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, hospitality industry leaders are looking towards 2026 with cautious optimism. Rising operational expenses are slated to challenge owners this year and lower-tier segments could struggle amidst a growing wealth bifurcation.

And through everything, hotel companies are anticipated to strengthen their portfolios with brand-new brand name offerings and partnerships. As the year gets underway, Hotel Dive consulted with hospitality leaders from varying corners of the market about their 2026 predictions. Below are the top trends anticipated to impact hotel operations, efficiency, net unit growth and more this year.

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

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Increasing labor expenses have been an obstacle for hoteliers for years, Davis said, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. In general, hotel labor costs have actually increased 15.3% from 2019 to 2025, surpassing the 12.8% growth in overall operating revenue, according to AHLA.

3, 2024 in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan via Getty Images In 2026, Davis noted, union settlements will be "front and center" in New York City, where the New York Hotel and Video 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 newly 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 knocked comparable legislation across the country, including the just recently passed $30 wage ordinance in Los Angeles. "Need has not kept up with this pace," she said. "We're also seeing these difficulties intensified 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 expenses are skyrocketing, the mathematics just does not accumulate." Wages, incomes and payroll-related expenditures paid by hotels now account for more than 32% of overall profits, according to AHLA.

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As more hotel visitors turn to expert system to enhance their travel experience, scheduling hotels straight through big language models (LLMs) might be next, hospitality professionals stated. Agentic commerce a procedure by which autonomous AI agents act upon behalf of a consumer to discover, compare and complete purchases is a pattern that has sped up throughout markets 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. That number is growing, Jonathan Kletzel, PwC's travel, transport and logistics leader, informed Hotel Dive. Michael Klein Head of retail, travel and hospitality product marketing at Talkdesk To remain competitive with direct reservation, bigger multibrand hotel companies will "embed LLMs into their own brand name websites and mobile apps, and change the method the consumer searches," Kletzel said.

"If you are not visible in an LLM search result which lots of brand names 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 item marketing at AI consumer experience platform Talkdesk, likewise informed Hotel Dive that hospitality players require to guarantee their home info is being indexed by LLMs to appear in traveler queries.