Top Lucrative Investment Opportunities for 2026

Currently, LLMs lack rich images and content, such as photos of the rooms and amenities, that consumers typically demand when making hotel bookings, Kletzel said. When this is enhanced, consisting of by brand names exposing their content to LLMs, that will be "a big leap forward to getting consumers comfortable." Hotel visitor commitment and brand trust, meanwhile, has actually quickly expanded recently.

Beyond the visitor experience, agentic commerce has the possible to move the way hotel companies' consumer service teams run and are structured, Klein stated. Yes," Klein said.

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This year, several collection brands that introduced in 2025 will continue to expand. Extra brand-new brands and partnerships, especially in the lifestyle segment, will likely debut too, according to hospitality specialists. In 2025, Marriott released 2 collection brand names: Series by Marriott, playing in the upscale space in the U.S., and Outdoor Collection, specifically focused on outside accommodations in destinations near national forests, deserts, ski areas and coastlines.

Marriott's Outdoor Collection offers distinct accommodations in locations near nationwide parks, deserts, ski areas and coastlines.

Major Regional Shifts in Hospitality Expansion

Hilton's Start Collection, specifically, has more than 60 hotels in the works across the U.S. and Canada, Kevin Osterhaus, president of lifestyle brand names at Hilton, told Hotel Dive. Start is presently checking out possible new places in San Diego, Los Angeles and Virginia Beach, Virginia, in addition to markets in New Mexico and Colorado in 2026, Osterhaus said.

"Collection brand names are appealing due to the fact that they provide the finest of both worlds: Owners keep the unique DNA of their property, while unlocking global distribution, income management, commitment and support. Kevin Osterhaus President of way of life brands at Hilton From the visitor viewpoint, independent boutique hotels are desirable due to the fact that they provide genuine experiences, Gabriel Perez, chief operating officer of lodging at The Indigo Roadway Hospitality Group, told Hotel Dive.

However, when it comes to why the hotel companies are chasing independents in the lifestyle segment, "it's not about the guests. It has to do with producing sub-brands within their own brands to satisfy financiers' needs and to please owner and developers' goals," Perez said. JLL's Davis echoed that sentiment, informing Hotel Dive that the industry is at the point of, if not past the point of, brand saturation, as "public companies [are] under a tremendous quantity of pressure for net unit growth." This, in turn, puts a lot more pressure on hotel business "to develop brand names, micro brand names and subsets of brands in order to expand their footprint of existing properties," Davis stated.

Hilton's collection brands' "unique positioning and storytelling continue to drive interest throughout chain scales," Osterhaus said. Series and Outdoor Collection, both conversion-friendly offerings, pertain to an ownership neighborhood and designers who "are continuously looking for ways to grow, and conversions represent a course for development," Molinary stated.

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This year, Hilton plans to stay "really active in the lifestyle area through tactical collaborations, new finalizings and continuous growth of our current brand names," Osterhaus stated. Another growing area is the luxury segment.

Why Hospitality Brand Share Will Be Surging

That pattern is anticipated to continue in 2026 as high-end customers drive travel spending and hotel bookings in the middle of a wealth bifurcation at play in the market. "High-net-worth travelers are expected to remain one of the most reputable chauffeurs of worldwide travel spending next year," Giray Boran, managing director of BLG Capital, informed Hotel Dive.