The Future of Global Corporate Expansion Milestones

, hospitality industry leaders are looking towards 2026 with cautious 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 it all, hotel companies are anticipated to strengthen their portfolios with new brand name offerings and collaborations. As the year gets underway, Hotel Dive talked to hospitality leaders from differing corners of the market about their 2026 predictions. Below are the leading patterns anticipated to effect hotel operations, performance, net system growth and more this year.

Overall salaries, wages and benefits 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 climb to $131 billion, representing a roughly 3% year-over-year increase, per AHLA. For hotel owners, rising labor costs posture an obstacle to net operating income development, Kevin Davis, Americas CEO at JLL Hotels & Hospitality, told Hotel Dive.

The Future of Global Corporate Expansion Milestones

"It is an absolute issue." Increasing labor expenses have actually been a difficulty for hoteliers for several years, Davis said, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, hotel labor expenses have actually increased 15.3% from 2019 to 2025, outpacing the 12.8% development in overall operating income, according to AHLA. In the last few years, countless union hotel workers have actually gone on strike demanding greater wages in order to keep up with the rising cost of living in locations such as California, Hawaii and Las Vegas.

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

In 2015, the union backed New york city City's recently chosen Mayor Zorhan Mamdani, who operated on a promise to raise New York City's base pay to $30 per hour by 2030. Hotel market associations, including AHLA, have actually knocked comparable legislation across the country, consisting of the just recently passed $30 wage ordinance in Los Angeles. "Need has not kept up with this rate," she said. Wages, incomes and payroll-related expenses paid by hotels now account for more than 32% of total revenue, according to AHLA.

Will Hospitality Investments Be Lucrative in 2026?

As more hotel visitors turn to artificial intelligence to improve their travel experience, booking hotels straight through large language designs (LLMs) might be next, hospitality experts said. Agentic commerce a procedure by which self-governing AI representatives act upon behalf of a consumer to discover, compare and complete purchases is a pattern that has accelerated throughout 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 recommendations. A smaller percentage (57%) stated they 'd be most likely to utilize it for scheduling travel. However that number is growing, Jonathan Kletzel, PwC's travel, transport and logistics leader, informed Hotel Dive. "The number of customers that are browsing [through LLMs] for products and services in travel has ballooned in the last 12 months and is accelerating every day," Kletzel said, adding that inevitably, hotels will "take a hard take a look at how they can allow commerce and transactions through agentic [AI]"" [Brands] can construct on the trust they currently have if they do a great task with how they deal with AI in 2026." Michael Klein Head of retail, travel and hospitality product marketing at Talkdesk To remain competitive with direct booking, larger 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 discoverable in an LLM search results page 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 item marketing at AI consumer experience platform Talkdesk, likewise informed Hotel Dive that hospitality players need to ensure their residential or commercial property details is being indexed by LLMs to appear in traveler questions.