Your agent is right that it's a different line of business. A landlord policy assumes tenants under leases occupying units for months. A hotel is an operating business with the public coming and going nightly, employees on site, and no lease shifting any responsibility to the occupant. That changes the underwriting category, and most personal-lines or small-landlord agents aren't licensed or appointed to place it.
What's typically in a lodging program that isn't in your fourplex policy: commercial general liability at limits well above residential, business income coverage that pays when rooms can't be sold rather than when rent stops, workers compensation once you have any employees, employment practices liability, and crime or employee dishonesty coverage because staff handle cash and guest property. Innkeeper's liability covers guest belongings, which has no residential equivalent. If you have a pool, shuttle van, or restaurant, each adds its own exposure and its own carrier appetite question. Liquor liability only matters if alcohol is served, so the meetup answer was one true detail out of a longer list.
On cost, lodging property and liability generally runs several times a residential per-unit figure, and it varies enormously by state, by construction type, by whether you have a pool, and by loss history, so any number I give you would mislead. Get two or three quotes from brokers who write hospitality specifically.
The piece people skip: your lender and, if the motel is flagged, the franchisor will both dictate minimum limits and required endorsements. Read those requirements before you shop, because a policy that satisfies your comfort level and fails the brand standard means buying it twice.
