stayAPT

The extended-stay hospitality market is experiencing one of its most consequential growth cycles in decades, and franchise investors who understand the structural forces at play are asking a very specific question: which brand gives me the best risk-adjusted return in a segment that outperformed the entire hotel industry during the worst hospitality downturn in modern history? StayAPT Suites, operating at www.stayapt.com and headquartered in Matthews, North Carolina, was founded in January 2019 by Gary A. DeLapp, a hospitality veteran whose career arc began as a busboy at a Holiday Inn and ascended through executive leadership roles at Homestead Studio Suites, WoodSpring Hotels, Extended Stay Hotels including the Extended Stay America brand, Vista Host, and Invitation Homes. DeLapp officially launched the StayAPT Suites brand concept in January 2020, and the company opened its first two locations in October 2020, a remarkable feat given the catastrophic timing against a global pandemic that shuttered thousands of hotel properties simultaneously. The Stayapt franchise has since grown to over 40 operational hotels, reaching that milestone with its 40th property opening in April 2025, just five years from brand launch, an achievement that industry analysts note is extraordinarily rare for an all-new construction concept that does not rely on converting existing hotel properties. StayAPT Suites is structured as a Delaware limited liability company that conducts business both under its primary brand name and under the name Affordable Suites of America, and the company benefits from institutional financial backing provided by the private investment firm Lindsay Goldberg. The brand's total pipeline as of September 2022 already encompassed more than 75 locations across 22 U.S. states, and its stated growth ambition is to build a portfolio of more than 100 corporate-owned hotels and over 200 franchise locations nationwide, a target that positions the Stayapt franchise opportunity squarely within the category of high-conviction, growth-stage brand investments.

The extended-stay and apartment-style hotel segment that the Stayapt franchise occupies is not a niche market chasing marginal demand, it is a structurally differentiated category benefiting from multiple simultaneous tailwinds that are reshaping how Americans think about temporary and transitional housing. The global hotels market was valued at USD 2,080.57 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 3,931.42 billion by 2034, representing a compound annual growth rate of 7.54%, and the United States hotels market specifically was estimated at USD 263.21 billion in 2024 with projections reaching USD 395.69 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 7.1%. Within that broader market, the apartment-style hotel segment, which is the precise category in which the Stayapt franchise competes, is projected to grow from USD 51.11 billion in 2026 to USD 87.94 billion by 2035, a CAGR of 6.13% that reflects the intersection of several durable consumer trends. The rise of remote work and distributed short-term work assignments has created a category of traveler who needs accommodation measured in weeks or months rather than nights, and that traveler consistently chooses apartment-style extended-stay properties over traditional hotel rooms because the value proposition of a full kitchen, dedicated living space, and predictable weekly rates is fundamentally superior for longer stays. The professional segment of the extended-stay market is growing at a CAGR of 9.03%, and the midscale hotel category, where StayAPT Suites positions its product, is projected to grow at 7.6% from 2025 to 2030 as travelers increasingly seek a balance of quality and affordability rather than paying premium rates for amenities they do not use. The extended-stay segment has been described by hospitality analysts as the "darling of the industry" based on its performance during the COVID-19 pandemic, when extended-stay properties maintained occupancy levels that traditional transient hotels could not approach, and that resilience data has not been lost on franchise investors evaluating capital deployment in the hospitality sector.

The Stayapt franchise investment is a capital-intensive commitment that belongs firmly in the premium tier of franchise opportunities, reflecting both the all-new construction model and the scale of income potential relative to lower-investment service franchises. The initial franchise fee is $40,000, a figure that is consistent with other premium hospitality franchise concepts and reflects access to a brand architecture, operating system, and corporate team with deep extended-stay expertise. The total investment required to open a StayAPT Suites franchise ranges from approximately $7,529,900 to $12,904,400 according to FDD Item 7, with the spread driven by factors including land costs, market-specific construction expenses, prototype selection across the brand's two-story, three-story, and four-story models, and geographic variance in labor and materials costs. The minimum liquid capital required is $1,775,000, and prospective franchisees are advised to budget additional personal financial reserves to cover living expenses during a ramp-up period that can extend from six months to over two years depending on market conditions and stabilization velocity. Ongoing fees are structured with clarity: a royalty rate of 5.0% of gross rooms revenue and a marketing fee of 2.0% of gross rooms revenue, and the company explicitly states there are no hidden fees or add-on charges beyond these disclosed figures, a transparency commitment that distinguishes the Stayapt franchise cost structure from brands that layer additional technology fees, reservation fees, or procurement surcharges on top of headline royalty rates. The cost per key for a StayAPT Suites property is approximately USD $82,000, and the company's institutional backer Lindsay Goldberg provides the financial credibility and capital infrastructure that underpins both the corporate development program and the franchise support apparatus. The brand's owner-operator approach, underscored by its commitment to developing over 100 corporate-funded properties alongside franchised locations, means that the corporate team has genuine financial skin in the game, a structural alignment that is unusual and meaningful in franchise investment evaluation.

