Related Person Transactions (Details) In Thousands, except Share data, unless otherwise specified	12 Months Ended				1 Months Ended				5 Months Ended					12 Months Ended					1 Months Ended			6 Months Ended			1 Months Ended	6 Months Ended	12 Months Ended			1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended						1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended						30 Months Ended	1 Months Ended		3 Months Ended	12 Months Ended				13 Months Ended	12 Months Ended	1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended			12 Months Ended			1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended		1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended					0 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2012 USD ($) property Agreement	Dec. 31, 2011 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2010 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 Inter Continental Hotels property	Aug. 31, 2012 Staybridge Suites USD ($) property	Dec. 31, 2012 Staybridge Suites property	Aug. 31, 2012 Staybridge Suites Auburn Hills, Michigan USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 Crowne Plaza Hotels property	Aug. 31, 2012 Sonesta agreements property	Aug. 31, 2012 Sonesta No. 1 agreement Inter Continental Hotels Agreement	Aug. 31, 2012 Sonesta No. 1 agreement Staybridge Suites Agreement	Aug. 31, 2012 Sonesta No. 1 agreement Crowne Plaza Hotels Agreement	Jan. 31, 2012 SNSTA USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 TA No. 1 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 TA No. 1 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 TA No. 2 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 TA No. 2 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 Hotels USD ($) property Agreement	Aug. 31, 2012 Hotels Inter Continental Hotels property	Aug. 31, 2012 Hotels Sonesta agreements property Agreement	Jan. 31, 2012 Hotels Sonesta agreements Agreement	Sep. 30, 2012 Hotels Sonesta agreements property	Dec. 31, 2012 Hotels Sonesta agreements	Dec. 31, 2012 Hotels Sonesta agreement No. 2	May 31, 2012 Hotels InterContinental agreement property	Sep. 30, 2012 Hotels InterContinental agreement property	Dec. 31, 2012 Hotels Maximum	Dec. 31, 2012 Hotels Minimum	Dec. 31, 2012 Travel centers USD ($) property	Mar. 31, 2012 RMR	Dec. 31, 2012 RMR USD ($) Agreement item D property	Dec. 31, 2011 RMR USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2010 RMR USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 RMR Restricted shares USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 RMR Restricted shares USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2010 RMR Restricted shares USD ($)	May 31, 2011 Travel Centers of America LLC USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 Travel Centers of America LLC USD ($) item	Dec. 31, 2011 Travel Centers of America LLC USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2009 Travel Centers of America LLC	Dec. 31, 2012 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers USD ($) property item	Dec. 31, 2011 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2010 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2010 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers USD ($)	Feb. 28, 2011 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers TA No. 1 USD ($)	Jan. 31, 2011 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers TA No. 1 USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2010 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers TA No. 1 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers TA No. 1 USD ($) property	Dec. 31, 2011 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers TA No. 1 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2010 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers TA No. 1 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2007 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers TA No. 1	Jan. 31, 2012 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers TA No. 1 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2007 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers TA No. 1 Maximum USD ($)	Jan. 31, 2011 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers TA No. 2 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers TA No. 2 USD ($) property	Dec. 31, 2012 Travel Centers of America LLC Travel centers TA No. 2 Maximum item	Dec. 31, 2012 Sonesta USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 Sonesta Sonesta agreements USD ($)	Jan. 31, 2012 Sonesta SNSTA USD ($)	Jan. 31, 2012 Sonesta SNSTA Minimum	Jan. 31, 2012 Sonesta Hotels	Dec. 31, 2012 Sonesta Hotels	Dec. 31, 2012 Sonesta Hotels Maximum item	Jun. 30, 2012 AIC USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 AIC USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 AIC USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2010 AIC USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2012 AIC Maximum	Dec. 31, 2012 New Orleans Hotel	Feb. 27, 2013 NHH Subsequent Events USD ($) property	Feb. 27, 2013 NHH Subsequent Events EUR (€) property	Feb. 27, 2013 NHH Subsequent Events Forecast USD ($)
Related Person Transactions
Number of agreements to provide management and administrative services																															2
Number of properties included in management agreement																															1
Number of employees																															820
Number of Managing Trustees who are Chairmen, majority owners and employees of RMR																															1
Percentage of annual payment of business management fee rate up to $ 250,000 of real estate investments																															0.70%
Amount specified as a base for compensation rate																															$ 250,000
Percentage of annual payment of business management fee rate above $ 250,000 of real estate investments																															0.50%
Incentive fee (as a percent)																															15.00%
Incentive fee (in dollars per share)																															$ 0.02
Number of office building operated																															1
Property management fee (as a percent)																															3.00%
Construction management fees (as a percent)																															5.00%
Business and property management agreement expenses																															35,657	34,493	33,229																									5,673
Common shares issued for services rendered by RMR																														33,132
Share in cost of providing internal audit function by RMR																															193	240	213
Period by which business management agreement and property management agreement get automatically renewed																															1 year
Period before which the written notice is required to be given for cancellation of the business management agreement or the property management agreement																															60 days
Number of business days before which the notice is required to be given for termination of property management agreement																															5
Awards granted (in shares)																																		74,017	67,300	53,900
Aggregate value of awards granted during the period																																		1,852	1,628	1,186
Portion of the awards granted that vested on grant date																																		0.2
Portion of the awards granted which will vest on each of the next four anniversaries of the grant date																																		0.2
Number of anniversaries of the grant date over which the awards vest																																		4 years
Percentage of ownership formerly held in subsidiary																																						100.00%
Number of common shares owned																																						2,540,000
Common shares purchased as part of public offering by TA																																					1,000,000
Cost of common shares acquired as part of public offering by TA		5,690																																			5,690
Common shares issued by TA pursuant to deferred rent agreement																																								1,540,000
Common shares of TA held by company as a percent of total TA shares outstanding																																					8.60%	8.60%		9.60%
Number of Managing Trustees who are Managing Directors																																						1
Number of Independent Trustees who are Independent Directors																																						1
Number of management agreements or leases	12									2	13	2						10		17	2																				2
Number of properties leased																																									185							145							40
Number of properties owned	474			3		19		6										289											185
