Field notes
Valuation and hearing strategy for commercial appeals.
Written by our valuation scientists and jurisdiction researchers for consultants, asset managers and appraisers who file.
Valuation · 8 min read
Hotel Property Tax Appeals: Removing Intangible and Business Value
A hotel is the clearest case in property tax of a building that is also a business. Room revenue depends on the brand, the reservation system, the management company, the staff and the furniture as much as on the real estate. Real property tax should fall only...
- →A hotel's going-concern value includes real property, FF&E and business value; only the first belongs in the real property assessment.
- →Deducting management and franchise fees is a starting point, not a complete removal of intangible value.
- →Olympic and Georgia (2025) rejected fee-only removal but let revenue that belongs to the property itself stay in the assessment.
Karthik Venkatesan · September 24, 2026
- August 27, 2026Normalizing Operating Expenses Before You Hand Them to the AssessorHow to turn a commercial general ledger into an expense statement assessors accept: what to remove, what to add, reserves, and Cook, Texas and NYC filing rules.
- August 20, 2026Contingency Fees in Property Tax Consulting: Defining Savings and Staying CompliantHow contingency fees work in commercial property tax consulting: defining realized savings, multi-year reductions, Texas and Illinois rules, and USPAP limits.
- July 16, 2026Why CAMA Mass Appraisal Over-Assesses Commercial Property, and How to Show ItHow CAMA mass appraisal models drift from commercial market value, what IAAO ratio study standards measure, and how to turn model error into appeal evidence.
- July 9, 2026Cap Rate Selection for Property Tax Appeals: Extraction, Band of Investment and LoadingHow to select and defend a cap rate in a commercial tax appeal: market extraction, band of investment, matching the NOI definition and loading for taxes.
- June 11, 2026Building a Sales Comparison Adjustment Grid for a Commercial Tax AppealHow to build a commercial sales comparison grid a board will trust: verified arms-length sales, adjustments in the right order, and a supported reconciliation.
- May 21, 2026The HCAD Commercial Protest Evidence Packet: What to Include and WhenWhat belongs in a commercial HCAD protest packet: Form 50-132 timing, the §41.461 evidence request, income, sales and equity exhibits, and ARB hearing rules.
- May 14, 2026Missed a Property Tax Appeal Deadline? What Commercial Owners Can Still DoWhat remains after a missed commercial property tax appeal deadline: Texas late protests and 25.25 motions, Florida good cause, California base year windows.
- April 16, 2026Cook County Board of Review Commercial Appeals: Rules, Evidence and TimingHow commercial appeals work at the Cook County Board of Review: township windows, attorney filing, Rules 18 to 21 evidence, re-review and the PTAB route.
- April 9, 2026Prop 8 Decline-in-Value Appeals for California Commercial PropertyHow Prop 8 decline-in-value reductions work for California commercial property: the Section 51 lesser-of test, filing windows, evidence and recapture.
- March 24, 2026Unequal Appraisal in Texas: Equity Claims Under §41.43(b)(3) and §42.26(a)(3)How Texas unequal appraisal claims work under Tax Code §41.43(b)(3) and §42.26(a)(3): adjusted comparables, the median test, and how ARBs and courts read it.
- March 5, 2026Building a Defensible Income Approach for a Commercial Property Tax AppealHow to build an income approach a review board will accept: market rent over contract rent, stabilized vacancy, reserves and a loaded cap rate.
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