revenue divided by total available rooms.
RevPAR is the primary top-line KPI for hotel underwriting. It captures both occupancy and rate in a single number. Realivo cross-references seller-reported RevPAR with STR or benchmark data before a teaser is released — asking prices unsupported by RevPAR trend are flagged.
Mandate where Realivo represents the seller and controls buyer access to the asset.
On a sell-side mandate, Realivo prepares the teaser and data room, defines the buyer universe, controls NDA release, and manages LOI flow. Owners retain full discretion — no marketing goes public unless the seller instructs it in writing.
Share Purchase Agreement — binding contract to acquire the shares of the asset-holding SPV.
The SPA follows LOI and successful due diligence. It defines warranties, indemnities, escrow, closing conditions and price adjustments. Share deals are common for hotels held inside a clean SPV where the operating licence, staff and contracts stay with the entity.
Special Purpose Vehicle — a dedicated legal entity used to hold or acquire a single asset.
Most institutional hotel deals close via SPV rather than direct asset transfer. Buying the SPV shares (share deal) can reduce transfer tax and preserve existing operating licences. Realivo works with the buyer's counsel to confirm SPV clean status before LOI.
Deal size below core-fund thresholds — typically 5 to 50 million euro on hotel real estate.
Sub-institutional is Realivo's core segment: too large for lifestyle private buyers, too small for the biggest funds. This is where off-market flow is deepest and pricing least efficient — the space where a specialist brokerage adds the most value versus a portal listing.
Anonymised one- or two-page summary shared before NDA to gauge buyer interest.
A Realivo teaser gives location tier, key rooms, headline financials (RevPAR, ADR, GOP), and asking range — without revealing brand, address or seller identity. Full information memorandum and data room open only after signed NDA and buyer verification.
Irreplaceable landmark hotel or building — bought for the address, not the yield.
Trophy hotels — palace conversions on Gran Via, waterfront addresses in Dubai, listed buildings in central Lisbon — trade on scarcity rather than cap rate. Buyers are typically family offices and sovereign capital with long horizons. Realivo handles these strictly off-market, by named-buyer introduction only.
Assets requiring active management, capex or repositioning to reach stabilised NOI.
Value-add hotels typically show below-market ADR, deferred capex, weak brand affiliation or under-utilised F&B. The strategy is to close the gap in 24–48 months and exit stabilised. Realivo's Spain and UAE flow includes a steady share of value-add assets suited to funds with operating partners.
Buyers or sellers who have passed KYC, POF and mandate documentation — the only counterparties Realivo brokers to.
Verified principals is a Realivo standard: identity confirmed via KYC, capital confirmed via POF, and — where represented — mandate confirmed in writing. Introductions from unverified intermediaries claiming to represent a principal are not progressed until direct verification is complete.
The desk is the fastest path. If a term above is ambiguous in the context of your mandate, a five-minute call with the relevant desk head is usually enough.
Reach out to the desk →