Thought Leadership | HSMAI Americas

CSC Session Recap

From Disjointed to Dynamic: Hotel Marketing Framework for Commercial Performance

Kimberly Erwin, Principal at Lotus Marketing, HSMAI Marketing Advisory Board Member

This article recaps my session at HSMAI’s Commercial Strategy Session, where I shared the work Lotus Marketing has undertaken to create a strategic marketing framework. Our work connects how strategy should drive revenue, to align teams, vendors, and systems to make marketing more effective.

The hotel marketing framework helps hotels understand, prioritize, and continuously improve their marketing for maximum impact. Built around five core pillars, it creates momentum by revealing where focus and refinement will drive the greatest results.

Foundation establishes who the hotel is and who it represents. This is the strategic core of the framework and defines the hotel’s identity, narrative, values, and differentiation, and translates them into clear visual and verbal standards.
Alignment defines what the hotel is trying to achieve commercially. This pillar connects the brand foundation to real business objectives, ensuring marketing efforts are driven by measurable goals rather than just activity. Alignment ensures that marketing, sales, revenue management, and leadership are working toward the same outcomes, using shared priorities and a common understanding of success.
Expression governs how the brand shows up across every touchpoint. This pillar ensures that all guest-facing materials and channels consistently reflect the hotel’s identity and commercial intent. In a world where guests evaluate hotels across dozens of platforms, consistency is not optional.
Immersion defines why guests will remember their stay. This is where marketing moves beyond communication and becomes tangible. Immersion translates brand promise into experience through programming, amenities, activations, and moments that guests can feel.
Outreach determines where the brand reaches and influences beyond the hotel itself. This pillar extends the hotel’s presence through partnerships, community engagement, media, and third-party advocacy.

When the pillars are strengthened in sequence, momentum begins to build naturally because each layer reinforces and amplifies the one before it. As each pillar compounds the next, marketing becomes more effective. The narrative is clear, priorities are defined, and campaigns require less reinvention because they are grounded in strategy rather than reaction. Resources are used more efficiently, and the guest experience reinforces the brand promise.

In this environment, marketing shifts from a series of disconnected efforts to a coordinated system where each action builds on the last. In other words, hotel marketing stops behaving like a perishable expense and becomes a compounding asset.

Take the hotel marketing assessment tool to evaluate hotel marketing effectiveness: https://iq.lotusmarketinginc.com/lotusiq

The tool translates the five pillars into clear criteria that reveal where the hotel is strong, where gaps exist, and what actions should be prioritized. It enables hoteliers to benchmark marketing performance, diagnose root issues, and identify the priorities that will deliver the greatest commercial impact.

10 Actions Commercial Leaders Should Take Now

A few weeks ago in San Antonio, over 1,000 hospitality commercial professionals attended the HSMAI Commercial Strategy Conference 2026. One theme of the conference was that commercial strategy is moving upstream into discovery, recommendation, and influence.

Here are ten actions to take now.

Expand your lens beyond traditional search
Test how your properties appear in AI tools, not just search engines.

Why it matters:
Customer discovery is shifting upstream.
Decisions are increasingly shaped before a traveler ever reaches traditional search.

Treat AI Visibility as a Cross-Functional Priority
Align marketing, revenue, distribution, and tech around AI-driven demand capture with shared ownership.

Why it matters:
No single team owns this. Execution fails without a common language and shared goals.

Reframe distribution strategy around decision influence.
Re-evaluate your distribution strategy based on where decisions are influenced, not just where bookings are processed.

Why it matters:

Control is moving to recommendation layers, not booking endpoints. This will give you more pricing power, better partner strategy, and stronger long-term positioning.

Run Small, Controlled Experiments—Now
Pick 1–2 priority areas (AI, pricing, or distribution) and launch controlled testsimmediately.

Why it matters:
Waiting for perfect information slows progress, while structured experimentation accelerates learning.

Track Both Visibility and Conversion
Measure both:

- Output metrics (e.g., AI mentions, rankings)
- Outcome metrics (e.g., conversion, revenue)

Why it matters:

New channels require new measurement frameworks. Visibility without conversion is noise; conversion without visibility is fragile. This will give you clearer ROI, better prioritization, and fewer blind spots in decision-making.

Recalculate True Cost of Acquisition
Fully load channel costsincluding fees, commissions, and marketing and evaluate net contribution.

Why it matters:

Topline revenue can mask margin erosion, especially as distribution becomes more complex. The impact will be improved profitability, smarter channel mix, and stronger negotiations with partners.

