Market Trends

🛫 Sep 16, 2026, a guest arrived at a hotel late due to a 6-hour flight delay in Frankfurt. She booked a Connected Trip via Booking.com, expecting seamless service. However, she made two separate bookings, leading to service issues. Booking.com reported low double-digit percentage of connected transactions in Q2 2026. The lack of unified service falls on hotels, as travelers expect coordinated service, while hotels see no backend integration or alerts for connected trips.

💰 September 16, 2026, Amadeus launched a connectivity deal with HyperGuest, adding 15,000 independent properties to Value Hotels. The program offers over 750,000 properties with a net rate model, differing from GDS content's 120,000 hotels. Sellers decide the markup on prepaid bookings, while hotels lack visibility on rates. Multiple outdated documents show discrepancies in property numbers. Amadeus emphasizes seller autonomy over pricing, but hotels face challenges in tracing and valuing contracts.

📑 Sep 15, 2026, Europe: HOTREC's study shows Booking Holdings and Expedia dominate 85.4% of OTA bookings. Expedia's share increased to 16.6% from 14.4% in 2023. Booking Holdings fell to 68.8%. OTAs occupy 29.9% of hotel bookings, direct bookings are 51.3%. Expedia excels in larger, chain, and city hotels, capturing a third of OTA bookings there. Rate undercutting reports increased from 40% in 2023 to 51%. 1,882 hotels surveyed, mostly from Italy and Germany.

🗺 Phocuswright and Arival research surveyed 1,200 LATAM travelers, revealing unique trends in the region. Relaxation and family time are prioritized over authenticity and niche travel. Nearly 50% of trips involve children, doubling the rate in the U.S. and Europe. Experiences influence destination choices in Brazil and Mexico. AI is used for trip planning by 70% of travelers, but trust remains the primary factor in booking decisions.

📍 Extended Stay America held its annual owners conference in Dallas, Texas, concluding with awards for franchise excellence. Since launching its franchise program in 2018, the company has more than doubled its hotel count. Honorees included Extended Stay America Premier Suites Bradenton (Best New Development & Ramp Up) and Extended Stay America Suites Buffalo – Airport (Most Improved Hotel). The theme, "Aligned and Activated," emphasized collaboration to drive growth.

📈 August 2026 in Rio de Janeiro saw its hotel industry achieve the highest RevPAR since the 2016 Olympics. Hotel occupancy was 72.7% (-0.1% year-over-year), with an ADR of BRL841.91 (+16.4%) and RevPAR of BRL612.29 (+16.3%). On August 19, during the CONMEBOL Libertadores match, occupancy peaked at 88.2%, elevating ADR to BRL825.44 and RevPAR to BRL728.40. The Festival Medio y Medio on August 15 led to the month's highest ADR of BRL952.24, with RevPAR at BRL756.51 and 79.8% occupancy.

🏨 In a study of over 1,900 U.S. hotels, O’Neill and Mattila found that occupancy has a notable relationship with net operating income as a percentage of revenue. Nonetheless, Liu, Wu, and Li discovered that high occupancy might sometimes weaken guest experiences. Revenue metrics like occupancy and ADR remain vital, but assessing operational signals—like overtime trends and service disruptions—completes the performance picture. Success requires aligning market positioning, demand, cost structure, and operational capability for sustained profitability.

🏠 Hotels in the U.S. experienced their best summer since 2019 with June RevPAR up 8.4% and July up 8.2%, reflecting 20 straight weeks of growth. World Cup host cities saw ADR rise by approximately 15%. STR's 2026 RevPAR growth forecast increased from 0.5% to 4.4% within nine months. Supply growth is just 0.5% with 140,000 rooms under construction, compared to 220,000 in 2019. CoStar Group attracted over 139 million average monthly unique visitors in Q4 2025.

💰 Last week, Sloan Dean highlighted AI-Native Services (AINS) in his newsletter. OTAs take 12-25% of bookings, brands take 11-12% in fees, and operators take 2.5-3.5% of gross revenue. Despite an 8% RevPAR growth in June and July, profit margins are shrinking. Labor costs rose 12.8% in 2025, but labor efficiency improved in Q1 2026, with a 1.8% rise in cost per occupied room and a 2.3% drop in hours per room. Undistributed expenses outpace revenue, compressing GOP margins. STR forecasts a 1% GOP growth in 2027 amidst inflation concerns.

🏨 Asia Pacific's hotel market saw transactions soar to USD 17.0 billion in 2025, a 51.9% increase from 2024. Singapore led with an average hotel pricing of USD 656,000 per key. Japan recorded 92 hotel transactions, largely midscale and economy, while international travel surged with Japan and South Korea hitting record visitor numbers. Luxury hotel prices rose 24% to USD 585,000 per key, driven by constrained supply. Economic pressures have shifted investor focus to acquiring existing assets.