If there’s one word that defines the current U.S. hotel landscape, it’s uncertainty. As we move into 2025, hoteliers across the country are facing a slew of critical questions: How resilient is demand? Are rising costs here to stay? And most importantly—how can we maintain profitability in a market that feels, well, unpredictable?
What hotel brands don’t know is that they can create great financial bench strength in their hotels and their owners will pay 100% of the cost. Brands also don’t know that they can create this bench strength with resources that are readily available. Lastly, brands don’t know that their non-financial managers are literally dying to get these financial skills and abilities now and they want to apply them.
In the hospitality industry, KPIs and metrics play a crucial role in evaluating and improving business performance. Metrics like occupancy rates, Online review scores, ADR (Average Daily Rate), and RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room) are essential for assessing financial health, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction.
As April marks the time when many hotel businesses are closing the books and set new budgets for 2025-26, it is crucial for leadership to adapt to the rapidly evolving landscape of innovative technology and trends that continue to (re)shape the future of hotels hospitality. With shifting customer expectations and increasing demand for personalized experiences, leaders should remain optimistic and strategically focus on key channels that drive hotel occupancy and direct revenue.
The two key differentiating factors between economy and midscale extended-stay hotels are the quality of the finishes and the price point. Economy extended-stay hotels typically offer a more budget-friendly option for guests, focusing on basic, functional accommodations with limited extra features.
The hotel business is perhaps the second oldest business in the world. I read that somewhere long ago, and it stuck. The kind of live-in arrangements described in this article are not about that but, rather, what our industry provided in the past to its senior leaders and managers. Some of what you're about to read I experienced first hand and some of it was passed on down to me through stories and folklore. After all we only have our yarns and parables to share and once they’re gone, they're no longer part of our culture. Here is my shot at preserving some of that. I also want to mention that I am in no way complaining or pointing out supposed abuse of power or privilege, it’s just the opposite – I’m celebrating our past.
The hospitality industry in Georgia and the Southeast is at a crossroads. As the region prepares for major events—including Atlanta’s MLB All-Star Game (2025) and FIFA World Cup (2026)—hotels are gearing up for increased demand. However, operators face a major challenge: rising labor costs, stagnant employment recovery, and declining Net Operating Income (NOI).
It was wonderful to see everyone at ALIS in Los Angeles. The conference went off without a hitch, meeting rooms were full, and although the outlook for fundamental performance remained muted, investor sentiment was strong, echoing what we saw in our recently released second annual U.S. Hotels Investor Intentions survey.
With all the dynamics facing the hospitality industry, like shifting room prices, labour shortages, changing travel habits, and the push for sustainability, procurement plays a key role in handling these issues. It acts as a strategy to cut costs and create value.
Today’s independent hoteliers often feel trapped between the rising costs of operating their properties and guests' sky-high expectations for each stay. But with the right tech stack, your hotel could be operating smoothly with tools that pay for themselves over time. In this case, it may require independents to rethink their tech partnerships and how many they need to operate efficiently in 2025.
The hospitality industry is expected to reach new heights by 2027. Experts predict that the industry will reach $5 billion, especially backed by groundbreaking advancements in technology. The following top 10 financial strategies to enhance automation may help garner the best results for 2025:
Imitation may be considered the highest form of flattery. Bad actors on the internet, though, fall outside the consideration set. As phishing attempts become increasingly sophisticated, hoteliers need to stay vigilant and implement robust security measures. Many security measures include automation and technology. The first line of defense will always be the individual, be they a guest or an employee of the hotel.
Warning – this blog post talks about cruelty to cats. I in no way support this practice and I am not promoting the activity in any way. The purpose of this article is to tell a story around the financial controls for hotel paid outs. Even with the disclaimer I am pretty sure I’ll get some flack, but the story is worth it!
The Global Finance Committee (GFC), a committee of diverse industry professionals sponsored by the Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals and the American Hotel and Lodging Association is responsible for the production of the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI). The revised 12th edition USALI is scheduled to be effective in 2026. USALI is the global standard for financial reporting in the lodging industry and will feature important changes to financial reporting practices.
At the recent annual meeting of Cayuga Hospitality Consultants, we brought together a panel of experts to discuss the state of transactions and development in the hotel industry. Here is a look into some of the key topics and points from the panel.
I discuss this question with hoteliers way too often. It’s not their fault, but the reality is they don’t understand what this statement means and, in this piece, I’m going to lay it out for you. I will say that the lack of understanding and basic ignorance of this is a costly and completely avoidable expense if you just do a little digging and ask the right questions.
As we all continue to find our footing in today’s market, we remain encouraged by the level of interest we have seen from offshore capital looking to invest in U.S. hotel assets, with the driving factors being their search for yield, stability, and growth.
There are lots of trends in current hotel development worth covering, but many of them can best to described by analyzing one specific project to see how the developers and owners are applying this trend on the ground and in a practical manner. The one word to wrap your head around for this is ‘flexibility’ wherein developers are looking to adapt room configurations, onsite facilities and ongoing operations to better accommodate a wider variety of guest types while simultaneously value-adding their experiences for greater overall folios.
In this article, we discuss moral hazard and regulatory measures, such as capital requirements, to stave off a banking crisis. We then introduce a model we have developed where we analyze the trade-off between competition to attract depositors and cooperation to enhance liquidity. We evaluate different policy tools with the objective of promoting financial stability.
What could be safer than a Swiss bank? This article takes a deep dive into what Swiss authorities are doing to restore confidence in the country’s banking system. As discussed in a previous article, the Public Liquidity Backstop (PLB) is a measure implemented by the Swiss government to insulate the country’s banking system from a run on its systemically-important banks. Designed prior to the involuntary merger between Credit Suisse and UBS, the PLB will, at long last, go into effect in 2025. Yet, the measure could have unintended consequences that need to be fully considered. So how did Credit Suisse (CS) collapse in the first place?