10 Hotel Industry Statistics Every Owner Should Know in 2026

The 2026 hotel story has two sides. Guest spending and demand are growing, while operating profit remains below the pre-pandemic benchmark and labor costs continue to pressure margins. A useful hotel statistics page has to keep forecasts, current operating results, guest surveys, and labor data separate.

We read the American Hotel and Lodging Association's 2026 State of the Industry report, the J.D. Power 2026 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Study, the CoStar and Tourism Economics Q2 2026 forecast, and current Bureau of Labor Statistics accommodation data. We extracted the most useful numbers and labeled the data year, publication date, evidence type, segment, and denominator so the figures can be cited without turning a forecast into a historical fact.

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1. Hotel guest spending is forecast to reach nearly $805 billion in 2026, while GOPPAR remains roughly 90% of 2019 levels

The AHLA expects U.S. hotel guest spending to reach nearly $805 billion in 2026, a 1.7% increase over 2025. The same report says hotels generated $85.1 billion in local, state, and federal taxes in 2025, with that total projected to approach $87 billion in 2026.

The spending figure is a demand and economic-impact measure, not the same thing as hotel profit. AHLA identifies rising operating expenses as a primary factor keeping gross operating profit per available room, or GOPPAR, at roughly 90% of 2019 levels. A hotel can therefore participate in a growing spending market while still operating below its historical profit performance.

The correct operator question is not simply whether guest spending is rising. It is whether the property's occupancy, ADR, labor cost, ancillary revenue, and gross operating profit are improving at the same rate as the market around it.

2. Hotel wages and benefits are projected to approach $131 billion as direct employment grows to about 2.2 million

AHLA reports that the hotel industry paid nearly $128 billion in wages and benefits in 2025 and projects that amount to approach $131 billion in 2026. It also projects more than 30,000 additional jobs in 2026, bringing direct hotel operations employment to approximately 2.2 million.

These figures describe the direct hotel operations workforce and the compensation paid by the hotel industry. They are different from BLS accommodation employment, which uses a broader North American Industry Classification System category and includes lodging businesses beyond conventional hotels. Keeping the universe beside the number prevents an operator from comparing a hotel-specific forecast with a broader accommodation series as though they were identical.

Labor should therefore appear next to revenue in a 2026 hotel dashboard. Track labor cost per occupied room, labor cost as a share of room revenue, hours per occupied room, open positions, and turnover alongside occupancy and ADR. A higher revenue figure does not automatically mean improved labor productivity or profit.

3. CoStar raised the 2026 U.S. RevPAR forecast to 2.8% after a 4.0% year-to-date gain through April

CoStar and Tourism Economics reported that the first four-plus months of 2026 beat earlier projections. U.S. RevPAR growth reached 4.0% year over year through April, and the full-year 2026 RevPAR growth forecast was upgraded to 2.8%. CoStar also described first-quarter RevPAR as the highest on record.

These are two different evidence types. The 4.0% figure is an observed year-to-date result through April. The 2.8% figure is a forecast for the full year. The full-year forecast can be lower than the year-to-date number because the remaining months may perform differently from the first months and because the forecast incorporates expectations for future demand, supply, events, and macroeconomic conditions.

For a property, RevPAR is room revenue / available rooms, or equivalently occupancy x ADR when occupancy is expressed as a proportion. Always show which definition and period are being used. A property can outperform the market on RevPAR because of rate, occupancy, or the mix of both.

4. U.S. hotel demand is up 2.0% and group demand 2.7%, while room supply growth is forecast at only 0.4%

CoStar reports that U.S. hotel demand increased 2.0% year over year from the start of 2026. Group demand, defined in the source as bookings of 10 or more room nights, grew 2.7% from February through April. The source describes particularly strong group gains in secondary markets hosting small-to-medium-sized events with in-quarter pickup.

At the same time, CoStar lowered its 2026 supply-growth expectation from 0.7% to 0.4%. The development pipeline contained nearly 767,000 rooms, but only 19% were in construction, the lowest share in that phase in 12 years. A large pipeline is not the same thing as near-term delivered supply.

This combination can support hotel pricing in some markets, but it does not guarantee higher ADR for every property. Owners need to segment demand by transient and group business, track their own pace and pickup, and compare delivered competitive supply rather than relying on a national demand-to-supply headline.

5. Luxury ADR was near 6% growth, while select-service ADR was around 2% in CoStar's 2026 data

CoStar reports that luxury ADR was just below 6% year over year during the April year-to-date period. Select-service properties were around 2% ADR growth and remained below the rate of inflation. Lower-end properties showed mild-to-moderate demand improvement, but rate weakness continued among consumers most affected by pricing pressure.

The segment spread is an important operator insight. A national ADR average can hide very different pricing power by chain scale and guest mix. A luxury property with strong international or event demand may be able to raise rate while a select-service hotel faces more resistance even when both properties see more room nights.

Report ADR by chain scale, market, day of week, booking segment, and room type. Pair it with occupancy and RevPAR so a rate increase that reduces volume is visible rather than celebrated as a standalone win.

6. J.D. Power's 2026 study put overall North American hotel satisfaction at 665, up 13 points

The J.D. Power 2026 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study reports overall satisfaction of 665 on a 1,000-point scale, up 13 points year over year. Improvements occurred across all hotel segments and all measured dimensions. The largest listed gains were value for prices paid, up 18 points; food and beverage satisfaction, up 14 points; and hotel facility satisfaction, up 14 points.

