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, hospitality market leaders are looking towards 2026 with careful optimism. Increasing operational expenses are slated to challenge owners this year and lower-tier segments could struggle in the middle of a growing wealth bifurcation.

And through everything, hotel business 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 differing corners of the market about their 2026 predictions. Below are the top patterns anticipated to effect hotel operations, efficiency, net unit growth and more this year.

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

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"It is an absolute issue." Increasing labor costs have been a difficulty for hoteliers for years, Davis stated, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, hotel labor costs have increased 15.3% from 2019 to 2025, exceeding the 12.8% growth in overall operating earnings, according to AHLA. Over the last few years, thousands of union hotel employees have gone on strike requiring greater incomes in order to stay up to date with the rising cost of living in locations such as California, Hawaii and Las Vegas.

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

In 2015, the union backed New york city City's newly chosen Mayor Zorhan Mamdani, who ran on a guarantee to raise New York City's minimum wage to $30 per hour by 2030. Hotel market associations, including AHLA, have denounced comparable legislation across the nation, including the recently passed $30 wage regulation in Los Angeles. "Demand has actually not kept up with this speed," she stated. Wages, earnings and payroll-related costs paid by hotels now account for more than 32% of overall earnings, according to AHLA.

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As more hotel guests turn to artificial intelligence to improve their travel experience, booking hotels straight through big language designs (LLMs) might be next, hospitality specialists stated. Agentic commerce a process by which autonomous AI agents act upon behalf of a customer to discover, compare and complete purchases is a trend that has sped up across markets 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 suggestions. A smaller sized percentage (57%) said they 'd be most likely to use it for reserving travel. That number is growing, Jonathan Kletzel, PwC's travel, transport and logistics leader, informed Hotel Dive. "The number of consumers that are searching [by means of LLMs] for services and products in travel has swollen in the last 12 months and is accelerating every day," Kletzel stated, adding that undoubtedly, hotels will "take a tough appearance at how they can allow commerce and transactions through agentic [AI]"" [Brands] can develop on the trust they currently have if they do an excellent job with how they handle AI in 2026." Michael Klein Head of retail, travel and hospitality item marketing at Talkdesk To remain competitive with direct reservation, bigger multibrand hotel companies will "embed LLMs into their own brand websites and mobile apps, and alter the way 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 today consumers aren't going to consider you," he stated. Michael Klein, head of retail, travel and hospitality product marketing at AI customer experience platform Talkdesk, likewise informed Hotel Dive that hospitality gamers need to ensure their residential or commercial property information is being indexed by LLMs to appear in tourist questions.