Experts unpack demand shifts, extended-stay growth and design trends on recent Hotel News Now podcasts

Hospitality experts recently weighed in on top topics for the hotel industry — from extended-stay supply growth, consumer sentiment's effect on demand and new design trends.

With these trending topics top of mind, the Hotel News Now podcast network spoke with guests across disciplines to react to and explain the news of the day for hoteliers across the globe.

Here are some of the highlights from recent Hotel News Now podcasts.

The extended-stay hotel sector is starting to see performance normalize after years of strong demand following the pandemic, Colin Sherman, director of hospitality market analytics for CoStar Group in Texas and the U.S. South, said in a Hotel News Now podcast interview.

In the first quarter of 2025, U.S. extended-stay room supply was up 4% year over year. Increased supply coupled with a year-over-year decline in occupancy from 74% to 70% led to some revenue per available room pressure in the quarter, Sherman said.

"There's the added pressure of supply, but also, just in general, demand as well, so I can't say it's fully supply," Sherman said. "There's been some normalcy coming back to the extended-stay sector, as with traditional hotels, that we're seeing. That's also a major component of that RevPAR downgrade."

Despite some of the news headlines forecasting challenges in the travel industry, the hosts of the Tell Me More: A Hospitality Data Podcast advised listeners to keep eyes on the data, which is telling a different story.

"We're all so focused on sentiment, that everything is going down, going south," said Isaac Collazo, STR's senior director of analytics. "But a year ago, revenue per available room year to date was only up 0.5% and right now it's up 1.6%."

Collazo and co-host Jan Freitag, CoStar's national director of hospitality analytics, also explained how important calendar shifts are to hotel performance. Last year's big events that boosted hotel performance — such as the solar eclipse, an earlier Easter weekend or shifts to spring break — have created tougher year-over-year comparisons for demand levels.

No two Hotel Indigo locations are alike — just as no two neighborhoods are alike either, Carol Hoeller, vice president of global brand marketing for Hotel Indigo and Voco Hotels at IHG, said. And the key to making that happen is in the design.

"Consumers' preference have shifted toward more customized, distinctive travel, and at the heart of what we've always been is [about] the neighborhood and bringing that neighborhood experience and local experience to life in a really rich, beautiful and unique way," she said.

Operating in a design-led, lifestyle sweet spot, Hotel Indigo is in a distinctive era — this one will be defined by its growth in bringing this concept to more markets, doubling the brand's footprint — with 170 hotels and 23,000 rooms open and just about that much in its pipeline.

"I think the lifestyle market has really been a huge growth segment for the hotel industry at large," Hoeller said. "As we saw the guests' needs evolve and our performance starting to elevate, we wanted to bring our design along with that."

Next Gen in Lodging host Davonne Reaves spoke with the winners of the annual She Has a Deal Early Careerist pitch contest. The competition for female college and university students and recent grads gives up-and-coming hoteliers a chance to gain experience in hotel transactions and development while competing for $50,000 in limited partner deal equity.

The winners, Kayden Edwards and Brooklynn Tucker, both students about to head into their senior year at Howard University, shared their pitch for the Governor’s House, which had been a hotel, for a revitalization project. The idea is to turn it into not just a hotel but a place that’s the social spot for the city, hosting social gatherings, live music and other cultural experiences.

Don't ever count out the little guy — the hotel owners that have a small-but-mighty portfolio. It's these owners that might be able to close deals in this uncertain market, said Michael Blank, principal at hotel ownership and asset management firm Woodmont Lodging.

Hotel owners operating at a smaller scale face a lot of the same challenges that bigger owners do, but they also have some that are unique to their size, he said. They don’t sit on a war chest of money, so if something goes wrong, such as a boiler going down or a water leak, their ability to make the necessary fix is different than that of an institutional shop.

“But they’re also scrappy, and I think we sometimes lose sight of the ability to solve problems in an efficient and effective manner,” he said.

Berlin is a city that is “evolving again and again and again. … an amazing cosmopolitan city where you see the heavy past and history with the modernity, and you see the diversity for sure,” said Wesam Okasha, managing director of TUI Blue Hotels and head of global development, Asia, Greater China and Europe, Middle East and Africa.

As a podcast guest on “The Upgrade: EMEA Hospitality News,” Okasha predicted the German economy will see a turnaround soon, emerging from the slump it has been going through since the end of the pandemic.

“There is a lot of additional investment coming in,” he said. “And not just European.”

Hotel performance in Hong Kong this year tells a mixed story, Jesper Palmqvist, STR's senior director of Asia-Pacific, said on the Hotel News Now podcast. Year to date, occupancy is up 4% compared to last year, but average daily rate is down 4%. And that demand is expected to continue to grow slowly on an annual basis in the region.

Year to date, Hong Kong's occupancy stands at 84%, which is in line with levels back in 2015 and 2016. Palmqvist said even with an occupancy number that high, there's still room for growth in Hong Kong. Its peak occupancy came in 2018 at about 90%.

"We look at our forecast, historic highs like those — the last 5% is going to be hard, but we're forecasting to see those 90%, maybe year to date, by the end of the decade, 2028 or 2029," he said. "That's how slow that can take."

Learn more about this and other Hotel News Now podcasts, listen to the latest episodes and subscribe on your favorite podcast service.

Click here to read more hotel news on CoStar Hotels.