Number of renewal options available																																																								2
Term of renewal option																																																							15 years
Minimum annual rent payable to the entity																		239											447
Percentage of non-fuel revenue over threshold amounts																																									3.00%
Percentage of fuel revenue over threshold amounts																																									0.30%
Annual percentage rent to be waived																																																							2,500
Amount of percentage rent recognized																																						1,465
Annual funding agreed to be provided																																																					25,000
Period during which annual funding will be provided																																																			5 years
Total funding																																									125,000						125,000
Qualified improvements sold to the entity																																																		7,015
Rate of increase in minimum annual amount (as a percent)																																									8.50%
Rate of increase in minimum annual amount, basis																																									benchmark U.S. Treasury interest rate
Rate of increase in minimum annual amount, basis spread (as a percent)																																									3.50%
Capital improvements from leased facilities, funded																																									76,754	69,122
Increase (decrease) in annual lease rent payable														4,656	4,184	1,868	1,691																								6,524	5,875				(29,983)								(12,017)
Increase in annual lease rent payable eliminated by amendment																																													5,000
Amount by which lessee has the option to defer monthly rent payment per month																																												5,000
Interest rate per month on deferred amount outstanding (as a percent)																																											1.00%
Interest on deferred amount outstanding																																											14,100
Deferred rent accrued																																											60,000
Aggregate deferred rent payable to the entity																																											150,000	150,000
Deferred rent due in December 2022																																									107,085
Deferred rent due in June 2024																																									42,915
Rental income	300,354	304,582	326,771																																						208,560	201,505	190,244					140,139				135,139			54,160
Adjustments included in rental income necessary to record rent on the straight line basis	252	4,807																																														149	4,789
Accruals for unpaid amount, excluding deferred rents																																									17,103	16,115	15,725	15,725
Maximum percentage of any class of equity shares that can be acquired without approval																																						9.80%
Aggregate purchase price advanced													150,500
Mortgage loan prepaid													31,035
Interest rate hedge agreement unwound													2,525
Amount capitalized																																																											25,000
Portion of amount capitalized which was represented by cash consideration for shares of Sonesta common stock																																																												0.5
Equity funding provided by the acquiree's stockholders to facilitate the merger													12,500
Fixed minimum return as a percentage of invested capital																					8.00%
Reservation fee entitled to be received by the related party as a percentage of gross room revenues																																																														1.50%
System fee for centralized services entitled to be received by the related party as a percentage of gross revenues																																																														1.50%
Procurement and construction supervision fee in connection with renovations, entitled to be received by the related party as a percentage of third party costs																																																														3.00%
Incentive fee entitled to be received by the related party as a percentage of the hotel's operating profit after reimbursement of certain advances																																																														20.00%
Management fees (as a percent)																							5.00%	3.00%
Annual rent payable calculated as a percent of net profit less capital expenditures																																																																					75.00%
Base management fee applicable to full service hotels (as a percent)																							5.00%																																							3.00%
Base management fee applicable to limited service hotels (as a percent)																																																														5.00%
Initial term of the management agreement																																																													25 years
Number of consecutive renewal terms that the entity has the option to renew the agreement																																																															2
Renewal period																											60 years	20 years																																	15 years
Period after which the entity has the right to terminate the management agreements without cause upon payment of a termination fee																																																													3 years
Minimum return as a percentage of invested capital for the entity to have the right to terminate the management agreements without a termination fee																																																															6.00%
Period during which minimum return as a percentage of invested capital must be less than specified percentage for the entity to have the right to terminate the management agreements without a termination fee																																																														3 years
Period considered for calculating the minimum return as percentage of invested capital																																																														4 years
Period prior to termination date during which average fees earned is considered for calculation of termination fees																																																														3 years
Annual rate at which the average fees earned is discounted for calculation of termination fees (as a percent)																																																														8.00%
Number of hotels rebranded					13				2													17
Number of hotels added to management agreement																				2
Number of hotels sold (in properties)																			2
Procurement and construction supervision fees																																																										455
Amount owed for capital expenditure reimbursements	13,696	3,713																																																							10,487
Loan secured by real estate property invesment																																																																							170,000
Number of European hotels by which mortgage loans are secured																																																																						4	4
Number of hotels to be purchased under the agreement																																																																						5	5
Amount of investment in hotels																																																																						150,000		80,000
Refurbished cost of hotel	(275,440)	(69,345)	(7,091)
Number of hotels removed from management agreement																									20	17
Aggregate selling price							5,570
Gain on sale of property					392
Equity method investments, ownership percentage																																																																	12.50%
Amount invested in equity investee																																																																	5,209
Maximum ownership percentage in related party																																																																				20.00%
Equity method investments, carrying value																																																																	5,629	5,291
Earnings (losses) recognized related to equity investments	316	139	(1)																																																														316	139	(1)
Coverage of property insurance																																																																	500,000
Period for which property insurance program was extended																																																																1 year
Annual premium for property insurance																																																																5,256		5,773	4,816
Amount paid to the entity in connection with a shareholder derivative litigation																																							119
Amount paid to RMR in connection with a shareholder derivative litigation																																							$ 51