Scroll through your camera roll from the past year and count how many memories are tied to a place rather than a purchase. Chances are, your standout moments come from a view, a meal, a lobby, or a late night conversation in a hotel bar. That instinct is not just personal; it is reshaping the global hotel world.
Recent global research on the lodging sector shows that while investors talk about RevPAR and cap rates, what really moves the numbers is how travellers like you are choosing to spend time and money. In 2026, three forces stand out: experiences over things, a K shaped recovery in travel, and the quiet arrival of AI as your next trip planner.
Experiences over things
Around the world, luxury spending has tilted steadily away from goods towards experiences, with travel right at the centre of that shift. By 2025, global luxury spending reached about €1.4 trillion, and hospitality alone made up 17 per cent of that total, ahead of fine wines, spirits and gourmet dining and just behind fashion and cars.
This means that for many high income travellers, the “big treat” is now a hotel stay rather than a handbag. Instead of a single flagship purchase, people are booking resorts that feel like private clubs, design driven city hotels that double as neighbourhood hangouts, and journeys that string several stays together into one narrative. Even as overall luxury spend dipped 2 to 3 per cent year on year in 2025, spend on travel related experiences held up, supported by the steady growth of high and ultra high net worth individuals, whose numbers are still expected to grow at 5 per cent or more per year versus less than 1 per cent for the wider population.
A K shaped travel recovery
The hotel recovery after Covid has not been one smooth upward line; it has split.
At the top end, luxury and upscale hotels are still performing strongly, buoyed by guests who are less sensitive to rising prices and more focused on getting the most out of each trip. In the middle, however, inflation is biting. Many travellers are trimming the number of trips, shortening stays, or trading down to more modest brands, even as they try to hold on to small moments of indulgence.
Data from the top 50 hotel markets worldwide shows that from 2019 to 2025, room rates for leisure trips grew by roughly 14.7 per cent, outpacing business trip rates, which grew about 10.5 per cent over the same period. Over the past year, though, that picture has shifted again: average rates for mainstream leisure have flattened, while “top tier leisure” resorts have continued to show stronger pricing power. In other words, the family trip to a mid range beach hotel is where value is being hunted, while the truly special resort at the top of your wish list is still commanding a premium.
Where travellers are going now
Geopolitics, major events and local stories are subtly rewriting the map.
The ongoing conflict in the Middle East is dampening travel into affected corridors and nudging some travellers to reroute towards alternative hubs in Europe and Asia, a shift that is visible in booking data and hotel performance. At the same time, 2025 travel volumes were robust overall, and 2026 is being shaped by a series of big moments: the FIFA World Cup spread across the United States, Canada and Mexico, and the 250th anniversary celebrations in the United States, both of which will send demand surging in host cities like New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Washington DC.
Region by region, the story feels different on the ground. In Europe, cities such as London and historic destinations across Southern Europe are attracting both travellers and long term capital, supported by a renewed appetite for “authentic” experiences and a push into smaller, characterful towns beyond the classic tourist map. In Asia Pacific, many major gateways are now among the best performing hotel markets globally, Japan is experiencing rising interest from both domestic and international guests, and China is slowly rebuilding domestic and outbound travel from below its previous peak.
What does this mean for brands?
While China outbound continues to recover, traveller preferences have evolved. Consumers are increasingly prioritizing experiences-led travel, premium accommodations, and digital-first content driven planning. These are opportunities for brands that can tell their brand stories across channels or making it easy for the travellers to tell it for them.
How brands are competing for you
Behind the scenes, global hotel groups are increasingly organised around loyalty and direct relationships. Their business “flywheel” is built on members who book directly through apps and websites, in exchange for points, upgrades and personalised offers. The more guests they keep inside that ecosystem, the more they can justify investing in new properties, better technology and richer experiences.
At the same time, there is a very different conversation happening at the top of the market. Publicly listed giants like Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and IHG compete on scale, uniform standards and the reach of their loyalty programmes. Ultra luxury players such as Four Seasons, Belmond, Aman, Auberge and Rocco Forte compete more on mood, setting and service, often building or restoring one of a kind properties in locations that are slow and expensive to develop. That is why your memories of a favourite hotel often have less to do with share price and more to do with the exact way the light fell across a courtyard or how the staff quietly learned your habits.
What does this mean for brands?
Loyalty programs are increasingly evolving from reward mechanisms into customer engagement platforms. As the cost of acquisition rise and travelers become more selective, brands are investing more on loyalty ecosystems, partnerships, and personalization to deepen customer relationship and drive repeat business.
AI as your quiet trip planner
Perhaps the most quietly disruptive shift is the arrival of AI as a travel companion. Investors may talk about “disintermediation” and distribution, but from a traveller’s perspective, the change will feel simple: instead of opening ten tabs, you will increasingly ask an AI based assistant to design an itinerary in your style, within your budget and time.
In response, hotel groups are racing to make sure that their properties remain visible in this new world. They are reshaping their content so AI systems can “understand” their rooms and locations, upgrading reservation platforms, and rethinking loyalty benefits so that, even when a machine suggests options, you still recognise and choose your preferred brands. The industry view is that AI “agents” may become the next version of an online travel agency: convenient, powerful and sitting between you and the hotel, but also another gatekeeper that everyone wants on their side.
What does this mean for brands?
For brands, AI introduces new challenges around discoverability, content strategy, personalization, and ownership of customer relationship. The winners may be those brands that adapt fastest to AI-driven recommendation ecosystems while maintaining strong direct customer engagement and developing a long-term customer strategy.
What this means for your next stay
For travellers in Hong Kong and across Asia, the practical implications are clear.
First, if you are planning a once in a year or once in a lifetime trip, it may be worth leaning into hotels that are meaningfully different, especially in markets with strong momentum such as Japan, Southern Europe and key North American cities hosting major events. Second, if you are watching your budget, focusing on timing and location will matter more than ever: avoiding peak event dates, looking just beyond the most obvious hotspot, and keeping an eye on new direct flight routes can unlock much better value. Third, as AI powered planning tools become more common, it will be worth understanding how your loyalty memberships and data shape the recommendations you see, and deciding when you want to trust the algorithm and when you still want to do some of the discovery yourself.
However you choose to travel, the hotel world is bending itself around a simple reality: people remember feelings, not forecasts, and the properties that can turn statistics into stories will be the ones that remain on your camera roll for years to come.
What does this mean for brands?
For brands, these trends point toward a more competitive landscape where differentiation, personalization, and customer engagement become increasingly important. As travelers become more selective and technology reshapes trip planning and booking preferences, understanding evolving consumer expectation will be critical to sustaining growth.
Travelers are becoming more intentional about how they spend their time and money, but expectations for personalisation and relevance continue to rise. As AI reshapes discovery and loyalty programmes evolve into broader engagement platforms, brands will need to think beyond transactions and focus on building lasting customer relationships. The brands that succeed will be those that combine data, technology, and human hospitality to create experiences that feel genuinely personal.
Tracy Chang, Hospitality Consultant