Canada hotels report third straight month of performance gains

ARLINGTON, Va. - Canada’s hotel industry reported a third consecutive month of year-over-year performance increases, according to March 2026 data from CoStar , a leading global provider of commercial real estate information, analytics, and online property marketplaces. March 2026 (percentage change from 2025): Occupancy: 60.6% (+1.9%) Average daily rate (ADR): CAD198.37 (+5.8%) Revenue per available room (RevPAR): CAD120.12 (+7.9%) Among the provinces and territories, Newfoundland and Labrador registered the largest increases across each of the three key performance metrics: occupancy (+21.1% to 58.2%), ADR (+9.4% to CAD154.84) and RevPAR (+32.5% to CAD90.18). The province’s performance was helped by the Labrador Winter Games. Among the major markets, Vancouver saw the largest performance increases: occupancy (+7.5% to 77.1%), ADR (+7.4% to CAD231.91) and RevPAR (+15.5% to CAD178.84). For more information about the company and its products and services, please visit www.costargroup.com . Additional Performance Data CoStar’s world-leading hotel performance sample comprises 94,000 properties and 12 million rooms around the globe. Members of the media should refer to the contacts listed below for additional data requests.

ARLINGTON, Va. - On the positive side of the Easter calendar shift, the U.S. hotel industry reported positive year-over-year comparisons, according to CoStar ’s latest data through 18 April. CoStar is a leading global provider of online real estate marketplaces, information and analytics in the property markets. 12-18 April 2026 (percentage change from comparable week in 2025): Occupancy: 66.5% (+8.4%) Average daily rate (ADR): US$167.00 (+5.7%) Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$111.14 (+14.6%) The comparable week in 2025 underperformed due to Easter. Among the Top 25 Markets, Washington, D.C. reported the largest increases in ADR (+30.7% to US$231.77) and RevPAR (+57.7% to US$184.25). Atlanta (+20.7% to 72.5%) and Chicago (+20.7% to 72.7%) matched for the highest gain in occupancy. Overall, 21 of the Top 25 Markets saw a lift in RevPAR. For more information about the company and its products and services, please visit costargroup.com . Additional Performance Data CoStar’s world-leading hotel performance sample comprises 94,000 properties and 12 million rooms around the globe. Members of the media should refer to the contacts listed below for additional data requests.

She did not call us. A corporate travel buyer — someone who had booked over 400 room nights with our property across the previous two years simply did not call. No RFP. No email chain. No relationship meeting. What she sent, instead, was a perfectly formatted email with a rate request already benchmarked against three competitor properties, a summary of our recent TripAdvisor sentiment, and a clear ask for a response within 24 hours. When I asked her later how she had compiled all of that, she said four words that changed how I think about hotel sales forever: "My AI did it." That conversation happened a little over eighteen months ago. At the time, I filed it away as an interesting anomaly. Today, I know it was a warning. THE WORLD YOUR GUESTS NOW INHABIT Agentic AI — AI systems that don't just answer questions but autonomously act on behalf of a user — has moved from Silicon Valley conference rooms into the daily workflow of corporate travel buyers, MICE planners, and leisure travellers alike. Consider what these systems can do today, right now, before a guest ever makes first contact with your hotel: → Scan your property across all OTA platforms, review aggregators, and social channels to build a real-time reputation score → Compare your rates against your compset using live data, not last quarter's data → Draft a negotiation brief that identifies where you have historically shown rate flexibility — and where you haven't → Identify the name, LinkedIn profile, and email of your Director of Sales before the human buyer has even opened a browser tab According to PwC's 2025 Holiday Outlook survey of 4,000 consumers, 76% of millennials say they're likely to use an AI agent for travel recommendations — a figure that signals we've moved well past early adoption into mainstream behaviour. The Simon-Kucher 2026 Global Travel Trends Study, drawing on 10,000 travellers across ten markets, puts the broader picture into sharp focus: over 60% of Gen Z and millennials now use AI tools for travel inspiration and itinerary planning, compared to just 10–44% among older cohorts. In markets like Saudi Arabia, that figure already sits at 76% — and it's climbing. These aren't leisure travellers browsing in their spare time. They are the same buyers sitting across procurement tables, evaluating your hotel before they've spoken to a single member of your sales team. The booking conversation has not moved. It has been pre-empted. THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE TECHNOLOGY Every sales leader I speak to understands that AI is disrupting the industry. But most are approaching it as a tool to be adopted internally — something the revenue management team experiments with, or a chatbot bolted onto the reservations page. That's the wrong frame entirely. The guest is not waiting for you to get ready. The guest's AI is already evaluating you. The real disruption isn't inside your hotel. It's happening in the gap between when a buyer identifies a need and when

