Shawn Turner at HotelNewsNow.com says many lenders to the hotel industry have escaped from having to make some tough decisions on certain properties. Valuations in the hospitality sector, Turner writes, are almost back to their pre-recession peaks just a few years after taking big hits. In short, extend and pretend worked.

Chattanooga-based Vision Hospitality Group Inc. has broken ground on the Residence Inn by Marriott-Murfreesboro (a rendering for which is seen below). Vision is the developer of the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott, currently being built on Division Street in the Gulch (read more here). To learn more about the Residence Inn by Marriott-Murfreesboro, read here.

The investment management firm headed up by Mario Gabelli continues to trim its stake in Ryman Hospitality Properties. GAMCO Investors filed papers this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission saying it now owns 11.1 percent of Ryman, down from 13.5 percent a year ago and 12 percent in the fall.

Gabelli last year opposed the conversion of Gaylord Entertainment into Ryman, which is organized as a real estate investment trust. Shares of Ryman (Ticker: RHP) are up almost 40 percent since the REIT conversion.

Ryman Hospitality Properties has wrapped up the big refinancing that increases its main debt facility to $1 billion from $925 million and pushes its maturity from August 2015 to April 2017. The new package has more revolving debt — $700 million versus $525 million — and lowers its rate by 25 basis points.

“This refinancing of our bank credit facility, coupled with the recent completion of our senior notes offering, further strengthens our balance sheet and enhances our flexibility to take advantage of strategic growth opportunities moving forward,” said Chairman, President and CEO Colin Reed. “Given the extremely attractive rates at which we were able to complete these transactions, we are confident that the timing was right and that they are in long-term best interest of our Company and our shareholders.”

Representatives of the Omni Nashville say they have passed 250,000 room-night bookings for the $250 million facility four months earlier than they had expected. Rooms booked for the October 2015 Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo hosted by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics took the hotel past the landmark number. More than 190 meetings and conventions have booked space in the hotel between this fall and 2024.