Business Description

The Company, formed in November 2007 as a Virginia corporation, is a self-advised REIT that invests in income-producing real estate, primarily in the lodging sector, in the United States (“U.S.”). The Company has elected to be treated as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes. As of December 31, 2025, the Company owned 217 hotels with an aggregate of 29,583 guest rooms located in urban, high-end suburban and developing markets throughout 37 states and the District of Columbia (“D.C.”) and substantially all of the Company’s hotels operated under Marriott or Hilton brands. As of December 31, 2025, the hotels are operated and managed under separate management agreements with one of 16 hotel management companies, none of which are affiliated with the Company. The Company’s common shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the ticker symbol “APLE.” The Company has no foreign operations or assets, and its operating structure includes only one reportable segment. Refer to Part II, Item 8, for the Consolidated Financial Statements and Notes thereto, appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Business Objectives The Company is one of the largest hospitality REITs in the U.S., in both the number of hotels and guest rooms, with significant geographic and brand diversity. The Company’s primary business objective is to maximize shareholder value by achieving long-term growth in cash available for distributions to its shareholders. The Company has pursued and will continue to pursue this objective through the following investment strategies: • pursuing thoughtful capital allocation with selective acquisitions and dispositions of primarily rooms-focused hotels in the upscale sector of the lodging industry; • employing broad geographic diversification of its investments; • franchising and collaborating with leading brands in the sector; • utilizing strong experienced operators for its hotels and enhancing their performance with proactive asset management; • reinvesting in the Company’s hotels to maintain their competitive advantage; and • maintaining low leverage providing the Company with financial flexibility. The Company has generally acquired fee simple ownership of its properties, with a focus on hotels that have or have the potential to have diverse demand generators, strong brand recognition, high levels of customer satisfaction and strong operating margins. Due to their efficient operating model and strong consumer preference, the Company concentrates on the acquisition of rooms-focused hotels. The Company’s acquisitions have been in broadly diversified markets across the U.S. to limit dependence on any one geographic area or demand generator. With an emphasis on upscale rooms-focused hotels, the Company utilizes its asset management experience and expertise to improve the quality and performance of its hotels by working with its property managers to aggressively manage revenue and expenses by benchmarking with internal and external data, using the Company’s scale to help negotiate favorable vendor contracts, engaging industry leaders in hotel management, and franchising the hotels with leading brands and actively participating with the franchisors to strengthen the brands. To maintain its competitive advantage in each market, the Company continually reinvests in its hotels. With its depth of ownership in many upscale and upper midscale rooms-focused brands and extensive experience with the Hilton and Marriott rooms-focused brands, the Company has been able to enhance its reinvestment approach. By maintaining a flexible balance sheet, with a total debt, net of cash, to total capitalization (total debt outstanding, net of cash, plus equity market capitalization based on the Company’s December 31, 2025 closing share price) ratio at December 31, 2025 of 35.5%, the Company is not only positioned to opportunistically consider investments that further improve shareholder value, but management also believes it is equipped to address developments caused by adverse economic environments. 4 Hotel Operating Performance As of December 31, 2025, the Company owned 217 hotels with a total of 29,583 guest rooms as compared to 221 hotels with a total of 29,764 guest rooms as of December 31, 2024. Operating performance is included only for the period of ownership for hotels acquired or disposed of during 2025 and 2024. During 2025, the Company acquired two hotels and sold seven hotels.…