Beyond RevPAR: Key Takeaways from The Lodging Conference 2026
Updated: 3 hours ago
Key Takeaways at a Glance
Demand is recovering. U.S. room demand is up about 2% year-to-date, and forecasts call for roughly 5% RevPAR growth in 2026.
Revenue growth doesn't always match profit. GOP margins stayed flat at 38.7% even as revenue grew.
Meetings and events are a shared growth opportunity. Conference and events revenue per available room is up 7.2% year-to-date, ahead of rooms.
AI has to solve costly problems. Tools are being judged on measurable results, not novelty.
Policy and sustainability will shape 2027 planning. Labor rules, local taxes, and documented sustainability performance are becoming more important.
Introduction
Our team recently attended The Lodging Conference in Phoenix. Each year, the event offers a clear view of where the hotel industry is heading. This year, one message came up in nearly every session: revenue growth is strong, but profit matters most.
For hotels and the planners who bring events into them, that message points in the same direction. Protecting margin is a shared goal.
Demand Is Back, and Forecasts Reflect It
Presenters were more optimistic about the data than they have been in some time. STR’s Isaac Collazo reported U.S. room demand up about 2% year-to-date, with September up close to 5%. HVS and Kalibri both forecast roughly 5% RevPAR growth for 2026, easing to about 3% in 2027.
The FIFA World Cup boosted host markets, with double-digit RevPAR gains during the games. San Francisco, Miami, and Dallas led. Supply growth is also constrained: Lodging Econometrics reported the construction pipeline down 5% year over year, which means existing hotels face less new competition.
Profit Has Not Kept Pace
Speaker after speaker warned against reading too much into top-line growth. STR showed gross operating profit (GOP) margins flat at 38.7% even as revenues rose. HotStats found several expense categories growing faster than total revenue per available room (RevPAR): IT systems up 10.6%, booking costs up 8.8%, and insurance up 62% since 2019.
Kalibri reported that the share of guest-paid revenue hotels actually keep fell by more than one percentage point, which the presenter estimated at roughly $29 billion in lost asset value. Duetto put it simply: RevPAR does not guarantee profit. Speakers urged hotels to track GOPPAR, total revenue, and channel mix alongside RevPAR.
Meetings and Events Are a Shared Profit Opportunity
Events were one of the most useful threads of the conference for us. HotStats reported conference and events revenue per available room up 7.2% year-to-date, ahead of rooms at 5.9%. Ancillary revenue came up repeatedly as the industry’s biggest near-term opportunity.
Results varied widely by market. Conference and banquet revenue per square foot rose about 18% in Orlando and Miami Beach but fell sharply in Minneapolis and Charleston. Group demand is improving but remains below pre-pandemic levels. Kalibri also noted that corporate travel is growing for the first time since COVID-19.
The strongest event results come when hotels and planners work from the same numbers. Clear pricing, early coordination on food and beverage and AV, and shared visibility into budgets help both sides protect margin and deliver the experience attendees remember.
AI Is Being Judged on Results
Speakers from Actabl, Reeco, Mews, Inn-Flow, and Tanyx AI agreed on one point: AI has to solve real, costly problems rather than add another login. Actabl presented a pilot in which AI-driven daily labor insights cut overtime by nearly three hours per week per hotel.
Mews made a point we strongly agree with: much of a hotel’s lost margin comes from handoffs between systems and teams. Well-run events depend on the same thing, which is why clear communication between hotel and planner teams matters as much as any tool.
Plans Must Account for Policy, Cost, and Sustainability
AHLA and AAHOA pointed to likely 2027 changes involving labor ordinances, consumer protection, and local hotel taxes. Mindclick showed corporate travel buyers shifting spend toward hotels that can document their sustainability performance.
Our Takeaway
The properties that come out ahead will look past rooms revenue. They will treat every guest touchpoint as an opportunity to deliver value.
That is the conversation we want to keep having with our hotel and planner partners. If you attended The Lodging Conference in Phoenix, we’d like to hear what stood out to you.
Contact ON Site to learn how we work with hotel, resort, and convention center teams.
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