As the hotel sector moves into the mainstream as an asset class, many investors are entering it for the first time. It is important to offer advice tailored not to the sector, but to the hotel segment they are investing into.
Welcome to The Hotel Yearbook 2025 – your concise guide to the next wave of hospitality innovation and strategy. As always, we’ve invited a cross-section of senior executives, consultants, analysts, and thought leaders to answer the central question: What lies ahead for the global hotel industry?
Palladium Hotel Group announces it has begun construction to expand Grand Palladium Hotels & Resorts in Jamaica, Montego Bay, promoted by asset owner Grupo Empresas Matutes. The transformative $20 million project will add over 948 new rooms to the resort, which currently has a total of 1,049 rooms, distributed across two hotels: Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton Resort & Spa and Grand Palladium Jamaica Resort & Spa.
Following a year of robust growth, Remington Hospitality is strengthening its presence in the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) with the addition of ONE | GT in Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands. This latest addition marks another milestone in Remington’s rapid expansion across the region, underscoring its dedication to delivering exceptional hospitality experiences and elevating its portfolio in key destinations.
Melkonian Capital Management and RAL Companies today announced the official groundbreaking and public sales launch of Mandarin Oriental Residences, Grand Cayman which is destined to be the island's most exclusive enclave featuring the new Mandarin Oriental, Grand Cayman Hotel. Scheduled for completion in Q1 2028, the development marks Mandarin Oriental's first new construction resort and residences in the Caribbean and is set to deliver an unparalleled level of luxury.
Traditional SEO is not dead, but traditional search is! Consumers simply do not search as they did 10 or 15 years ago. Social search is now a big component of the customer journey: from TikTok to YouTube to Instagram, the platforms are diverse and usage greatly vary depending on age and traveler habits.
In spite of all the buzz around genAI, the AI Search market share today is estimated around 6% of the total search market, and estimated to go up to 14% by 2028 (Search Engine Land). Google's own Gemini AI has already been made available to Google's 84 billion monthly users - compare this to ChatGPT's 121 million users!
I don't believe that SEO is dead. I am of the view that the role of SEO is going to develop in alignment with the evolution of search. After all, it doesn't resemble the way it began with the incumbent approach. The challenge remains how to be found.
A lot of hoteliers today will feel like they are treading water, grasping for clarity over what kind of impact AI agents will ultimately have on their businesses.
The first observation is that things are developing very quickly. As compared to Moore's law, the pace of next generation AI capablities are developing at a speed that is hard to fathom based upon our species past technical endeavours.
AI Agents are a fundamentally different way to interact with data and knowledge. We are now in the phase of replicating the current status with agents (for example, to build a travel itinerary), like the first TV programs were radio shows with a camera, but pretty quickly we'll evolve to find new ways of doing the same things.
No, most hoteliers are not ready for the new era of personal AI agents. Hotels have historically been cautious about new technology, and for good reason. But AI-driven hotel discovery isn't necessarily about tech adoption. It's about storytelling.AI relies on natural language processing, so hotels should publish blog posts and substantive content that answer traveler queries on their websites.
The role of sustainability information in business travel is increasingly critical, particularly for hotel groups like Radisson Hotel Group, as corporate clients prioritize sustainability in their procurement processes. A growing requirement for sustainability data in corporate RFPs significantly impacts the competitiveness of hotels. Without rigorous sustainability information, hotels risk losing business from clients who now demand verified and transparent sustainability commitments. However, a crucial question remains: how trustworthy is the data if it lacks independent verification? Until sustainability claims are screened or mandated for verification, their reliability remains questionable.
Despite concern in many areas of society, it is clear that market forces are the most effective levers of change in sustainability.
As companies face increasing pressure to report their GHG emissions, the role of business travel, mainly flights, is coming under great pressure. Business travel contributes significantly to a company's carbon footprint. In my opinion, hotels will be less affected than airlines, but they will need to relearn to focus more on short—and medium-distance travellers.
