MS in Hospitality Real Estate Curriculum | BU SHA | School of Hospitality Administration

Hands-on Curriculum to Cultivate Future Real Estate Leaders

The Master of Science in Hospitality Real Estate program offers a rigorous curriculum that emphasizes practical application, empowering you for career success after graduation.

Through a combination of specialized courses, a summer internship, and a capstone project, you build expertise in managing the design, development, production, and financing of hospitality properties nationally and globally.

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Credit Requirements and Course Options

The program consists of 36 credits of study and full-time students can achieve the degree in 12 months. Each semester includes two accelerated classes that are seven weeks in length. Part-time students have the flexibility to study at their own pace and complete the degree in two to six years.

Offering a variety of core courses, elective options, and a capstone simulating real work interactions with stakeholders, the program provides a well-rounded education in hospitality and commercial real estate, with a focus on key areas such as asset management, finance, and analytics.

Credit Requirement Summary

Requirement	Credits
Required Courses	24 cr.
Capstone Simulation Course	4 cr.
300-hour Internship	0 cr.
Total Credits	36 cr.

Part-time students with relevant industry experience are exempt from the 300-hour internship requirement.

Fall Semester Courses:

Required Courses:

SHA RE 680: Hospitality & Commercial Real Estate Development (4 cr.) OR MET UA 617: Actionable Sustainability (4 cr.)

SHA RE 680 Hospitality & Commercial Real Estate Development

4 credits. Fall

The course will cover the process of real estate development: Site acquisition, navigating zoning and approvals (with legal teams), determining the ideal development plan consisting of one or more components such as hospitality, commercial, retail and residential, selecting a hotel brand through management or franchise agreements, and learn about potential sources of financing. We will study about the factors that affect an investor's buy/sell/reposition decisions and understand what matters most to the various stakeholders in a development, such as the equity investor, the lender, the operating company, and the brand. The course will also have a significant focus on ESG and its impact on the development process. Overall, this course will promote sound real estate investing and financial decision-making via the knowledge of theory and strategies and their application in the real world.

MET UA 617 Actionable Sustainability

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Sustainability generally refers to the ability of "systems" to be maintained such that they remain viable over long periods of time. As much as achieving the perfect sustainable equilibrium may be the ideal, it is important to recognize that there will be competing and conflicting interests, especially within complex hierarchical social, economic and ecological systems, particularly in light of ongoing climatic change. This field intensive course draws on the practices and theories of sustainability and climate change to understand what sustainability can mean in different contexts, and, more important, how nuanced, sustainable solutions can be achieved under varying conditions and in different systems. With an emphasis on the urban environment, the course will consist of projects in which students will identify, analyze, and develop practical proposals to real world issues. This course is intended for a wider audience from a range of disciplines.

SHA HF 711: Hospitality Financial Management (4 cr.)

SHA HF 711 Hospitality Financial Management

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Accounting has been described as the language of business. Consequently, the ability to speak and understand this language is a fundamental competency for practitioners of business. A central aspect of accounting is the composition of financial statements that depict the underlying economic reality of the firm being operated. This course is intended to introduce fundamental elements that are used to compose these financial reports. Specifically, course content will include an examination and quantitative analysis of the balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flows from both a conceptual and pragmatic perspective. How these statements are both composed and relate to business planning, control and decision making in hospitality enterprise will be a central topic. 4 cr. Offered Summer II.

SHA RE 745: Introduction to The Hospitality Real Estate Lifecycle (2 cr.)

SHA RE 746: Hospitality Real Estate Transactions and Deal Making (4 cr.)

Spring Semester Courses:

Required Courses:

SHA RE 679: Financial Reporting & Analysis (4 cr.)

SHA RE 715: Hospitality Asset Management (2 cr.)

