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, hospitality industry leaders are looking towards 2026 with cautious optimism. Rising functional costs are slated to challenge owners this year and lower-tier sections might struggle amidst a growing wealth bifurcation.

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

Total incomes, salaries and advantages paid by U.S. hotels rose to $127 billion in 2025, according to information from the American Hotel & Lodging Association, shown Hotel Dive. In 2026, that figure is forecasted to reach $131 billion, representing a roughly 3% year-over-year increase, per AHLA. For hotel owners, rising labor expenses posture a difficulty to net operating income development, Kevin Davis, Americas CEO at JLL Hotels & Hospitality, told Hotel Dive.

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Rising labor costs have been a challenge for hoteliers for years, Davis said, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. In general, hotel labor expenses have increased 15.3% from 2019 to 2025, exceeding the 12.8% development in overall operating revenue, 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 Video gaming Trades Council's union contract with the Hotel Association of New York City is set to expire in July.

"Need has actually not kept up with this speed," she stated. Salaries, incomes and payroll-related expenses paid by hotels now account for more than 32% of total revenue, according to AHLA.

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As more hotel visitors turn to expert system to enhance their travel experience, scheduling hotels directly through big language designs (LLMs) might be next, hospitality professionals said. Agentic commerce a process by which self-governing AI representatives act on behalf of a consumer to discover, compare and finish purchases is a trend that has accelerated throughout markets like retail.

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According to PwC's 2025 Vacation Outlook report, 76% of millennials stated they're likely to utilize AI for travel suggestions. A smaller sized portion (57%) said they 'd be likely to use it for scheduling travel. But that number is growing, Jonathan Kletzel, PwC's travel, transport and logistics leader, informed Hotel Dive. "The variety of consumers that are searching [by means of LLMs] for products and services in travel has ballooned in the last 12 months and is speeding up every day," Kletzel stated, including that inevitably, hotels will "take a hard look at how they can make it possible for commerce and transactions through agentic [AI]"" [Brands] can construct on the trust they already 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 stay competitive with direct reservation, bigger multibrand hotel companies will "embed LLMs into their own brand sites and mobile apps, and alter the way the consumer searches," Kletzel said.

"If you are not visible in an LLM search results page which lots of brands aren't, and this is the huge panic that they're all going through today consumers aren't going to consider you," he said. Michael Klein, head of retail, travel and hospitality product marketing at AI customer experience platform Talkdesk, similarly told Hotel Dive that hospitality gamers require to guarantee their residential or commercial property information is being indexed by LLMs to appear in tourist queries.