LOS ANGELES — In a conversation on growth gameplans at ALIS—held in Los Angeles this week—senior hotel executives shared a clear message: The next phase of hospitality growth will be powered by international travelers to the U.S., experiential luxury and loyalty while generic luxury is Daniel Peek, president, Americas for JLL and Mark Owens, vice chair for Colliers, co-moderated the panel.
Christopher Hartley, CEO of the Global Hotel Alliance, set the macro stage with a confident outlook for 2026. The Global Hotel Alliance has 35 million members, he said, and those figures give the company “a very good sense of where demand is for travel."
Hartley pointed to sustained strength in international leisure as the defining demand story. He also underscored the structural change in American travel behavior: “If you look [back] 20 years, we said that 10 percent of Americans had a passport, and now it's about 55 percent … it gives you a sense of the appetite for international travel." Younger travelers in particular, he said, see international travel as a core part of “who they are and what they want to be and what they want to do.”
On the domestic side, the panel turned to major upcoming events—notably the FIFA World Cup and the 250th anniversary of the United States—as potential catalysts for hotel demand.
Joseph Bojanowski, president of the PM Hotel Group, noted that the company's portfolio includes hotels in a number of markets where there are World Cup matches, and particularly in markets that are going to be base markets where the fans may be staying. Yet the optimism is tempered by policy and access issues.
“You look at a visa restrictions that come into place, and there are these 12 countries on that list that have teams in the World Cup,” he said. “So I think it's providing some uncertainty where there should have been some certainty."
Even with those headwinds, the event is still expected to lift performance, albeit modestly. “It’s still a huge event. It’s the World Cup,” Bojanowski said.
John Murray, president of Sonesta International Hotel Corp., was more bullish on the upside. “I think people are going to be surprised. I think FIFA is going to generate more business than people expect, even with these restrictions,” he said. He also pointed to the United States' 250th anniversary as another tailwind: “The 250 celebration is also going to make this a better year than most people are expecting.”
From an international traveler’s perspective, Hartley warned about affordability and geopolitics around the tournament. There is “a lot of sensitivity to is there going to be a sort of ring‑fenced United States … and I think there's a risk it becomes political over the next couple of months,” he cautioned, while stressing he hopes “the politics stays out of it."
Standardized Luxury
The panel often returned to a central theme: the end of standardized luxury.
Reflecting on the early days of lifestyle hospitality, Raul Leal, president of Starwood Hotels, noted that consumer expectations have evolved sharply, especially post‑pandemic. Guests are no longer paying “anything to get out of their house and go to [a] hotel at the beach."
That shift puts pressure on undifferentiated high‑end hotels. “I think one of the sectors of the industry that could be in trouble [is] generic luxury hotels,” Leal said, calling out properties “that don't provide the experience beyond the design and maybe some unique location." Those hotels, he warned, “are going to be under pressure to sustain significant rates.”
Hartley agreed that “generic luxury is a risk where it becomes very difficult to justify offering a standardized experience” that feels “somewhat superficial."
Asked where white space exists in a world saturated with brands, Bojanowski pointed to the sheer proliferation of flags.
“It's difficult to make an argument for any segment being underserved when … you've got literally 100 brands,” he said, adding that “most of them are actually just part of a brand position for investors and developers” rather than clearly understood by consumers.
Yet he still sees opportunity in specific niches. “Wellness, I think, is an underserved segment,” he said, citing the Reset outdoor-focused hotels in markets such as Joshua Tree, Moab and Lake Tahoe that “are resonating with the travelers." .
The business model, however, is challenging. “The cost of building in those areas is high. The seasonality of them is a challenge to overcome and then … you have to build housing with it and other things,” he explained. Even so, he expects continued growth in “upright luxury that is not generic in nature” with “a wellness component … and the longevity component of it as well."
Meanwhile, Murray said there are numerous growth opportunities for companies like Sonesta in more affordable hotel segments despite what the industry numbers are showing. “The vast majority of Americans are not staying in ultra-luxury or luxury hotels,” he said, noting that most of them are staying in lower-priced or economy hotels, “So, there's a lot of growth opportunity there.”
That’s why Sonesta continues to lean so heavily into its franchise business. “The margins are good. There are a lot of family-owned and -operated hotels that are profitable, which is why our partners have been gradually selling select-service or mid-priced hotels,” he said. “We've been converting them from managed to franchise. Keeping them in the brand is enabling us to become a little bit more fee-generative and expand profits.”
Loyalty Ecosystems
As distribution continues to evolve, the executives were candid about the rising power of loyalty programs and the potential of AI‑driven, intent‑based search to disrupt today’s disruptors.
Hartley argued that with “150 brands or whatever is out there,” consumers are often confused and indifferent to the finer points of brand architecture. “What actually [exists] is a set of 150 brands. Consumers recognize some of them, but most of them … [are] for investors,” he said.
In contrast, Bojanowski's independent portfolio allows for “highly targeted” and “highly personalized” marketing with direct access to first‑party data. Done well, he argued, those independents can “compete against brands” by excelling at narrative and visual storytelling across websites and social channels.
Looking ahead, AI‑powered search could further upend the landscape. “Pretty soon, chat and some of those images are going to become your search engine,” Leal predicted, calling intent‑based search “the disruption to the disruptors and also equalizer."