NASHVILLE, Tennessee — The second day of the Hotel Data Conference arrived with an eye on the future. Hoteliers have hope for demand to recover, but they're pairing that with realistic strategies.
Throughout the day, attendees heard from industry and economic experts about the current environment and what may lie ahead. They heard about ways to implement artificial intelligence, how to assess markets for development readiness, what's going on with short-term rentals and more.
The data helps inform their decision making, and now it's up to them to put plans into action.
Podcast recap
Photos of the day
Quotes of the day
"I think all of this room, we've all been to [hotel industry conferences], and we've talked about AI for two years, and I'm like 'We really need to roll out an AI adoption policy.' So I'm laughing now because even last night at dinner with my boss, I was saying 'We need an AI adoption policy.'"
— Erica Lipscomb, senior vice president of revenue strategy at Crescent Hotels & Resorts, on the need to move from discussion to action on artificial intelligence.
"We have to look at not just events in the same vertical as what you're studying. Pick a vertical, look at how it changed over time and what are the factors that went into why it changed, up to and including new supply, highway projects, weather patterns. That's all important. We call that how to learn the lesson and how to make the strategic response. So what was the lesson learned, and how are you going to respond to it strategically in order to have a great event."
— Karen McWilliams, vice president of revenue strategy, Concord Hospitality, on how U.S. hoteliers can prepare for major events in their markets, such as the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Editors' takeaways
In my home continent of Europe, there is concern over the cost of living and the amount of disposable income remaining for hotels and travel after paying more and more for other essentials such as housing, heating and energy.
Perhaps we are more conditioned to gripe about these things in my home of the United Kingdom, and it appears from what I heard on Day 2 of HDC that Europeans will be heading to the U.S. in smaller numbers this year, and not because of the political and geopolitical noise.
Long have European hotels, especially in the upper segments, been filled by U.S. travelers, but it was very interesting to hear from keynote speaker Anoop Mishra, regional executive and vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, who said the percentage of each U.S. salary earmarked for home mortgage repayments is increasing.
The rule of thumb, Mishra said, is that no more than one-third of a salary should be given over to mortgage repayments, but he said the current average in the U.S. is approximately 46%. It is probably a correct assumption that the trajectory of a guest’s choice of hotel segment is relatively aligned to their salary. Earn more, and one is more likely to book a hotel higher up the segmentation ladder. But that increase — and I am sure other prices are going up in the U.S., too — is a big hit, and it will be interesting to see what effect that has on the European hotel performance numbers.
William Anns, analyst in the London office of STR, speaking on a podcast at the Grand Hyatt Nashville during HDC, said most trips and hotel stays in Europe in 2025 — those that have happened and those about to — were likely booked before the inauguration of the U.S. President Donald Trump in January and his subsequent policy announcements on tariffs and visas. That’s to say, all the price increases that subsequently have come into play in the last six months have not yet come to light in hotel performance data.
Anns said we could start seeing what the effect will be very soon.
Chances are that will dampen metrics, not elevate them, but in this perhaps crazier era of noise and uncertainty, who knows?
— Terence Baker, news editor, EMEA
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I've heard a couple times through the conference that the past few days have felt kind of like a group therapy session. Everyone has been experiencing their own versions of uncertainty with uneven performance at inconsistent times, so it's been helpful for them to be able to connect with each other and feel less on their own.
The other part is now that there's a general recognition of what's going on, it should help people really start putting plans into motion to try to get a handle on the situation. Some things are definitely out of any hotelier's control, but that doesn't mean nothing can be done to try to capture demand or make operations more efficient.
It's going to be bumpy for a while, but there's enough belief the industry can push through it to catch on to the upcycle when it starts again. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
— Bryan Wroten, senior reporter
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It’s interesting to me that there’s been basically two lines of discussion here at the Hotel Data Conference that have been running in parallel: The need for artificial intelligence adoption and the need to better deploy people across revenue and more broadly commercial strategy. There’s always a push and pull between automation — particularly at a time when cost creep is seen by some as the most major hurdle across the industry — and the human touch that we always hear is the lifeblood of hospitality.
But these two ideas don’t have to necessarily run in opposition of each other. It is simultaneously true that there are things that should be automated, whether that’s through AI or more longstanding tools across the hotel industry, and there are things that require human thought and focus. I don’t fancy myself an AI expert, but I don’t believe the technology is anywhere near the stage where it can think strategically about hotels’ revenue strategy in the way humans can. But it most certainly can perform the most mundane and monotonous functions, so that the people on your teams can focus on what they do best.
And beyond that, I think the technology is quickly elevating to the point where it can do more than simple drudgery. That’s understandably a concern to some, and I’ve heard the thought that people are concerned they’re going to lose their job to bots echoed a few times. But ultimately this is not a point in time where hotel commercial strategy teams should be losing resources and people. If AI can be a tool to make teams work more efficiently and collaborate more seamlessly, that will be a good thing for all involved.
— Sean McCracken, news editor
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