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, hospitality market leaders are looking toward 2026 with mindful optimism. Rising operational expenses are slated to challenge owners this year and lower-tier sections might struggle amidst a growing wealth bifurcation.

And through it all, hotel business are expected to fortify their portfolios with brand-new brand offerings and partnerships. As the year gets underway, Hotel Dive spoke to hospitality leaders from differing corners of the industry about their 2026 forecasts. Below are the top trends expected to effect hotel operations, performance, net unit growth and more this year.

Total salaries, wages and advantages paid by U.S. hotels increased to $127 billion in 2025, according to information from the American Hotel & Accommodations Association, shared with Hotel Dive. In 2026, that figure is predicted to climb up to $131 billion, representing a roughly 3% year-over-year increase, per AHLA. For hotel owners, rising labor expenses pose an obstacle to net operating income development, Kevin Davis, Americas CEO at JLL Hotels & Hospitality, told Hotel Dive.

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Increasing labor costs have actually been an obstacle for hoteliers for years, Davis stated, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. In general, hotel labor costs have actually increased 15.3% from 2019 to 2025, outpacing the 12.8% growth in total operating profits, according to AHLA.

3, 2024 in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan through Getty Images In 2026, Davis noted, union settlements will be "front and center" in New york city City, where the New York City Hotel and Video gaming Trades Council's union contract with the Hotel Association of New York City is set to end in July.

Last year, the union backed New York City's recently chosen Mayor Zorhan Mamdani, who ran on a guarantee to raise New york city City's base pay to $30 per hour by 2030. Hotel industry associations, consisting of AHLA, have actually denounced similar legislation across the nation, consisting of the just recently passed $30 wage regulation in Los Angeles. "Demand has actually not stayed up to date with this speed," she said. "We're also seeing these obstacles intensified by legislation that targets hotel operations, such as extreme labor and licensing policies like the New York City City Safe Hotels Act. When demand is falling and expenses are skyrocketing, the math just does not accumulate." Salaries, wages and payroll-related expenditures paid by hotels now represent more than 32% of total income, according to AHLA.

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As more hotel guests turn to expert system to boost their travel experience, scheduling hotels directly through big language models (LLMs) might be next, hospitality professionals stated. Agentic commerce a process by which autonomous AI agents act upon behalf of a customer to find, compare and finish purchases is a trend that has actually sped up across industries like retail.

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According to PwC's 2025 Holiday Outlook report, 76% of millennials said they're most likely to utilize AI for travel suggestions. That number is growing, Jonathan Kletzel, PwC's travel, transport and logistics leader, informed Hotel Dive. Michael Klein Head of retail, travel and hospitality product marketing at Talkdesk To stay competitive with direct reservation, larger multibrand hotel companies will "embed LLMs into their own brand sites and mobile apps, and alter the way the consumer searches," Kletzel stated.

"If you are not discoverable in an LLM search results page which numerous brands aren't, and this is the huge panic that they're all going through right now customers aren't going to consider you," he stated. Michael Klein, head of retail, travel and hospitality product marketing at AI consumer experience platform Talkdesk, similarly informed Hotel Dive that hospitality gamers need to guarantee their property details is being indexed by LLMs to appear in traveler questions.