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, hospitality industry leaders are looking towards 2026 with cautious optimism. Increasing functional expenses are slated to challenge owners this year and lower-tier segments might have a hard time amid a growing wealth bifurcation.

And through it all, hotel companies are anticipated to fortify their portfolios with new brand offerings and partnerships. As the year gets underway, Hotel Dive spoke with hospitality leaders from differing corners of the market about their 2026 predictions. Below are the leading patterns anticipated to effect hotel operations, efficiency, net system growth and more this year.

Overall incomes, incomes and advantages paid by U.S. hotels increased to $127 billion in 2025, according to information from the American Hotel & Lodging Association, shared with Hotel Dive. In 2026, that figure is forecasted to climb to $131 billion, representing an approximately 3% year-over-year boost, per AHLA. For hotel owners, rising labor expenses pose a challenge to net operating earnings development, Kevin Davis, Americas CEO at JLL Hotels & Hospitality, told Hotel Dive.

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"It is an absolute issue." Rising labor costs have actually been an obstacle for hoteliers for several years, Davis said, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, hotel labor expenses have increased 15.3% from 2019 to 2025, outmatching the 12.8% growth in overall operating profits, according to AHLA. In the last few years, countless union hotel employees have gone on strike demanding higher incomes in order to stay up to date with the rising cost of living in places such as California, Hawaii and Las Vegas.

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

In 2015, the union backed New york city City's recently elected Mayor Zorhan Mamdani, who operated on a promise to raise New york city City's base pay to $30 per hour by 2030. Hotel industry associations, consisting of AHLA, have knocked similar legislation across the country, consisting of the just recently passed $30 wage regulation in Los Angeles. "Need has not kept up with this pace," she said. Wages, salaries and payroll-related expenditures paid by hotels now account for more than 32% of total revenue, according to AHLA.

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As more hotel guests turn to expert system to enhance their travel experience, reserving hotels straight through big language models (LLMs) might be next, hospitality experts stated. Agentic commerce a procedure by which self-governing AI agents act on behalf of a customer to discover, compare and complete purchases is a trend that has actually accelerated across industries like retail.

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According to PwC's 2025 Holiday 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 websites and mobile apps, and alter the way the customer searches," Kletzel stated.

"If you are not discoverable in an LLM search results page which lots of brand names aren't, and this is the big 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, likewise told Hotel Dive that hospitality gamers require to ensure their home info is being indexed by LLMs to appear in tourist questions.