The StayAPT Suites operating model is deliberately engineered for simplicity and lean labor efficiency, which addresses one of the central concerns franchise investors raise about the hospitality sector: the complexity and cost of managing large hourly workforces in a 24-hour operational environment. The model utilizes outsourced contracts to reduce overhead, optimizes operations through a streamlined amenities approach, and is designed to function with a minimal on-site employee count, a structural decision that directly compresses labor costs as a percentage of revenue and expands operating margins relative to full-service hotel formats. The brand offers multiple prototype configurations including two-story, three-story, and a newer four-story 103-unit prototype that was first introduced in corporate and franchise markets in North Carolina and California in September 2022, providing franchisees with format flexibility to match the appropriate scale to their specific market's demand profile and land cost structure. Ideal sites across all prototypes require under two acres, which reduces land acquisition costs and expands the universe of viable development sites compared to brands that require larger footprints. Territory structure is based on a flexible 1/3/5-mile radius depending on market selection, and the brand explicitly states that there are no restricted territories and that significant white space remains available across large, medium, and tertiary markets, giving franchisees access to development opportunities in markets that more mature hospitality brands have long since foreclosed. The corporate support structure is built around a veteran hospitality management team with specialized extended-stay expertise accumulated across multiple major extended-stay brands, and the Stayapt franchise benefits from a support infrastructure that understands the specific operational nuances of weekly-rate lodging, contract worker housing, workforce relocation accommodation, and the guest experience standards that drive retention in longer-stay segments. The company's owner-operator model, with over 100 corporate hotels planned, means that lessons learned at corporate properties feed directly into franchisee training and operational guidance in a continuous improvement loop that is structurally more responsive than franchise systems where corporate leadership is distant from day-to-day operations.

Item 19 financial performance data is not disclosed in the current Franchise Disclosure Document for StayAPT Suites, which means prospective investors must triangulate unit-level economics from the operational data points and performance claims the company has made through public channels. The early performance data from the first StayAPT Suites location in Goldsboro, North Carolina, which opened in October 2020, trended at 75% occupancy in early bookings, a figure that is meaningfully above the stabilized occupancy levels typically modeled in extended-stay underwriting. Average Daily Rates across the system have ranged from USD $76 to USD $88 depending on market, and the company has communicated to franchise investors that levered yields of 15% and higher are achievable contingent on capital structure and debt terms, a yield projection that, if realized at scale, would represent competitive returns relative to other real estate-intensive franchise investment categories. The business model's emphasis on low employee count, on-site management efficiency, and a streamlined amenities approach is specifically designed to produce what the brand describes as industry-leading margins, and franchisee Shakher Patel, Co-Founder of Destiny Partners LLC, has publicly stated that the model offers the highest potential margins in the industry based on this operational architecture. From a unit economics benchmarking perspective, the Stayapt franchise cost per key of approximately $82,000 compares favorably to many mid-scale new construction hotel concepts, and the absence of food and beverage operations eliminates one of the most complex and margin-dilutive components of traditional hotel economics. Investors evaluating the Stayapt franchise revenue potential should request current operator-level financial data directly through the disclosure process, benchmark occupancy and ADR assumptions against the brand's disclosed ranges, and model sensitivity scenarios across the investment range of $7.5 million to $12.9 million to stress-test their return projections under conservative occupancy assumptions before committing capital at this investment level.

