General (Details)	3 Months Ended	9 Months Ended																	9 Months Ended						12 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2013 security property	Sep. 30, 2013 property	Sep. 30, 2013 Supertel Limited Partnership [Member] Supertel Hospitality REIT Trust [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 Solomons Beacon Inn Limited Parternship [Member] Supertel Hospitality, Inc. [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 Solomons Beacon Inn Limited Parternship [Member] Supertel Limited Partnership [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 SPPR-Hotels, LLC [Member] Supertel Limited Partnership [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 SPPR-Hotels, LLC [Member] SPPR Holdings, Inc. [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 SPPR-South Bend, LLC [Member] Supertel Limited Partnership [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 SPPR-BMI, LLC [Member] Supertel Limited Partnership [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 SPPR-BMI, LLC [Member] SPPR-BMI Holdings, Inc. [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 SPPR-Dowell LLC [Member] Supertel Limited Partnership [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 SPPR-Dowell LLC [Member] SPPR-Dowell Holdings, Inc [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 Supertel Hospitality Management, Inc [Member] Supertel Hospitality, Inc. [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 SPPR Holdings, Inc. [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 SPPR-BMI Holdings, Inc. [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 SPPR-Dowell Holdings, Inc [Member]	Sep. 30, 2013 TRS Leasing, Inc [Member] property	Sep. 30, 2013 SPPR-Hotels, SPPR-South Bend, SPPR-BMI, SPPR-Dowell, LLC [Member] property	Sep. 30, 2013 Hospitality Management Advisors, Inc. [Member] property	Sep. 30, 2013 Strand Development Company LLC [Member] property	Sep. 30, 2013 Kinseth Hotel Corporation [Member] property	Sep. 30, 2013 Cherry Cove Hospitality Management, LLC [Member] property	Sep. 30, 2013 HLC Hotels Inc [Member] property	Sep. 30, 2013 Series C Convertible Preferred Stock [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 Series C Convertible Preferred Stock [Member]
Related Party Transaction [Line Items]
Preferred stock, annual dividend rate																								6.25%	6.25%
Reverse stock split ratio	0.125
Entity incorporation, date of incorporation		Aug. 23, 1994
Number of hotels company having interests in	61	61
Number of properties held by related parties																	49	10
Holding interest			99.00%	1.00%	99.00%	99.00%	1.00%	100.00%	99.00%	1.00%	99.00%	1.00%	100.00%	100.00%	100.00%	100.00%
Number of leased hotels owned																	71
Number of hotels managed by related parties																			18	13	31	1	1
Number of extended-stay hotels managed by related parties																				7
Number of operating states of hotels managed by related parties																					8
Base management fee received on gross hotel revenues by managing related parties, percentage																			3.50%	3.50%	3.50%	3.50%	5.00%
Management fee received on hotel net operating income by managing related parties, percentage																			2.25%	2.25%	2.25%	2.25%
Annual incentive fee																							10.00%
Average annual net operating income in excess of investments in hotels, percentage																							10.50%
Number of hotels subsequently sold	1
Stockholders' Equity Note, Stock Split, Conversion Ratio	0.125