Build a Single Commercial Operating System
Align teams around shared KPIs, unified data, and one version of the performance story.

Why it matters:

Fragmented decision-making still exists, even in organizations that consider themselves integrated. Alignment will lead to faster decisions, fewer internal conflicts, and more consistent performance across the portfolio.

Scale Best Practices Across the Portfolio
Codifyplaybooks, tools, and insights that work and push them across properties.

Why it matters:
Leading organizations are no longer optimizing hotel by hotel, they’re scaling capability.

Build Systems That Reduce Decision Fatigue
Simplify workflows, standardize processes, and create space for recovery and focused decision-making.

Why it matters:

Performance degrades under sustained pressure. Without strong systems, teams default to reactive behavior. The impact will be better decision quality, more sustainable execution, and stronger team performance over time.

Shorten the Distance Between Insight and Action
Convert insights into 30-day action plans with clear ownership and defined outcomes.

Why it matters:
The industry doesn’t have an idea gap, it has an execution gap. The advantage now belongs to teams that can turn insight into action, consistently and quickly.

Commercial Strategy Roundtable

Published June 25, 2026

Hotel Commercial Strategy Executives: Cautious Optimism, Uneven Reality

Last week in San Antonio, commercial leaders gathered for our first ever Hotel Commercial Strategy Executive Roundtable. It was a full room, and the result was a rich discussion. The first half of the year was broadly strong, with many attendees beating budgets, and they all saw solid RevPAR growth. The economist session at CSC landed more optimistic than expected, though the confidence still has edges.

“Waiting for the shoe to drop” was the overarching sentiment in the room and in a survey pre-event. The strong stock market and good numbers feel fragile, while geopolitical uncertainty, including the Strait of Hormuz and global instability, make the rest of the year feel volatile.

Segment Divergence — The K-Shaped Reality

As one attendee pointed out, gas prices are the #1 demand driver for economy and midscale, with correlation confirmed via regression and Bayesian modeling. Recent weeks show demand softness in some pockets tied to fuel costs.

Luxury and upper-upscale are largely insulated. Stock market equity gains are driving leisure demand, and resort ADR continues to grow, while college-town hotels are seeing record attendance. However, there was caution against broad macro-optimism. Impact varies by chain scale and consumer type, with the lower and mid-tier properties not fairing as well.

Consumer Behavior Shifts

Loyalty point redemptions are surging. So, while consumers are still traveling, they are substituting points for cash spend. Guests are absorbing gas costs and offsetting it by using free nights. This is seen in both drive-to destinations and at leisure destinations where length of stay is down, while redemption volume is up.

World Cup summer travel is still a concern for upper-midscale properties as the on-the-ground demand is still not matching projected levels.

AI, Alignment, and the Commercial Stack

AI continues to be ubiquitous in conversations, with the discussion shifting to real use cases across revenue management efficiency, search optimization, booking engine chatbots, sales prospecting, contact center automation, and marketing deployment.

Another universal commercial point was alignment. Many attendees’ questions focused on integrating sales, revenue, marketing, and operations, ownership expectations, and how teams are structured. Talent and training surfaced alongside AI, especially as it shifts entry-level roles and bench strength. While marketing inputs focus on cost of acquisition, tech stack constraints, attribution, GEO, and balancing OTA spend with direct investment. Sales inputs focus on workflow automation, lead response, incentive structures, and GM engagement.

Outlook and Forecasting

There was broad skepticism around second-half forecast strength despite strong first half of the year momentum. Forecasting and budgeting are now effectively a 24/7 exercise. Across commercial, labor costs stay a persistent pressure.

Though summers are historically slow and there is a strong dose of skepticism in a strong H2 economic outlook, attendees were optimistic for conferences and conventions returning post-summer.

Thank you to the companies sponsoring this roundtable Dragonfly Strategists, Lotus Marketing, and Milestone. This Roundtable was attended by people from companies such a as Atrium Hospitality, By the Sea Resorts, Castle Resorts & Hotel, Concord Hospitality, Coral Tree Hospitality Group, CoralTree Hospitality Group, Cote Hospitality, Dimension Hospitality, Drury Hotels, Extended Stay America, Graduate Hotel, IGH, Kampgrounds of America, Kasa, MCR Hotels, Omni Hotles & Resorts, OTO Development, Peachtree Group, Pyramid Global Hospitality, Red Roof, Sage Hotel Management, Sandman Hotel Group and Sutton Place Hotels, Stonebridge Companies, VAI Resort, Venetian Las Vega, Voss Hospitality, and Wyndham Hotel & Resorts.