The StayAPT Suites growth trajectory from October 2020 to April 2025 represents one of the more compelling new-brand expansion curves in the hospitality franchise sector, particularly given that the entire portfolio is built on all-new construction rather than the faster but operationally riskier conversion of existing properties. The brand progressed from its first two locations at opening to more than 20 hotels by end of 2022, approximately 30 hotels by end of 2023, 22 operational hotels as of April 2024 with 40 more in development, and the landmark 40th open hotel achieved in April 2025. The May 2024 partnership with Powerhouse Hotels, a joint venture between JCap Realty Group and Cullinan Holdings, added a multi-unit development agreement committing to 30 new locations across 25 states over five years with six properties scheduled to break ground in 2024, dramatically accelerating the franchise pipeline. March 2025 brought two additional significant expansion announcements: a franchise agreement with Capstone Stay for five new Midwest locations in Rossford, Ohio; Evansville, Indiana; Gardner, Kansas; Wentzville, Missouri; and Liberty, Missouri, utilizing modular construction technology to compress project timelines while maintaining brand standards, and a separate multi-location agreement with Destiny Partners LLC to bring five new Pennsylvania properties to Lancaster, Reading, York, Bethlehem, and Allentown markets. The competitive moat for the Stayapt franchise is constructed from multiple reinforcing elements: an experienced founding and management team with deep extended-stay-specific expertise, institutional capital backing from Lindsay Goldberg that enables parallel corporate development and franchisee support, a proven prototype system with three distinct building configurations to match varied market conditions, and a first-mover advantage in the apartment-style extended-stay segment at the midscale price point, a category intersection that has historically proven difficult for larger legacy brands to serve efficiently due to their higher cost structures. The brand's coast-to-coast geographic ambition, evidenced by its pipeline spanning markets from North Carolina to California and now penetrating the Midwest and mid-Atlantic regions, suggests a systematic market coverage strategy rather than opportunistic one-off development.

The ideal Stayapt franchise candidate is a real estate-literate investor or operator who brings either direct hospitality experience or a strong track record managing complex, capital-intensive service businesses with meaningful employee and customer service components. The investment threshold of $1,775,000 in minimum liquid capital and total project costs ranging from $7.5 million to $12.9 million naturally filters the candidate pool toward experienced multi-unit operators, real estate developers, private equity-backed hospitality groups, and sophisticated individual investors with access to construction financing. The brand's expansion agreements with multi-unit operators like Powerhouse Hotels, Capstone Stay, and Destiny Partners suggest that the corporate development team prioritizes candidates with the operational capacity and capital resources to execute multi-location development agreements rather than single-unit operators who may struggle to build at the pace the brand's growth targets require. Geographic availability remains broad, with the brand identifying availability in large, medium, and tertiary markets and explicitly noting no restricted territories, and specific current expansion targets include southeastern markets like Atlanta-Lithia Springs, Georgia; mid-American markets including St. Louis-Bridgeton, Missouri and Phoenix-Peoria, Arizona; western markets like Riverside-Palmdale/Lancaster, California; the Midwest corridor including Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, and Missouri; and mid-Atlantic markets across Pennsylvania. The flexible territory radius of 1/3/5 miles based on market selection, combined with the sub-two-acre site requirement, means that viable development sites are substantially more accessible than in formats requiring larger land positions or urban infill locations.

The investment thesis for the Stayapt franchise rests on a convergence of factors that, taken together, make this opportunity worthy of serious due diligence from qualified hospitality investors. The extended-stay apartment-style hotel segment is growing at a CAGR of 6.13% toward a projected USD $87.94 billion global market by 2035, the U.S. hotels market is on a trajectory toward USD $395.69 billion by 2030, and the structural demand drivers including remote work adoption, contract workforce housing needs, and budget-conscious traveler preferences show no signs of reverting. The brand's five-year journey from concept to 40 operational properties, backed by Lindsay Goldberg and led by Gary DeLapp's career-spanning extended-stay expertise, represents a credible execution track record in a capital-intensive sector where execution risk is the primary investor concern. The Stayapt franchise carries a PeerSense FPI Score of 55, reflecting a Moderate rating that appropriately captures both the significant growth momentum and the early-stage disclosure characteristics of a brand that has not yet disclosed Item 19 financial performance data, a transparency gap that prospective investors should prioritize in their franchise disclosure review process. Evaluating a Stayapt franchise investment requires rigorous analysis of site-specific construction costs, market-level ADR and occupancy benchmarks, capital structure sensitivity, and franchisee validation conversations with existing operators in comparable markets. PeerSense provides exclusive due diligence data including SBA lending history, FPI score, location maps with Google ratings, FDD financial data, and side-by-side comparison tools that allow investors to benchmark the Stayapt franchise against competing hospitality concepts across every material financial and operational dimension. Explore the complete Stayapt franchise profile on PeerSense to access the full suite of independent franchise intelligence data.