NEW YORK — The U.S. hotel industry is facing no shortage of headwinds, whether it be high construction and labor costs, a tense geopolitical environment, or negative sentiment toward America. Despite all of this, U.S. performance in 2026 has been solid so far, already surpassing a tough 2025 with major events such as the FIFA World Cup and America's 250th anniversary still ahead.
At the first day of the NYU International Hospitality Investment Forum, hotel executives and analysts alike acknowledged the noisy environment facing the hospitality industry while simultaneously taking a bullish approach for the rest of the year and beyond.
CoStar raised its 2026 U.S. hotel revenue per available forecast to 2.8% growth, up significantly from its previous projections of 0.6% back in February.
The updated forecast also shows positive year-over-year RevPAR growth across each hotel segment, an optimistic sign for the maligned economy and midscale segments, even if their increases are projected to come in lower than the others.
"We're projecting that this year is actually very much a reversal from last year, and that room demand is going to continue to grow and that gives us some pricing power," Jan Freitag, national director of hospitality analytics at CoStar Group, said during the "State of the state: Macro, micro and trends" session.
U.S. hotel RevPAR was down 0.3% in 2025, a major disappointment caused by many of the same concerns that still linger.
Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, said consumer sentiment reached the lowest mark in recorded history in the month of April. The price of gas remains above $4 a gallon in the U.S., heavily affecting disposable income among the bottom half of earners.
Consumer spending has steadily risen, however, indicating Americans haven't yet hit a breaking point opening their wallets for experiences including travel, he said.
Watch the video above for editors' takeaways or listen to the podcast.
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"People want to enjoy themselves. We’re also seeing a great explosion in wealth creation, in a way the world hasn’t seen since the Industrial Revolution. … You can never say there’s no ceiling [to the strong performance luxury hotels are showing], because that would be dangerous. But I do think there’s a depth in this marketplace we have not expected, and that depth has grown over the last few years."
— Jonathan Goldstein, CEO of Cain, on the average daily rate resiliency luxury hotels are showing. Cain bought The Dominick hotel in New York City last fall and is rebranding it as Delano SoHo New York.
"My biggest stumbling block is that I know [artificial intelligence] will replace anything administrative and automated. What I need to make a decision on, is that probably a third if not 40% of my jobs at the corporate level will be replaced by AI technology, and you’re talking about 2,000 people. I need to warn them that what you do today is not what you’ll be doing 18 months from now. And that’s fine, they don’t need to be scared, but I need to find a place for them."
— Sebastien Bazin, CEO of AccorHotels, on the current challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence in his company.
"If you don't put a shovel in the ground, you're not going to actually realize the benefit of demand exceeding the supply. If you don't finally get to work on building new hotels, you're not going to get reopened at the time when you will see that compounding effect of [average daily rate] growth and occupancy building. So, I think that I think things are setting up now for an improvement in construction."
— Mark Hoplamazian, president and CEO of Hyatt Hotels Corp., on the current hotel development environment.