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Listen to the post 17 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Following a year of broad financial unpredictability that suppressed growth for hotels, hospitality industry leaders are looking towards 2026 with mindful optimism. Increasing functional costs are slated to challenge owners this year and lower-tier sectors might have a hard time in the middle of a growing wealth bifurcation.

And through it all, hotel companies are anticipated to strengthen their portfolios with new brand offerings and collaborations. 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, efficiency, net unit growth and more this year.

Total wages, earnings and advantages 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 forecasted to climb up to $131 billion, representing a roughly 3% year-over-year boost, per AHLA. For hotel owners, rising labor costs posture an obstacle to net operating earnings growth, Kevin Davis, Americas CEO at JLL Hotels & Hospitality, informed Hotel Dive.

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Rising labor costs have been an obstacle for hoteliers for years, Davis said, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. In general, hotel labor costs have increased 15.3% from 2019 to 2025, outmatching the 12.8% development in overall operating profits, according to AHLA.

3, 2024 in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan by means of Getty Images In 2026, Davis kept in mind, union settlements will be "front and center" in New York 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 City's freshly elected 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, including AHLA, have denounced similar legislation across the country, including the recently passed $30 wage ordinance in Los Angeles. "Demand has actually not kept up with this pace," she stated. Wages, earnings and payroll-related expenditures paid by hotels now account for more than 32% of overall earnings, according to AHLA.

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As more hotel visitors turn to expert system to boost their travel experience, scheduling hotels directly through large language designs (LLMs) might be next, hospitality experts stated. Agentic commerce a procedure by which self-governing AI representatives act on behalf of a customer to discover, compare and finish purchases is a pattern that has accelerated throughout industries like retail.

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According to PwC's 2025 Holiday Outlook report, 76% of millennials said they're likely to use AI for travel suggestions. A smaller sized percentage (57%) said they 'd be likely to use it for booking travel. That number is growing, Jonathan Kletzel, PwC's travel, transport and logistics leader, told Hotel Dive. "The number of customers that are browsing [by means of LLMs] for items and services in travel has actually swollen in the last 12 months and is accelerating every day," Kletzel said, including that undoubtedly, hotels will "take a tough look at how they can enable commerce and deals through agentic [AI]"" [Brands] can build on the trust they currently have if they do a great task 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, bigger multibrand hotel companies will "embed LLMs into their own brand websites and mobile apps, and change the method the consumer searches," Kletzel stated.

"If you are not discoverable in an LLM search engine result which many 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 said. Michael Klein, head of retail, travel and hospitality product marketing at AI consumer experience platform Talkdesk, similarly told Hotel Dive that hospitality players require to ensure their residential or commercial property info is being indexed by LLMs to appear in traveler questions.