This new format is absolutely brutal! Larry, Ran out of space to finish my answer to your post and it won't allow me to do a second reply.

For REITs payout ratio calculated using AFFO is a much better metric than one calculated using reported earnings.

Couple more points. Nothing unusual about a Canadian REIT with U.S. operations. There are several out there, e.g. RUF.UN and MST.UN.

Also note that their is U.S. withholding tax on HOT.UN's distributions. Not really an issue in a non-reg account as recoverable via foreign tax credit but an issue in registered accounts that are not retirement accounts, namely TFSA, RESP, RDSP as the withholding is not recoverable.

I own HOT.UN but hold it in my RRSP.