For decades, "Greek Summer" meant not marble lobbies or infinity pools, but the clink of keys on a wooden desk, the scent of homegrown oregano, and a host greeting you by name. This was the world of the family-run Greek hotel—a cornerstone of identity now quietly fading into history. As we stand in 2025, the data paints a stark picture of a landscape in transition. The "small" is being swallowed by the "monumental." Greek tourism celebrates record-breaking arrivals—nearly 36 million international visitors by the end of 2024. However, the prosperity is far from universal. A deep disconnect has emerged between national success and local sustainability. Between January and mid-April 2025 alone, 99 hotel properties were scheduled for auction. This followed nearly 300 foreclosures in 2024 ( tovima.com ). The vast majority are small-scale operations with fewer than 30 rooms. The "boom" has bypassed most modest 1- and 2-star establishments. Reports indicate that over 1,500 such small hotels have permanently shut their doors in recent years. In contrast, the penetration of branded hotel chains has surged by 80% over five years. Today, nearly half of all 5-star hotels in Greece operate under a branded chain, reshaping the market toward luxury and scale. By June 2025, short-term rental capacity hit a historic high of 1.06 million beds, officially surpassing the total bed capacity of the entire Greek hotel sector by 166,000 beds. In ancient Greece, Filoxenia—the love of strangers—was a moral duty, a sacred bond overseen by Zeus himself. It suggested that a guest was not a customer, but a messenger. The small hotel was the modern temple of this philosophy. It functioned on a human scale, where the owner was often the cook, the concierge, and the local storyteller. When these small units disappear, we lose more than just "beds"; we lose the narrative of the place. The extinction of the small hotel represents a shift from hospitality as a relationship to hospitality as a transaction. A 500-room resort offers "efficiency" and "luxury," but it cannot offer the "soul" of a family legacy. The philosopher Heraclitus famously said, "No man ever steps in the same river twice," but in today’s Greek tourism, the river is being paved over to build a standardized, globalized water park. Unfortunately, small hoteliers are being squeezed by many threats: Firstly, the Rising Operational Costs: From energy to raw materials, the overhead is crushing those without economies of scale. Labor is the largest variable expense, typically accounting for 45-55% of a hotel’s operating budget. A new National Sectored Collective Labor Agreement, signed by the Hellenic Hoteliers Federation (POX) and the Pan-Hellenic Federation of Food and Tourism Workers (POEET), has mandated a 5% wage increase for 2025 and an additional 3% for 2026. By the end of 2026, salaries in the hotel sector will have seen a cumulative 30% increase since 2019 ( tovima.com ). Also, employers are now required to contribute an additional 2% of the basic salary to a newly established Occupational Insurance Fund Furthermore, the