HSMAI hosts this unique by-invitation forum annually for executives from ownership groups who specialize in a commercial role at their company. If you are interested in being invited next year, please email HSMAI.

What Is the State of the Global Workplace Right Now?

Sharon Andrade, Founder at HLeader, HSMAI Sales Advisory Board Member

In a recent meeting of the HSMAI sales advisory board, we discussed talent engagement, productivity, and what happens when managers start to fray. Global employee engagement declined last year, and the economic impact reached hundreds of billions in lost productivity. The most consistent signal was manager engagement slipping first, followed closely by teams, performance, and outcomes that as commercial leaders, we feel quickly.

We’ve all seen that managers have been carrying more weight since the pandemic, with shifting executive expectations layered on top of evolving employee needs. In the Gallup research, younger managers saw engagement fall by five percentage points, while female manager engagement declined by seven points. These numbers matter because manager engagement directly shapes team engagement, which directly shapes revenue performance, execution quality, and growth potential across sales, marketing, revenue, and distribution functions.

One theme kept surfacing throughout the discussion: when engagement drops, people don’t necessarily quit, they just give less effort, and performance quietly declines. When managers disengage, effort narrows to tasks instead of outcomes, and productivity follows. Quiet quitting shows up long before resignations do, while active disengagement creates real risk inside organizations already stretched thin.

Flexibility continues to drive engagement, with hybrid and remote work cited most often during our discussion. Contract and gig talent are also becoming more common as loyalty patterns shift, particularly among younger professionals. These approaches can help, but they do not solve burnout on their own. Several leaders described high-performing, fully remote teams where burnout went unnoticed until top performers unexpectedly exited.

We talked about how recognition and feeling heard are the strongest engagement levers. Appreciation looks different across generations, roles, and personalities, and generic programs often miss the mark. Consistent recognition, peer acknowledgment, and personalized approaches resonated more than traditional incentives tied only to performance cycles.

One line from the discussion captured the risk clearly: “How much effort are teams, leaders, and employees putting forth?” When effort drops, commercial performance follows, regardless of strategy or tools.

Advisory Board members also emphasized the importance of psychological safety, including openly admitting mistakes and asking better questions during one-on-one conversations. Making it safe to speak up helps alleviate small issues before they become operational problems that consume time, energy, and trust. Being heard requires regular outreach, unscripted conversations, and attention beyond dashboards and surveys.

The takeaway is that engagement is not a soft issue, and it is not owned by HR alone. It is a performance issue with direct implications for revenue, growth, and long-term competitiveness.

Questions for Teams

What does great talent look like today?
What impacts have you seen from manager burn-out or disengagement in your organizations?
How do you support managers and what specific training, tools or resources do you enable to develop and engage talent?
How are you deciding what to automate vs. where to stay high-touch in the sales process and how does that affect talent needs and development?
Gallup research shows that employees who feel heard are up to five times more engaged.
a. What do you do consistently to ensure your team and or leaders feel heard?
b. What is one best practice you have for recognition outside of standard incentive or performance based programs?
What one thing can leaders do to positively impact manager engagement?

From Disjointed to Dynamic: A Framework View of Hotel Marketing Performance

Kimberly Erwin, Principal at Lotus Marketing, HSMAI Marketing Advisory Board Member

In most hotels, marketing is a patchwork of activity rather than a system of progress. Teams stay busy, but busy doesn’t mean effective. Hotels often rely on multiple vendors executing disconnected strategies, with no clear standard for how marketing should truly work together to drive revenue. This lack of alignment creates inefficiencies and missed opportunities. As leaders in hotel marketing, Lotus Marketing set out to solve this by creating a unified, strategic framework.

I brought this topic to a recent discussion of the HSMAI marketing advisory board, and I’ll be presenting it as a breakout on June 17th at the Commercial Strategy Conference. One comment framed the entire discussion: “Hotel marketing doesn’t have a universal standard of success, and it’s for a lot of reasons.”

That gap makes it hard to align owners, brands, and commercial teams around what drives revenue. The framework we introduced offers a structured way to evaluate marketing as a system. The intent is clarity around what to focus on first, then next, then continuously. The framework applies across hotel types, portfolio sizes, and complexity levels. In the marketing advisory board discussion, there was an emphasis that the model is about prioritization, not tactics. Teams often default to execution because it is easier to teach and measure, while strategy sequencing is harder and often skipped.

