At The Lodging Conference, many topics of conversation concern the state of the industry, especially for development and investment. During the general session, Harry Javer, conference chairman, founder, and producer, The Lodging Conference, shared that those in the industry describe the current state as “uncertain,” “stuck,” “opportunistic,” and “resilient.” Eight industry leaders weighed in on the state of the industry during two “Speed Stats” sessions to describe what they’re seeing. Here’s what they had to say:
- Rod Clough, President – Americas, HVS: “Opportunity often lies in segments where we’re not looking at, we don’t want to look at, maybe aren’t quite as exciting, where RevPAR is declining, profitability is struggling. We’re certainly seeing that right now in the economy and midscale segments. That’s where we want to perhaps be looking to pick up our next asset.”
- Isaac Collazo, Head of Analytics, STR | CoStar Group: “ADR growth has been below greater inflation for 23 of the past 36 months. For context, during the Great Recession, consumer trend was seen as ADR was below inflation for 26 months. This trend mostly happens during economic recessions, but not always. From February 2019 until the pandemic, we saw the same thing. At that time, there was lots of uncertainty and also slower GDP growth. Well, the ADR gap to inflation is concerned, more alarming are the numbers of submarkets that see August yearly declines. … The change last year is substantial and well above the long-term average.”
- JP Ford, Principal and Director of Global Business Development, Lodging Econometrics: “The pipeline is very strong. … In Q4 2024, the pipeline, we recorded the most projects ever recorded in the pipeline, 6,378 projects. In terms of the number of rooms in the pipeline … the highest number of rooms ever recorded … was in the second quarter of 2008, 785,550 rooms. So, you can see nowadays, we’re building smaller hotels and we’re building more of them.”
- Andrea Grigg, Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Hotel Asset Management, CBRE Hotels: “Not everything is lost, I promise. … [For] U.S. hotel operating performance for all hotels trading 12 months for the 12-month trading period as of July 2025, U.S. hotel operating performance showed mixed results with revenue growth primarily driven by still some ADR increases, despite a decline in occupancy. However, this … slightest growth is masking what we are seeing is still a tale of two or three markets. We have luxury hotels that continue to perform well, resorts perform well, and then, on the other hand, we have economy properties and city centers, major markets that are seeing weaker demand.”
- JoAnna Abrams, Founder and CEO, MindClick: “Sustainability is now a business imperative … because of three key reasons. Number one, energy costs are rising, and that’s affecting operational costs. … Secondly, corporate travel … we are continuing to see the demand for sustainability in corporate travel buyer RFPs. … And, finally, climate and extreme weather and what that’s doing to asset value.”
- Cindy Estis Green, CEO and Cofounder, Kalibri: “We’re in a very wait-and-see mode. A lot of business is just holding off. I don’t think demand is going away. I just think that everybody’s going into wait-and-see mode.”
- Lindsey Goedeker, Senior Vice President, Sales & Interim CRO, Actabl: “For the operators in the room, you are crushing it. I don’t know how to explain this other than I guess that the industry is stuttering, and the operators, what you are doing is pivoting. … Figure out your pivot points, challenge your labor models. Challenge all of your models. If you can’t embrace agility, find your pivot points, reward your ideas; you’re going to need them.”
- Tanya Venegas, Chief Experience Officer, HotStats: “Total revenue and GOPPAR for the four major regions in the world: the Middle East, U.S., Europe, and APAC. … The Middle East [is] outperforming the other regions, and the primary reason is the UAE and Saudi Arabia, they put a lot of money into tourism. … The U.S. and Europe are sitting in the middle, 3.1 and 2.5 percent increases in total revenue. … The gains are in ancillary revenues. So, we look at resorts and luxury properties, how they are able to collect that ancillary revenue for food, beverage, wellness, health level, spa, being able to bolster those numbers.”