Invisible technologies are transforming smart hospitality by reshaping guest experiences from the background. Powered by AI and IoT, this ‘ambient intelligence’ is what today enables seamless journeys and operational efficiency without intrusive interfaces. As technology becomes quieter and more integrated, true luxury in hospitality is increasingly defined by invisible orchestration that ultimately leaves room for greater human connection. This article explores how invisible technologies act as the hidden backbone of smart hospitality ecosystems. It examines how AI, IoT and automation quietly support guest experience, service delivery, operations and value creation, while remaining largely unnoticed by guests. By pushing technology out of sight, smart hotels redefine luxury as an experience defined by ease and anticipation, one that is felt more than observed. When Science Fiction Becomes Smart Hospitality Back in the late 90s, I watched The Fifth Element and I still remember how futuristic it felt. The tiny but high-tech apartment of Korben Dallas, hyper-tech airports and space cruises and, of course, the multipass (“Leeloo Dallas… multipass”). A single card which served as an ID card, travel pass and access key all-in-one. At the time, this felt almost unimaginable, as most administrative processes were still handled manually and internet access relied on dial‑up connections. It seems that hospitality has come to that vision of the future where technology is everywhere. Today, our smartphones function easily as a multi-pass; we use them for check-in/-outs, entering a room, ordering services or making payments. Smart hotels have become a place leading the movement towards “seamless” experience, where the hotel is not merely a “building” but an ecosystem of service networks shaping the guest journey. A central role in this transformation is played by invisible technologies. Technologies that turn what seemed unimaginable into everyday reality. When guests enjoy the experience without noticing the technology behind it, the effect is more powerful and may feel even magical. Invisible Technologies as Enablers of Smart Hotel Ecosystems To understand the role of invisible technologies, we need to look at the main building blocks of hospitality, which can be grouped into four pillars: Guest experience, spanning all touchpoints and forming one unified journey. Service delivery, created by staff in real time. Operations systems, including processes, workflows and quality control. Value logic, defining how experiences are monetized and sustained. But technology is the hidden fifth element here that needs to be seamlessly absorbed into each of those pillars to perform at its best. Technology does not work in isolation. It acts as a connector that enables better customer experience, supports service delivery systems , optimizes operational processes and drives value capture. This is what smart hotel technology should be about: the creation of technological systems (e.g., AI, IoT, automation, cloud infrastructure, advanced connectivity tools such as Wi-Fi) that operate quietly in the background without human intervention. These systems build the foundation for smart hospitality. Towards Ambient Intelligence What does invisible technology look like in practice? Some common examples include AI/GenAI which power chatbots, virtual concierge services, recommendation engines , and

What can wood do? It can become a wooden key card, an eco-conscious first impression as guests check in. It can take shape as a pencil, a fridge magnet, or other small, thoughtful touches placed throughout a stay. But beyond functionality, wood can also tell a quieter story… As a bookmark. Thoughtful details often define a guest’s experience, especially in hospitality. We’ve seen hotels introduce book-related experiences such as, reading corners, curated libraries, or literary-themed amenities, to create a more thoughtful and immersive stay. Some brands, like Staybridge Suites, have even incorporated literary quotes into their spaces, adding a reflective, story-driven layer to the guest environment. These elements point to an idea of the bookbound journey, where travel is not only about destinations, but also about stories. After all, some journeys begin not with a suitcase, but with a sentence. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in Experience, "Nature and Books belong to the eyes that see them." It’s a sentiment that resonates deeply with hospitality spaces that aim to inspire both comfort and curiosity. There are moments in the year that celebrate reading like World Book Day, encouraging people to pick up a book and rediscover the joy of words. But when that day passes, the intention can easily fade. What guests often need is a gentle, lasting reminder to continue the journey. This is where GCSTIMES wooden bookmark finds its place. Both as a simple object and quiet companion, it invites guests to pause, reflect, and return to their stories. At the same time, it communicates something equally important: a property’s commitment to sustainability and natural materials. From wooden key cards to bookmarks, these small details come together to shape a meaningful guest experience. At GCSTIMES, it’s the simplest objects that leave the most lasting impression and keep the story going.

This article was written by Phocuswright. Click here to read the original article

This article was written by Phocuswright. Click here to read the original article