Step one is the foundation, defining who the hotel is and who it represents. This is where positioning lives, and, without it, everything becomes diluted. Trying to be everything weakens relevance, especially in an environment shaped by search engines and AI agents.

Next comes alignment. This connects the brand foundation to what commercial objectives are, and gets marketing, sales, revenue, and leadership working toward the same outcomes. When budgets and effort align with the revenue streams they are meant to support, paid activity stops masking deeper misalignment.

Expression is how the brand shows up across channels and touchpoints. Consistency matters because guests evaluate hotels everywhere. Websites, social channels, thirdparty platforms, and sales materials must ladder to the same goals, because fragmentation breaks trust and performance.

Immersion moves marketing from promise to experiences, like programming, activations, and onproperty moments that reinforce why guests remember the stay. This requires operational alignment, all teams need to understand the experience being sold and deliver it consistently. As we discussed in the meeting, this can be a point of tension when marketing promotes experiences that are not delivered consistently on property.

Finally, outreach comes last. Partnerships, community presence, media, advocacy and where the brand extends beyond the hotel. Without the earlier pillars in place, third parties cannot tell the story well. The sequence matters because compounding only happens when the base is solid.

The assessment tool turns the framework into clear, objective criteria. It benchmarks performance, surfaces gaps, and pinpoints where investment will have the most impact. The call confirmed that a shared marketing language would allow aligning commercial teams, building owner confidence, and positioning marketing as a strategic asset.

Recommended Reading and Viewing

Take the marketing assessment

Recommended Team Questions

How closely does this methodology reflect current marketing practice?
Which parts feel unclear to nonmarketing stakeholders?
Where could this help benchmark portfolio performance?
Where would implementation most likely break down?

Ancillary Revenue Growth and the Shift to Total Revenue Thinking

Sofya Williams (formerly Sofya McIntosh), SVP Sales & Customer Success, ComOps, Sales Advisory Board Member

Chris Hardy, Vice President of Commercial Strategy, Parks Hospitality Group, Sales Advisory Board Chair

A recent discussion of HSMAI’s Sales Advisory Board centered on a truth everyone felt but hadn’t said plainly: moving from rooms-only goals to a total revenue strategy is no longer optional for Sales. Guests make decisions based on the whole experience. Profit comes from far more than the room. And revenue leakage happens early, long before a contract or check-in.

As one participant mentioned, everyone has a stake in total guest value.

Who Owns Total Revenue?

Ownership varies by hotel type and data capability, but the commercial leader often ends up as the controller. They are the ones who ensure every piece of business is evaluated on its full contribution and who coach sellers to think like owners. The problem is data. Most hotels can’t track spend at the guest level, and when the technology does exist, cost and brand restrictions limit adoption.

Incentives That Actually Match Reality

The group discussed incentives and highlighted a mismatch. Some companies reward leaders for total contribution, while others skip Sales entirely and tie ancillary metrics only to operational roles. The consensus: incentives shape behavior, and room-only compensation structures push sellers toward room-only decisions.

Where Ancillary Revenue Lives in the Journey

The board agreed ancillaries are inconsistently integrated. In full-service hotels, they may appear during contracting. In select-service, they land mostly in operations, handled by staff with little sales training. The opportunities span the whole journey: pre-arrival touches, reservation quotes, internal pre-con alignment, understanding group demographics, and building simple offers like paid early checkout or grab-and-go bundles.

The biggest unlock is confidence and training. Without that, even guests who want to spend more won’t be asked.

A More Intentional Revenue Architecture

Shifting to a total-revenue mindset requires:

Clear KPIs that reflect total contribution
Shared ownership across commercial functions
Incentives that reinforce total value
Training for operational teams
Simple, consistent ancillary offers
Better visibility into guest behavior

The architecture already exists in frameworks and playbooks. The challenge is making it part of everyday sales behavior, not an afterthought once business is already booked.

For more on total revenue, check out the session The Next Frontier of Hotel Revenue: Activating TRevPAR on June 17th at the HSMAI Commercial Strategy Conference.

Recommended Reading

Team Discussion Questions

Who owns total revenue per guest today, and who should?
Are we optimizing ADR at the expense of total spend?
Where in the buying journey are we losing the most revenue?
Are ancillaries intentionally part of the sales process or only surfaced after contracting?
Do our incentives support total contribution or only rooms?

The Human Advantage: Hospitality Leadership in an Automated World

Jennifer Hill, Senior Vice President, Commercial Strategy, Kalibri, HSMAI Revenue Optimization Advisory Board Member

Automation is everywhere, and hospitality is feeling it. This piece comes from a recent discussion by the revenue advisory board.