The growing interest in sustainability and events is shifting competitiveness in a new direction. For those hotels and events venues that have been leading the way for decades by implementing sustainable management practices and measuring the carbon footprint of operations their hard work is paying off.
The role of sustainability information in business travel is increasingly critical, particularly for hotel groups like Radisson Hotel Group, as corporate clients prioritize sustainability in their procurement processes. A growing requirement for sustainability data in corporate RFPs significantly impacts the competitiveness of hotels.
Bvlgari Hotels & Resorts is delighted to announce its newest project, the Bvlgari Resort & Mansions Cave Cay, in the Bahamas, scheduled to open in 2029. It follows the previously announced projects in Maldives, Miami Beach and Bodrum which are set to open between 2026 and 2027. This new addition brings the Bvlgari Hotels & Resorts Collection to thirteen properties, including Milan, London, Bali, Dubai, Shanghai, Beijing, Paris, Tokyo and Rome.
We can hope regulators will someday "reimagine" policies to enable innovation, but let's face it: this is entirely beyond the industry's control. Expecting governments to grasp the complexities of hotel tech is like waiting for a no-show guest to miraculously fill your occupancy gap.
Technical fragmentation has long been a challenge in all aspects of hospitality. Some of this is a reality. Some of it is by choice and driven from vendor marketing propoganda about 'Best of Breed'. The reality is that to overcome this general challenge in industry, consolidation and unification is required.
Website analytics in isolation from the rest of the hotel tech stack has lost its importance. Combined with the property's CRM, RMS, a personalization engine and the rest of the tech stack, it is priceless and impacts many revenue-generation functions: Revenue Management: The website browsing behavior, booking engine denials, time spent on web pages of various packages, offers and hotel amenities are important data signals for the RMS and property pricing strategies.
Offering differentiated hotel pricing based on the geographic location of guests brings us to a timeless question: Can business practices be both profitable and ethical, or is that just a comforting fairy tale for capitalists with a conscience?
This is not the first attempt for an ill-conceived differentiated pricing by the OTAs. 15 years ago Orbitz was caught jacking up prices for Apple computer and laptop users under the presumption that Apple users were more affluent than PC users.
This research is indeed intriguing. As a product manager for Lighthouse's parity management solution, I've seen firsthand how hotels use extranet promotions to offer location-specific and platform-specific discounts. However, this study reveals a fundamentally different scenario.
Why not? There are many across industry examples where location and socio-demographics impact pricing for products and services. A few brief examples - Fuel - Drive around your own town and you will find vast differences. Not to mention long weekends.
Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) announced today that Hyatt has entered into a management agreement with Anacaona de Inversiones for a new Hyatt Vivid branded flagship resort in the Dominican Republic that is expected to open by year end 2025. Following the successful debut of the brand last year, Hyatt Vivid Punta Cana will be the second resort in the brand which is designed to cater to the next generation of all-inclusive travelers.
Rosewood Hotels & Resorts®, the visionary luxury lifestyle brand behind several of the world's most iconic destinations, today announces its first property in the Dominican Republic, Rosewood Punta Cana, in partnership with Grupo Puntacana. Set to open in 2029, the new resort will mark a significant addition to Rosewood's global portfolio and its growing Caribbean collection, infusing the brand's singular approach and ethos across the alluring island nation.
The term "robot" comes from the Czech word robota, meaning forced labor or drudgery. Introduced by Karel Čapek in his 1920 play R.U.R. and inspired by his brother Josef, the word encapsulated a grim vision of mechanized subjugation. Ironically, a century later, robots have flipped the script: they're no longer merely laborers but liberators, reshaping how industries—from logistics to hospitality—operate.
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is set to manage a new luxury resort and branded residences on Puerto Rico's breathtaking southwestern coast at Boquerón Bay in Cabo Rojo. Mandarin Oriental Esencia, Puerto Rico is expected to open in 2028 and will be the Group's third property in the Caribbean, further strengthening its presence in the region. The project is part of Esencia, a new cosmopolitan coastal community owned and developed by Reuben Brothers and Three Rules Capital.
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