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Listen to the post 17 minutes This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Following a year of broad economic unpredictability that stifled development for hotels, hospitality industry leaders are looking toward 2026 with cautious optimism. Rising operational expenses 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 companies are anticipated to fortify their portfolios with new brand name offerings and collaborations. As the year gets underway, Hotel Dive consulted with hospitality leaders from differing corners of the industry about their 2026 predictions. Below are the top trends anticipated to impact hotel operations, efficiency, net unit development and more this year.

Total wages, earnings and benefits paid by U.S. hotels rose 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 reach $131 billion, representing an approximately 3% year-over-year boost, per AHLA. For hotel owners, rising labor expenses position a difficulty to net operating earnings development, Kevin Davis, Americas CEO at JLL Hotels & Hospitality, informed Hotel Dive.

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Increasing labor costs have actually been an obstacle for hoteliers for years, Davis stated, 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 income, according to AHLA.

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

"Need has actually not stayed up to date with this pace," she stated. "We're also seeing these challenges compounded by legislation that targets hotel operations, such as severe labor and licensing policies like the New York City Safe Hotels Act. When demand is falling and costs are skyrocketing, the math just does not add up." Salaries, incomes and payroll-related expenditures paid by hotels now represent more than 32% of overall income, according to AHLA.

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As more hotel visitors turn to synthetic intelligence to enhance their travel experience, booking hotels straight through big language models (LLMs) might be next, hospitality experts said. Agentic commerce a process by which autonomous AI agents act on behalf of a customer to discover, compare and finish purchases is a trend that has actually sped up 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 suggestions. That number is growing, Jonathan Kletzel, PwC's travel, transport and logistics leader, told Hotel Dive. Michael Klein Head of retail, travel and hospitality item marketing at Talkdesk To stay competitive with direct booking, larger multibrand hotel business will "embed LLMs into their own brand name sites and mobile apps, and change the way the customer searches," Kletzel said.

"If you are not visible in an LLM search results page which many brand names 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 item marketing at AI customer experience platform Talkdesk, similarly told Hotel Dive that hospitality players need to ensure their property information is being indexed by LLMs to appear in traveler queries.