The participants agreed that the question isn’t whether technology will expand, but what happens to hospitality when it does. One line from the conversation hit the center of the issue: “We won’t know until we’ve gone too far.”

A recent Harvard Business Review article framed it clearly: efficiency scales, but human connection differentiates. As one discussion participant pointed out, the moments when human interaction matters most are also the moments when revenue and loyalty are most at stake: service recovery. high value guests, long lead bookings. These are the places where automation creates risk, not relief.

Across the group, a pattern surfaced. Routine questions? Automate them. Anything that removes friction for the guest? Automate that too. But experiential touchpoints — the ones that shape loyalty, pricing power, and return behavior — stay human. A callback after checkout at a leisure resort landed because it felt intentional. Nobody expected it at an economy hotel, and expectations matter.

Chain scale framed much of the debate. Some expect the “human touch” to become a luxury, with automation freeing staff to focus on higher value interactions. Others questioned whether loyalty even holds the same weight in a world defined by efficiency and rising labor costs. The examples of “autonomous hotels” underscored the gap between promise and practice. Fully automated rarely means fully autonomous.

Still, one of the sharper questions came late in the discussion: if technology handles most transactions, and efficiency becomes table stakes, what will actually create pricing power? Will it be efficiency, personalization, brand strength, or human hospitality? Initial answers split, but the group agreed that traveler intent adds another layer. A business traveler arriving at midnight wants speed. A leisure guest wants connection. The same brand can deliver both if it knows who it’s talking to.

The last thread focused on segmentation. Traditional models aren’t holding up against today’s patterns, and without accurate signals, personalization is limited. Several pointed to the value of first-party data and engagement — prearrival behavior, direct booking behavior, and what guests opt into or ignore. Others noted that even the best segmentation doesn’t matter if the technology doesn’t work. Friction kills trust fast.

The conversation ended with more questions than answers, which seems right for where the industry is. Automation is accelerating. Human hospitality still matters. The tension between them is where commercial strategy now lives.

Recommended Reading

Questions for Teams

As hotels adopt more automation across booking, messaging, and operations, where should hospitality organizations intentionally preserve human interaction because it drives higher revenue, stronger loyalty, or greater lifetime value?
How much influence should commercial leaders have in shaping the guest experience if that experienceultimately drivespricing power, repeat business, and long-term revenue growth?
Where have you seen human hospitality directly influence revenue performance, whether through higher ADR, repeat stays, ancillary spending, or stronger guest loyalty?
When evaluatingnew technologyinvestments, how should organizations balance cost efficiency with the potential revenue upside of better guest experiences and stronger loyalty?
If AI eventually handles most transactions and operational efficiency becomes table stakes, what will create pricing power for hotel brands in the future? Is it efficiency, data-driven personalization, brand strength, or authentic human hospitality?

The Contact Centers Role in Commercial Strategy

Megan Becker, Manager of Hiring and Training, Reservations, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Company

Stephanie Poirier, Senior Team Leader, Sales Support & Quality Performance, Accor

Anita Travis, VP Global Contact Center, Outrigger Hospitality Group

The HSMAI Contact Center Special Interest Group (SIG) met to explore how contact centers consistently drive substantial annual revenue while showcasing a high standard of hospitality. To appreciate the contact center’s impact, it is important to understand the shifting trends in the last several years. Two of the most identifiable causes for these shifts are the pandemic and the emergence of AI and other technologies that have changed guest behavior.

Guests are now researching online, and often reserving online, and then calling the contact center to ensure everything they’ve booked themselves is accurate, or to get more information about the property or general area. Additionally, guests are asking far different questions than they used to, a result of becoming accustomed to having so much information available at our fingertips.

To assist these guests, contact center representatives need to have even more information than properties’ websites boast. As one member pointed out, it’s important for leaders to identify commonly asked questions and communicate with hotel properties to get additional information that can be shared with the contact center. Leaders also need to manage their educational resources for their teams and update those resources frequently.

One way to accomplish this is to have hotel partners join a “stand-up” or to require them to send a daily update with relevant details to help the contact center team. These updates could include rates and availability for early check-ins or late departures, so contact center agents know what they are able to sell that day.

Despite the shift to online environments, contact centers are still uniquely equipped to deliver excellent guest service and increased revenue. As one member highlighted, on-site agents (front desk, operators, etc.) are often juggling many tasks and can be distracted by trying to support on-site guests, whereas contact center agents are completely focused on the guest experience. Another member added that contact center team members are “sellers” who are incentivized and motivated to secure the reservation, which leads to increased conversion.