The study is based on responses from 44,787 branded hotel guests describing stays in the past 30 days between May 2025 and May 2026. It benchmarks 104 brands across nine hotel segments. That makes it a substantial branded-hotel guest survey, but it is not a census of every independent property or every hotel stay in North America.

J.D. Power also notes that the average daily rate for a U.S. hotel room rose about 1% year over year in the study context. The combination of higher rates and higher perceived value is useful for operators because it connects the price paid with the quality of the delivered room, facility, staff, and food experience.

7. Smart TVs reached 74% availability and 62% guest usage, while housekeeping was the leading need-to-have amenity

J.D. Power reports that smart TVs with streaming capabilities were available in 74% of rooms and used by 62% of guests, with both figures up 2 percentage points year over year. The data suggest that streaming access is moving from a premium differentiator toward a more common expectation, although availability and usage remain different measures.

The study also reports the share of guests identifying selected amenities as need to have: daily housekeeping at 46%, filtered water stations at 30%, and fitness centers at 21%. These percentages are guest preference results, not proof that every property should invest equally in each amenity. A hotel should compare the preference signal with its segment, guest purpose, cost, utilization, and effect on satisfaction.

The useful calculation is an amenity funnel: availability, guest usage, satisfaction among users, operating cost, and incremental revenue. A facility that is widely available but rarely used may need better communication, better placement, or a different investment. A service that guests call essential may be a poor place to cut even when it has no direct room charge.

8. Gen Y accounted for 49% and Gen Z for 23% of guests using AI for hotel research

The J.D. Power study now measures guests who use AI tools during hotel research. Among guests who used AI for that purpose, Gen Y represented 49% of users and Gen Z represented 23%. These are shares of AI research users, not shares of all hotel guests and not a measure of total AI adoption across the market.

The denominator changes the business interpretation. The finding does not mean that 72% of all hotel guests used AI. It means that, within the subset identified as using AI for hotel research, those two generations made up the listed shares. Operators should therefore monitor the share of their own traffic and inquiries that arrive through AI-assisted discovery before attributing bookings to the channel.

The practical response is to keep basic hotel facts easy to verify: room types, amenities, policies, location, accessibility, parking, fees, and direct booking terms. Measure the source of traffic and booking conversion rather than treating an industry survey share as a property-level forecast.

9. BLS counted 1.914 million employees in the accommodation subsector in June 2026, but the category is broader than hotels

The BLS accommodation subsector page reports 1,913.8 thousand seasonally adjusted employees in June 2026, with a 6.1% unemployment rate for the subsector. The employment figure is preliminary on the page snapshot. For May 2026, BLS reports average hourly earnings of $25.38 and average weekly hours of 30.5 for all employees in accommodation.

The BLS occupation table for 2025 lists 247,700 hotel, motel, and resort desk clerks; 38,100 lodging managers; and 420,800 maids and housekeeping cleaners. These occupation counts are useful for workforce context, but they are not a direct count of jobs at one hotel and they are not all 2026 figures.

The scope note matters. NAICS 721 Accommodation includes lodging and short-term accommodation businesses such as traveler accommodation, RV parks and recreational camps, and rooming and boarding houses. AHLA's approximately 2.2 million direct hotel operations employment projection uses a different, hotel-industry universe. Use BLS for a transparent labor-market series and AHLA for its hotel-specific industry outlook, without presenting them as the same count.

10. A hotel benchmark is only useful when occupancy, profit, guest experience, labor, and evidence type stay together

The minimum operator dashboard should keep these measures visible:

• Occupancy: occupied room nights / available room nights.
• ADR: room revenue / occupied room nights.
• RevPAR: room revenue / available room nights, or occupancy x ADR.
• GOPPAR: gross operating profit / available room nights.
• Labor cost per occupied room: total hotel labor cost / occupied room nights.
• Guest value: the property's value-for-price score, with its survey scale and sample.
• Problem incidence: guests reporting a problem / surveyed guests, with the question and response period stated.
• Amenity usage: guests using an amenity / guests with access to the amenity.
• Group pace: room nights on the books or picked up from group bookings / the comparable booking window.
• Forecast variance: actual result - forecast result, with the original forecast date retained.

Use the source table at the top as a publishing rule. AHLA's 2026 numbers are an industry outlook with 2025 observed context. CoStar's 4.0% RevPAR number is observed through April while 2.8% is a full-year forecast. J.D. Power's 665 is a guest survey result tied to a defined sample and stay period. BLS's 1,913.8 thousand is a current preliminary accommodation employment figure with a broader universe than hotels.

That separation is the article's most important insight. A hotel owner can use national data to understand the market, but decisions still depend on the property's own occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, GOPPAR, labor cost, guest problem rate, amenity usage, and forecast variance. Keep the period, denominator, segment, source, and evidence type beside every number.

Sources

• AHLA 2026 State of the Industry
• J.D. Power 2026 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Study
• CoStar and Tourism Economics U.S. Hotel Forecast Assumptions - Q2 2026
• BLS Accommodation: NAICS 721
• BLS Leisure and Hospitality overview