The Outlook of 2026 Brand Growth Strategies

, hospitality industry leaders are looking toward 2026 with careful optimism. Increasing functional costs are slated to challenge owners this year and lower-tier sections could have a hard time amid a growing wealth bifurcation.

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

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

Key Global Shifts in Hospitality Expansion

"It is an outright issue." Rising labor costs have actually been a difficulty for hoteliers for several years, Davis stated, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, hotel labor costs have actually increased 15.3% from 2019 to 2025, exceeding the 12.8% development in overall operating earnings, according to AHLA. Recently, countless union hotel workers have actually gone on strike demanding greater salaries in order to stay up to date with the increasing expense of living in locations such as California, Hawaii and Las Vegas.

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

In 2015, the union backed New York City's recently elected Mayor Zorhan Mamdani, who ran on a pledge to raise New york city City's base pay to $30 per hour by 2030. Hotel market associations, including AHLA, have denounced comparable legislation across the country, consisting of the recently passed $30 wage ordinance in Los Angeles. "Demand has actually not kept up with this speed," she said. Salaries, earnings and payroll-related expenses paid by hotels now account for more than 32% of overall earnings, according to AHLA.

Comparing Leading Franchise Models for 2026

As more hotel guests turn to artificial intelligence to enhance their travel experience, scheduling hotels directly through large language models (LLMs) might be next, hospitality specialists stated. Agentic commerce a procedure by which autonomous AI representatives act upon behalf of a customer to find, compare and finish purchases is a trend that has sped up across markets like retail.

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According to PwC's 2025 Holiday Outlook report, 76% of millennials stated they're most likely to utilize AI for travel suggestions. A smaller percentage (57%) said they 'd be most likely to utilize it for reserving travel. That number is growing, Jonathan Kletzel, PwC's travel, transport and logistics leader, told Hotel Dive. "The number of customers that are searching [via LLMs] for services and products in travel has ballooned in the last 12 months and is speeding up every day," Kletzel stated, including that inevitably, hotels will "take a tough take a look at how they can make it possible for commerce and transactions through agentic [AI]"" [Brands] can construct on the trust they currently have if they do a terrific job with how they manage AI in 2026." Michael Klein Head of retail, travel and hospitality item marketing at Talkdesk To remain competitive with direct reservation, larger multibrand hotel companies will "embed LLMs into their own brand websites and mobile apps, and alter the way the consumer searches," Kletzel said.

"If you are not visible in an LLM search results page which many brand names aren't, and this is the big panic that they're all going through today customers aren't going to consider you," he said. Michael Klein, head of retail, travel and hospitality product marketing at AI consumer experience platform Talkdesk, likewise informed Hotel Dive that hospitality gamers need to guarantee their property info is being indexed by LLMs to appear in traveler questions.