Further illustrating the effectiveness of contact center teams, one participant identified success in redirecting in-room dining calls to a centralized and specialized team, noting a 12% year-over-year increase in in-room dining sales.

For participants who track average spend by phone and average spend for online bookings, the average spend for phone sales is consistently higher. In fact, phone interactions can increase reservation value by up to 60% through upselling and cross-selling. Members highlighted successes with the ability to offer services, personalized recommendations, special features like “executive floors,” dining, spa, and golf via the voice channel.

In short, contact centers see higher conversion rates than digital channels, with a higher average booking value. Including them in the commercial strategy is not only a wise decision, but a profitable one.

Key Takeaways

Across hospitality research, the voice channel consistently shows three advantages:

Higher conversion rates than digital channels
Higher average booking value
High-intent travelers who are ready to book

Top 10 Statistics About Hotel Voice Bookings

Voice bookings still represent a meaningful share of hotel reservations

- ~18% of hotel reservations are made via phone calls despite the rise of online booking channels.

Inbound reservation calls convert extremely well

- ~50% of inbound hotel reservation calls convert to bookings on average in North America.

Calls convert at higher rates than most digital channels

- 46% of qualified hotel calls convert during the call, outperforming other travel segments.

Many hotels miss significant revenue because calls go unanswered

- ~40% of incoming hotel calls go unanswered, and this can rise to 62% without dedicated reservation staff.

Voice bookings often generate higher revenue per booking

- Phone reservations typically produce higher booking values and more complex stays (e.g., suites, multi-room reservations).

Voice bookings often come from high-intent travelers

- Guests calling hotels tend to be high-value or complex-trip travelers who want confirmation before purchasing.

Optimized reservation teams can significantly increase revenue

- Hotels implementing voice reservation sales programs have generated ~$1,748 in incremental revenue per room annually from voice-driven outbound engagement.

Poor call handling dramatically reduces conversion

- If hold times exceed 2 minutes, hotels lose ~47% of callers before they book.

Call conversion rates vary depending on operations

- Typical reservation call conversion ranges between 15%-30%, depending on staffing and training.

Telephone channels enable stronger upselling and higher ADR

- Phone interactions can increase reservation value by up to 60% through upselling and cross-selling.

This year at HSMAI’s Commercial Strategy Conference, join fellow hoteliers for an interactive peer discussion focused on shared challenges, emerging trends, and practical takeaways in contact center strategy. Monday, June 15 | 2:00-5:00 PM CT 

View Roundtable Details 
Add to Your Registration - (Log into My HSMAI / Click “My Registrations” / Click “View Registration” / Select Functions & Proceed to Checkout)

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Questions for Your Commercial Team 

If Contact Centers disappeared tomorrow, how much revenue would brands lose?
On the contrary, how much more revenue could Contact Centers be generating if additional calls were routed through the contact centers vs on-site teams?
What percentage of revenue is generated through your contact center? 
Given the outcomes in contact center vs hotel; how aligned are our contact center goals with sales, marketing, and revenue management? Are there additional opportunities to further support one another?

A More Disciplined Year for Hospitality

Sydney Eason, Founding Partner and Marketing Strategist, Eason Branding, Marketing Rising Leader Council Member

This perspective comes from a marketing rising leader council discussion, rooted in what teams are dealing with now. Growth has slowed, forecasts have been revised, and 2026 feels far less forgiving than recent years. The data has already landed, and it is shaping decisions in real time.

Industry forecasts point to slower lodging performance across supply growth, demand, ADR, and RevPAR in the U.S. Those revisions are not abstract. Guest expectations have shifted again, with more focus on rest, ease, and value rather than constant novelty. Marketing teams are adjusting accordingly. Creativity matters more when performance tightens. Foundational content is back in focus because AI tools rely on accurate, detailed information. Group and business travel are carrying more importance in many markets. Wellness has become less about amenities and more about removing friction from the stay experience.

One comment from the discussion summed up the year clearly: “RevPAR is down, ADR is down, growth is down, a lot of numbers are down”.

That reality is driving discipline. Teams are simplifying messages, rebuilding core assets, and being selective about where dollars go. The group mentioned that there are fewer experiments, clearer priorities, and paying more attention to what converts and what simply sounds good in planning decks. Commercial teams are adjusting to the numbers in front of them and doing the work required to stay relevant in a slower cycle, without pretending the cycle does not exist.