SHA RE 715 Hospitality Asset Management

4 credits. Spring

A hospitality asset represents a significant financial investment that requires a certain minimum return on investment for it to be feasible. A significant factor that determines the return attained is how well the asset /property/ portfolio is managed from an operational, brand and capital investment perspective. This course is designed to introduce the student to asset management, define what asset management is today and examine the skills required to be a successful asset manager. There will be a special focus on the benefits to the hotel owner of hiring an asset manager and the role of the asset manager in representing the owner in deliberations about annual operating budgets and capital expenditure plans with the hotel management company and the hotel brand. To effectuate this understanding, the course will also concentrate on the fundamentals of hotel investment analysis, including market area analysis, financial benchmarking and pro forma preparation, developing an asset management plan for a specific property, and conducting a buy/build/hold/sell analysis for the property.

SHA RE 717: Hospitality Real Estate Finance & Feasibility (4 cr.)

SHA RE 717 Hospitality Real Estate Finance & Feasibility

4 credits. Fall

This course is designed to facilitate a working knowledge of hospitality properties as financial and real estate assets. Students will learn the hotel market and feasibility research process, to understand how to analyze hotel markets across the world, identify and evaluate key forces that impact the performance of hotel markets and the hotels within them, determine the right hotel product for each site and market and forecast future performance. The course will also provide a grounding in the basic concepts of real estate finance and how they are used by stakeholders to make hospitality investment decisions. The class culminates with the preparation of a feasibility study where the students will conduct a highest-and-best-use analysis, project a ten-year proforma for their hospitality asset, estimate development costs, and then prepare an internal rate of return analysis to determine the financial viability of the asset. Students will also arrive at the estimated market value of the proposed hospitality development using the discounted cash flow and direct capitalization approaches. Students will also create their own financial models in this course and learn how to use them effectively as tools to support critical decision-making.

SHA RE 722: Hospitality Design (2 cr.)

SHA HF 778: Hospitality Analytics (4 cr.) OR MET UA 715 Planning and Land Law Use (4 cr.)

MET UA 715 Planning and Land Use Law

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Planning, zoning, subdivisions, eminent domain, exactions, impact fees, and other land use controls: what are they, how do they operate, what are the limitations on their use' In this course, we will explore the use of those tools for planning and development and read and understand the important U.S. Supreme Court and state court decisions that have shaped and continue to influence planning and land use throughout the country. We will see the connection between land use controls and court decisions and how each has evolved to meet changing conditions and goals. We will also review the structure of the U.S. legal system and create a framework for understanding constitutional requirements on eminent domain, due process, and equal protection from a planner's perspective.

Summer Courses:

SHA HF 740: Graduate Internship (0 cr.)

SHA RE 747: The Real Estate Stakeholder Simulation (4 cr.)

Program Curriculum Learning Outcomes

Courses in the MSHRE curriculum examine the breadth and depth of the various important parts of the hospitality real estate cycle, from acquisition and construction to disposition.

These courses develop students’ knowledge of market analysis, feasibility and valuations, construction and acquisition financing, hospitality asset management, and the hotel purchase and sale process.

The MS in Hospitality Real Estate program aims to help students:

Master the science and art of analytical decision-making, negotiation, and critical thinking for success in the world of hospitality real estate.
Disrupt the industry locally and globally by creating new and innovative business models.
Understand how the pressures of a fast-paced hospitality industry and fast-evolving social, environmental, and economic conditions around the world add layers of complexity and risk to the hospitality real estate sector.
Comprehend the impacts of climate change, demands for equitable development, changing work/home arrangements, online consumerism, and global flows of capital on the larger travel and tourism sector.
Apply environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria as new metrics to measure the performance of hospitality investments.
Work with regulatory agencies as they increasingly require that developers and owners demonstrate that their projects account for and help mitigate environmental factors.

Learn More about the Master’s Degree in Hospitality Real Estate

Interested in pursuing a career in the dynamic and rewarding field of commercial real estate? Request more information about the Master of Science in Hospitality Real Estate program today!

If you’re ready to take the next step, start your application now.

Apply to the MSHRE