Generational Shift Drives Asia's Unbranded Hotel Market Toward Global Brand Partnerships Amid Rising Competition

The longest DHS shutdown in U.S. history ended after more than 1,100 TSA officers left, weeks before the 2026 World Cup begins. Friday converges on distribution: Uber strikes two hotel deals, the global pipeline splits sharply by region, and the record DHS shutdown ends weeks before the World Cup. Uber Strikes Hotel Deals with Accor and Expedia in One Day Accor and Uber announced a multi-market loyalty partnership covering seven markets including France, Germany, and the UAE, allowing ALL Accor members to earn loyalty points on Uber rides and deliveries. The structure of the deal matters: rather than building Uber points into the Accor wallet, Accor is letting members earn ALL points on Uber transactions, treating Uber as a recognized partner for daily-spend behavior outside the hotel. Separately, Uber confirmed it is now selling hotels through its app via an Expedia integration, with the company crediting AI tooling for cutting feature development from a year to six months. Read together, the two announcements describe Uber moving into travel distribution from both ends in one day: capturing loyalty mindshare through Accor and capturing booking transactions through Expedia. The pressure on the OTAs and on hotel direct booking strategies just got more concrete. Read the announcement → Asia Pacific Pipeline Tops 980,000 Rooms as Americas Pipeline Falls 5.3% CoStar data shows Asia Pacific now leads global hotel pipeline activity with 982,629 rooms under contract, while the Americas pipeline declined 5.3% to 878,114 rooms. The reversal is significant. The Americas has historically led the global pipeline by a wide margin, and the pipeline contraction in the region is now visible across multiple data sources, pairing with this week's CoStar finding that U.S. construction has been falling for 15 consecutive months. The geographic split lines up with operational reality. Asia Pacific RevPAR growth, the Fairfield 100th opening in Greater China earlier this week, and the Hilton 8-brand luxury push announced Monday all describe a region where the major chains are committing capital while Americas owners are choosing yield over volume. The 5.3% Americas decline is small in absolute terms, but pipeline data turns slowly. The direction now matters more than the level. Read the analysis → Longest DHS Shutdown in U.S. History Ends, 1,100 TSA Officers Have Left The U.S. Travel Association warned that more than 1,100 TSA officers have left during the record-length DHS shutdown, weakening travel security weeks before the 2026 FIFA World Cup begins. AHLA issued a parallel statement condemning the shutdown for forcing TSA workers to operate without pay and for disrupting hotel bookings across the travel industry. Both groups are now framing the shutdown's end as the start of recovery work rather than a return to normal. The timing is the part that should worry operators. World Cup hotel bookings were already tracking closer to normal levels than to the surge most properties had modelled, and a 1,100-officer TSA staffing gap entering peak demand season compounds the risk. Hotels in 2026 host markets that sized inventory and pricing for

INVESTMENT ACTIVITY The German hotel investment market in 2025 showed strong recovery, with total transaction volume reaching around €1.9 billion, up over 50% from 2024. Prime urban and leisure assets attracted the most investor interest, driving competitive bidding and modest yield compression. Domestic and international buyers actively pursued high-quality hotels, while portfolio deals and larger single-asset transactions added liquidity. Hotels in secondary locations also saw growing attention, offering attractive income and value-add potential. Supported by robust operating performance, high occupancy, and resilient ADR trends, the market is poised for continued investor confidence into 2026, with opportunities across core, core-plus, and repositioning strategies. PRIME YIELDS Prime hotel yields in Germany are showing early signs of compression, supported by strong operating performance, resilient demand, and a limited supply of top-tier, institutional-grade assets. Competitive investor activity, particularly in major urban locations, is placing downward pressure on prime returns. Secondary location assets show greater yield dispersion, reflecting differences in risk profile, repositioning needs, and required capital expenditures, creating opportunities for value-add strategies. SUPPLY & DEMAND Demand in Germany’s hotel sector remains robust, continuing to rise from already record-breaking levels. In contrast, supply is expanding only moderately and is carefully managed. This imbalance between strong demand and controlled growth supports stable occupancy, healthy revenues, and reliable pricing across the German hotel landscape. PERFORMANCE Germany closed 2025 with relatively stable operating performance. Average occupancy reached nearly 68% (+0.7 percentage points vs. 2024), while ADR decreased to around €117 (-1.8% vs. 2024). As a result, RevPAR declined marginally to €78.8 (-0.8% vs. 2024). Overall performance therefore remained broadly stable year-on-year, with the slight improvement in occupancy offset by a reduction in average daily rates.

INVESTMENT ACTIVITY 2025 was a record year for investment transactions in the Irish market with a total of approximately €1.9 Billion in deals. The majority of this total came via the acquisition of the publicly listed Dalata Hotel Group (trading under the Clayton and Maldron Hotel brands) by a Scandinavian Consortium for a total of approximately €1.4 Billion, a deal which concluded during the second half of the year. Aside from this deal, other notable transactions in the second half of 2025 included the acquisitions of the Radisson Blu Hotel at Dublin Airport (€79m) and the Citywest Hotel Dublin (€148m). PRIME YIELDS Prime hotel yields in Ireland have remained stable, underpinned by strong operating performance and continued investor appetite. We expect yields to remain broadly stable in the near term, supported by limited prime stock and disciplined pricing expectations. SUPPLY & DEMAND The Irish economy performed strongly in 2025 - headline GDP grew by double digits year‑on‑year in Q4, although this was heavily distorted by export front‑loading. A clearer and more realistic barometer of changes in living standards is Modified Domestic Demand, which rose by 4.9% compared with Q4 2024, supported by solid growth in personal consumption (+2.9%). CSO data point to an improved leisure travel picture at the end of 2025. Overnight trips by overseas visitors increased through the second half of the year, reaching 6.4 million on a rolling 12‑month basis in December. Growth was strongest from Great Britain and North America, while demand from Continental Europe began to recover late in 2025. Average length of stay remained stable at around seven nights, although average daily spend eased over the past six months to €154 in December. PERFORMANCE Operational performance remains strong in the Irish market. Occupancy levels ranged between 77% and 83% on a rolling 12-month basis at the end of 2025 across all main hotel markets (Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick) with occupancy higher in most markets versus a year earlier. Room rates were slightly higher across all markets at the end of 2025 compared to 12 months earlier while RevPAR was also higher at the end of the year, particularly in the Dublin and Galway markets.