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, hospitality market leaders are looking toward 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 business are expected to fortify their portfolios with brand-new brand offerings and collaborations. As the year gets underway, Hotel Dive talked with hospitality leaders from differing corners of the industry about their 2026 forecasts. Below are the leading patterns anticipated to impact hotel operations, efficiency, net system development and more this year.

Total salaries, earnings and advantages paid by U.S. hotels rose to $127 billion in 2025, according to information from the American Hotel & Accommodations 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 present a difficulty to net operating earnings development, Kevin Davis, Americas CEO at JLL Hotels & Hospitality, told Hotel Dive.

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"It is an outright issue." Increasing labor expenses have been a challenge for hoteliers for years, Davis stated, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, hotel labor costs have increased 15.3% from 2019 to 2025, outmatching the 12.8% development in overall operating income, according to AHLA. In current years, thousands of union hotel employees have gone on strike demanding greater salaries in order to stay up to date with the rising expense of living in locations such as California, Hawaii and Las Vegas.

3, 2024 in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan by means of Getty Images In 2026, Davis kept in mind, union negotiations will be "front and center" in New York 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.

"Demand has actually not kept up with this rate," she said. Salaries, salaries and payroll-related costs paid by hotels now account for more than 32% of total earnings, according to AHLA.

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As more hotel guests turn to synthetic intelligence to enhance their travel experience, scheduling hotels straight through big language models (LLMs) might be next, hospitality experts said. Agentic commerce a procedure by which autonomous AI agents act on behalf of a consumer to discover, compare and complete purchases is a trend that has sped up throughout industries like retail.

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According to PwC's 2025 Holiday Outlook report, 76% of millennials said they're likely to utilize AI for travel recommendations. 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 remain competitive with direct booking, larger multibrand hotel companies will "embed LLMs into their own brand name sites and mobile apps, and alter the way the customer searches," Kletzel said.

"If you are not discoverable in an LLM search results page which numerous brand names aren't, and this is the big panic that they're all going through today customers aren't going to consider you," he said. Michael Klein, head of retail, travel and hospitality item marketing at AI client experience platform Talkdesk, similarly told Hotel Dive that hospitality gamers require to ensure their residential or commercial property information is being indexed by LLMs to appear in traveler inquiries.