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, hospitality market leaders are looking toward 2026 with careful optimism. Rising operational expenses are slated to challenge owners this year and lower-tier sectors could have a hard time in the middle of a growing wealth bifurcation.

And through everything, hotel companies are anticipated to fortify their portfolios with brand-new brand name offerings and partnerships. As the year gets underway, Hotel Dive talked to hospitality leaders from differing corners of the market about their 2026 forecasts. Below are the leading trends anticipated to effect hotel operations, efficiency, net system development and more this year.

Total incomes, wages and benefits paid by U.S. hotels increased to $127 billion in 2025, according to data from the American Hotel & Accommodations Association, shown Hotel Dive. In 2026, that figure is projected to climb to $131 billion, representing a roughly 3% year-over-year increase, per AHLA. For hotel owners, rising labor expenses present a challenge to net operating income development, Kevin Davis, Americas CEO at JLL Hotels & Hospitality, informed Hotel Dive.

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"It is an absolute concern." Increasing labor costs have been a challenge for hoteliers for several years, Davis said, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. In general, hotel labor expenses have actually increased 15.3% from 2019 to 2025, exceeding the 12.8% development in total operating earnings, according to AHLA. Recently, countless union hotel workers have actually gone on strike requiring greater incomes in order to keep up with the increasing cost of living in places such as California, Hawaii and Las Vegas.

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

"Need has not kept up with this speed," she stated. "We're also seeing these obstacles compounded by legislation that targets hotel operations, such as extreme labor and licensing policies like the New York City Safe Hotels Act. When need is falling and costs are skyrocketing, the math just doesn't accumulate." Salaries, wages and payroll-related expenditures paid by hotels now account for more than 32% of total earnings, according to AHLA.

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As more hotel guests turn to synthetic intelligence to boost their travel experience, booking hotels straight through large language designs (LLMs) might be next, hospitality specialists said. Agentic commerce a process by which self-governing AI representatives act upon behalf of a customer to discover, compare and complete purchases is a pattern that has sped up across industries like retail.

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According to PwC's 2025 Vacation Outlook report, 76% of millennials stated they're likely to use AI for travel recommendations. That number is growing, Jonathan Kletzel, PwC's travel, transportation and logistics leader, informed Hotel Dive. Michael Klein Head of retail, travel and hospitality product marketing at Talkdesk To remain competitive with direct booking, larger multibrand hotel business will "embed LLMs into their own brand name sites and mobile apps, and change the method the consumer searches," Kletzel said.

"If you are not visible in an LLM search engine result which lots of brand names aren't, and this is the huge panic that they're all going through today consumers aren't going to consider you," he stated. Michael Klein, head of retail, travel and hospitality product marketing at AI client experience platform Talkdesk, similarly told Hotel Dive that hospitality players require to ensure their home details is being indexed by LLMs to appear in tourist queries.