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, hospitality industry leaders are looking toward 2026 with careful optimism. Rising operational costs are slated to challenge owners this year and lower-tier sectors might struggle in the middle of a growing wealth bifurcation.

And through all of it, hotel companies are anticipated to fortify their portfolios with brand-new brand offerings and partnerships. As the year gets underway, Hotel Dive consulted with hospitality leaders from varying corners of the industry about their 2026 predictions. Below are the top patterns expected to effect hotel operations, performance, net unit development and more this year.

Overall wages, salaries and advantages paid by U.S. hotels increased to $127 billion in 2025, according to data from the American Hotel & Accommodations Association, shared with Hotel Dive. In 2026, that figure is predicted to climb up to $131 billion, representing an approximately 3% year-over-year boost, per AHLA. For hotel owners, rising labor costs pose an obstacle to net operating earnings growth, Kevin Davis, Americas CEO at JLL Hotels & Hospitality, informed Hotel Dive.

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"It is an absolute concern." Increasing labor costs have actually been a challenge for hoteliers for years, Davis stated, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, hotel labor costs have actually increased 15.3% from 2019 to 2025, exceeding the 12.8% development in overall operating profits, according to AHLA. In current years, thousands of union hotel employees have actually gone on strike demanding greater wages in order to stay up to date with the increasing expense 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, where the New York City Hotel and Gaming Trades Council's union contract with the Hotel Association of New York City City is set to end in July.

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

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As more hotel guests turn to expert system to improve their travel experience, scheduling hotels straight through big language models (LLMs) may be next, hospitality specialists said. Agentic commerce a process by which self-governing AI representatives act on behalf of a customer to find, compare and complete purchases is a trend that has actually accelerated throughout industries like retail.

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According to PwC's 2025 Holiday Outlook report, 76% of millennials said they're most likely to use AI for travel suggestions. A smaller sized percentage (57%) said they 'd be likely to utilize it for booking travel. That number is growing, Jonathan Kletzel, PwC's travel, transport and logistics leader, told Hotel Dive. "The number of customers that are browsing [by means of LLMs] for services and products in travel has swollen in the last 12 months and is speeding up every day," Kletzel stated, adding that undoubtedly, hotels will "take a hard look at how they can enable commerce and deals through agentic [AI]"" [Brands] can develop on the trust they currently have if they do a fantastic task with how they deal with AI in 2026." Michael Klein Head of retail, travel and hospitality item marketing at Talkdesk To stay competitive with direct reservation, larger multibrand hotel companies will "embed LLMs into their own brand websites and mobile apps, and alter the method the customer searches," Kletzel said.

"If you are not visible in an LLM search engine result which numerous brands aren't, and this is the huge panic that they're all going through today customers aren't going to consider you," he stated. Michael Klein, head of retail, travel and hospitality product marketing at AI customer experience platform Talkdesk, similarly told Hotel Dive that hospitality players need to guarantee their residential or commercial property information is being indexed by LLMs to appear in traveler inquiries.