Hotels, it turns out, are a rather layered affair. The big-name chain whose flag flies above the building—Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton, Hyatt, etc.—is little more than a franchiser. For off-the-top fees as high as 15 percent of the nightly rate, the chains provide the reservation service and websites, operate the frequent-guest plan, and formulate the "brand standards." But they own very few of the buildings and rarely invest in the brick-and-mortar end of the business.

And as pressured franchisees often say, the hotel chains don't seem interested in their financial realities. As Andrew Cosslett, former chief executive of InterContinental Hotels, once notoriously explained, he didn't have much sympathy for hotel owners who were going under. After all, he didn't tell them to build the hotels.

Not only don't the chains care much whether the properties they franchise sink or swim, the chains rarely manage the hotels with their names on the door. Most day-to-day management issues are handled by third-party companies that specialize in running hotels at the heads-on-beds level. They have names like Interstate, Hersha, and Hammons. While generally unknown to the hotel guest, it is the management company that upholds the brand standards for the chains and tries to maximize revenue for the hotel's owners.

It doesn't end with the owner, of course, because owners have to deal with their lenders. And it is rarely a single lender anymore. The so-called "capital stack" is incredibly convoluted, involving primary mortgage holders, mezzanine lenders, and many others who've kicked in financing via various types of syndication.

"Hotels are interesting right now," says Mark Troen, chief executive of Sheldon Good and Company, which specializes in real estate auctions. "People think of hotels as real estate. But they aren't, really. Hotels are about renting rooms, and if the [nightly rate] doesn't hold up, the capital stack collapses."

Troen knows hotels from both sides since he spends at least 100 nights a year on the road. He's thrilled when he gets a below-market nightly rate at a top-notch hotel, but he knows that low rates are bad for the entire pyramid that represents a modern lodging property.

"A typical capital stack could have four or five pieces, and it is ruined by diminished room rates," he says.

The overall state of the lodging business, at least as defined by room rate, is not healthy. On an average night, says the American Hotel and Lodging Association, more than 40 percent of the nation's estimated 4.8 million guestrooms are empty. The nightly rate at the occupied ones averages only about $56.50.

Things are slowly improving with the general economic climate. According to STR, an industry analyst, revenue per room increased 8.3 in the first 10 months of the year compared with 2010. Occupancy during the period reached nearly 62 percent. And PKF Hospitality Research projects that U.S. hotels will post an average gain in revenue per room of about 6 percent next year.

But that's a far cry from the boom years before the 2007 market meltdown. Nightly rates in some cities remain double-digit percent below their historic highs. Meanwhile, hotel operators are underwater on their financing with those big notes coming due.

"The old axiom used to be that the third owner of a hotel was the one who finally made money on the property," says Thomas Alkensohn, who worked for several major hotel chains during a 40-year career. "Even the third owner doesn't make money now."

The Fine Print…

One of the nastiest battles between a hotel owner and a major hotel chain has been at the property now known as the Ritz-Carlton Fort Lauderdale. The hotel and condominium opened in 2007 as the St. Regis, but Starwood Hotels, which franchises the St. Regis brand, walked out about a year later. The hotel's owner, Castillo Grand, sued and last week won a $44 million award against a Starwood subsidiary. Starwood says that it will appeal the judgment.