Get an In-depth View of the 2025 Hotel Industry

Whether you’re sourcing hotel partners, looking to squeeze the most value from your hotel program, or curious about hotel trends, there’s one must-read you won’t want to miss: the 2025 Hotel Monitor from American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT). Each year our hotel consultants get together to share their in-depth knowledge of the hotel landscape. Their views, insights, and forecasts are combined into a one-stop report that brings substance to strategic planning.

With global inflation simmering down and tech-enabled self-service ramping up, it’s a good time to silence your inbox and dive into the Monitor’s newsworthy insights. Learn how:

• Inflation targets will influence hotel rates globally.
• Global hotel construction is at an all-time high.
• Hotels are reacting to labor shortages, with many increasing wages to attract staff.

To offset staffing gaps, many hotels are exploring the optimum human-digital experience. Our consultants are already seeing digital check-ins at many major hotel brands. In the future, we may see even more sophisticated technologies using artificial intelligence to predict a hotel guest’s likes and needs. Over 6 million smart hotel room devices are expected to ship worldwide in 2027. So, it will be interesting to see how a higher level of personalization takes shape in the next few years.

A room that’s all about “me”

There’s a new focus on the hotel room experience. Our consultants find guests are retreating to their room rather than a relaxing public space to get a home-away-from-home feeling. Hotels are catering to them with everything from room service to late check-out to in-room yoga mats and other fitness gear. Hyatt is jumping on the wellness trend by shipping 800 Peloton bikes to Hyatt locations across North America and Europe, with plans to award guests with loyalty points for completing workouts.

Sustainability data is in demand

With corporate sustainability goals persisting, our consultants are seeing a need for sustainable data that gives a clear indication of the carbon footprint. Is it easy to find? Hilton’s LightStay ESG management system captures data on everything from energy and carbon to waste and efficiency projects.

More travelers are lengthening the stay

If you live or travel in North America, you may have noticed apartment-style hotels popping up more and more. Our consultants are seeing that trend spread across the world and it’s booming in Asia, fueled by longer business trips. Along with that trend comes the need for the comforts of home, like plenty of space and nearby self-catering options.

The view from the top

Meeting travelers’ preferences with enough hotel choices is important, according to Simon Fishman, vice president of global hotel partnerships at Amex GBT. “We all like different things when we’re traveling for work,” he says. “Being able to cater to travelers’ preferences sets them up to do the job they’re there to do most effectively. Our Hotel Marketplace is all about enabling choice for travelers. It gives them access to more than 2 million places to stay, including your own negotiated room rates, all in one platform, providing a vast range of choices for all your travelers’ needs.”

From leading insights to smart advice, the Hotel Monitor covers it all, including the views of hotel leaders from Hilton and IHG. You’ll get their take on:

• The biggest trends shaping the hospitality industry.
• How changing guest expectations will play out in hotel services and technology.
• The main factors to consider when you’re sourcing hotel partners.

If planning group events is a big part of your day-to-day, you’ll be interested to read what Emma Bason has to say. Our director of global venue sourcing finds a well-chosen venue can elevate the perception of the event, creating an emotionally engaging mood that’s key to today’s meetings.

Best practice, sourcing tips

To support your sourcing strategies, our consultants developed a six-step plan to help strengthen negotiations. Learn why you need:

• Ongoing communications with hotel providers.
• Booking and expense hotel data.
• A good understanding of industry trends.
• A multi-year view of negotiations.
• An open mind about dynamic rates.
• To be flexible about room type and cost.

Dynamic rates may benefit those companies with larger hotel programs, but if your role involves managing travel with a smaller hotel spend, pre-negotiated rates, like our Preferred Extras,^TM may be a better fit for you.

A world view of hotel rate changes

On top of sourcing advice, you’ll explore expected rate increases in regions around the world and the factors influencing them. For example, New York and Las Vegas are expected to have higher rate hikes than other cities in North America due to steady consumer spending. On the other side of the Atlantic, hotel construction is happening in a big way in London. You can expect to find higher hotel rates in central London than Canary Wharf where there’s been a drop in corporate tenants.

While the insights we mentioned here are pretty substantial, they only touch on the pervasive forecasts in our full report.

Check out the Hotel Monitor 2024