Analyzing Restaurant Sector Share Data for 2026

Listen to the short article 17 minutes This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Following a year of broad economic unpredictability that suppressed growth for hotels, hospitality industry leaders are looking toward 2026 with mindful optimism. Rising operational costs are slated to challenge owners this year and lower-tier segments might struggle in the middle of a growing wealth bifurcation.

And through everything, hotel business are expected to fortify their portfolios with new brand offerings and collaborations. 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 impact hotel operations, performance, net system development and more this year.

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

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Rising labor costs have been a challenge for hoteliers for years, Davis stated, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, hotel labor costs have actually increased 15.3% from 2019 to 2025, surpassing the 12.8% growth in total operating revenue, according to AHLA.

3, 2024 in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan by means of Getty Images In 2026, Davis noted, 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.

"Demand has not kept up with this rate," she said. "We're likewise seeing these obstacles compounded by legislation that targets hotel operations, such as severe labor and licensing policies like the New York City City Safe Hotels Act. When demand is falling and costs are soaring, the math simply doesn't accumulate." Wages, wages and payroll-related costs paid by hotels now represent more than 32% of total income, according to AHLA.

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As more hotel visitors turn to synthetic intelligence to boost their travel experience, booking hotels straight through large language designs (LLMs) may be next, hospitality specialists stated. Agentic commerce a procedure by which self-governing AI representatives act on behalf of a customer to find, compare and complete purchases is a pattern that has accelerated throughout markets like retail.

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According to PwC's 2025 Vacation Outlook report, 76% of millennials stated they're most likely to use AI for travel suggestions. A smaller sized percentage (57%) said they 'd be likely to utilize it for scheduling travel. That number is growing, Jonathan Kletzel, PwC's travel, transport and logistics leader, informed Hotel Dive. "The number of customers that are searching [via LLMs] for products and services in travel has actually ballooned in the last 12 months and is accelerating every day," Kletzel stated, including that undoubtedly, hotels will "take a tough take a look at how they can allow commerce and deals through agentic [AI]"" [Brands] can construct on the trust they currently have if they do an excellent job with how they handle AI in 2026." Michael Klein Head of retail, travel and hospitality product marketing at Talkdesk To stay competitive with direct reservation, larger multibrand hotel business will "embed LLMs into their own brand sites and mobile apps, and change the method the customer searches," Kletzel said.

"If you are not discoverable in an LLM search result which numerous brands aren't, and this is the huge panic that they're all going through right now consumers aren't going to consider you," he said. Michael Klein, head of retail, travel and hospitality product marketing at AI customer experience platform Talkdesk, similarly told Hotel Dive that hospitality players need to guarantee their property information is being indexed by LLMs to appear in traveler queries.