How to Scale Your Hospitality Group Efficiently

Presently, LLMs do not have rich imagery and content, such as pictures of the rooms and features, that customers normally require when making hotel bookings, Kletzel said., meanwhile, has quickly broadened in recent years.

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

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This year, a number of collection brands that released in 2025 will continue to expand. Additional new brand names and partnerships, especially in the lifestyle sector, will likely debut as well, according to hospitality professionals.

Marriott's Outdoor Collection offers unique lodgings in locations near national parks, deserts, ski locations and coastlines.

Emerging Hospitality Market Trends Fueling 2026 Success

Hilton's Outset Collection, specifically, has more than 60 hotels in the works across the U.S. and Canada, Kevin Osterhaus, president of way of life brands at Hilton, told Hotel Dive. Beginning is currently exploring possible brand-new locations in San Diego, Los Angeles and Virginia Beach, Virginia, as well as markets in New Mexico and Colorado in 2026, Osterhaus said.

"Collection brands are appealing because they provide the finest of both worlds: Owners keep the unique DNA of their residential or commercial property, while opening international distribution, revenue management, commitment and support. Kevin Osterhaus President of way of life brands at Hilton From the guest viewpoint, independent shop hotels are preferable since they offer authentic experiences, Gabriel Perez, chief running officer of lodging at The Indigo Roadway Hospitality Group, informed Hotel Dive.

However, when it comes to why the hotel companies are going after independents in the lifestyle segment, "it's not about the guests. It's about developing sub-brands within their own brand names to please financiers' needs and to please owner and developers' goals," Perez stated. JLL's Davis echoed that sentiment, telling Hotel Dive that the market is at the point of, if not past the point of, brand name saturation, as "public companies [are] under a tremendous amount of pressure for net unit development." This, in turn, puts even more pressure on hotel business "to create brand names, micro brand names and subsets of brands in order to broaden their footprint of existing possessions," Davis said.

Hilton's collection brand names' "unique positioning and storytelling continue to drive interest across chain scales," Osterhaus said. According to Bobby Molinary, Marriott's primary development officer for choose brands, interest in Marriott's new collection brand names comes amid a challenging high-cost-of-construction environment that has made it "significantly tough to construct brand-new hotels." Series and Outdoor Collection, both conversion-friendly offerings, relate to an ownership community and developers who "are continuously trying to find ways to grow, and conversions represent a course for development," Molinary said.

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This year, Hilton prepares to stay "very active in the lifestyle area through tactical partnerships, new signings and continuous development of our present brands," Osterhaus stated. Another growing space is the high-end section.

Analyzing Fast Casual Sector Share Data for 2026

That trend is expected to continue in 2026 as luxury consumers drive travel spending and hotel reservations in the middle of a wealth bifurcation at play in the market. "High-net-worth travelers are expected to stay one of the most dependable drivers of global travel costs next year," Giray Boran, handling director of BLG Capital, told Hotel Dive.