Content Categories

Business travel has not experienced a typical path to recovery post-COVID, but the industry’s focus on leisure travelers will be tested as it increases. In January, the U.S. Travel Association forecasted a 4 percent increase in business travel spending throughout 2025, reaching a total of $316 billion amid the continued return of large-volume events and domestic travel. Independent hoteliers should focus on these trends as they prepare to accommodate a rise in business travelers after serving so many leisure guests, starting with a strong foundation in their property-management system.

There’s more data available about your guests than ever before. Today, we’re learning about travelers who visited our websites, began searching dates and locations, but left without booking. This provides a clearer picture of unconstrained demand, a more comprehensive look that goes beyond just guests booking a room, exploring potential shoppers as well.

Does innovation always need to be technology-based? Also in wellness, or in hospitality? This question comes up often during discussions with hospitality, wellness or spa colleagues. Being intrigued by the issue did a quick Google search: almost every page of the top hits Google found was referring to some sort of technological innovation.

The 36th Hunter Hotel Investment Conference took place this week at Atlanta’s Marriott Marquis, with the theme “Elevate Your Game” inspiring session topics and conversations throughout the event. This article provides our key takeaways from the conference.

On February 2025 HFTP finally launched the long-awaited 12th edition of the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI), the standardized financial reporting system the hospitality industry has relied on for decades. The release of the 12th Revised Edition marks a significant milestone, introducing enhancements that align with contemporary industry practices and address emerging global challenges long ignored by the industry. What are the changes and how are these going to impact the hotel real estate business?

If there’s one phrase to remember for how AI and spa will intersect, it’s ‘technology-adjacent therapies’. That is, for our industry where human-to-human contact is ever-so-centric to guest satisfaction, it’s not that automation will supplant practitioners but that these contemporary tools will offset the undesirable, repetitive tasks to augment the experience. Hence, hoteliers and managers shouldn’t necessarily look to how AI can boost the guest journey but to their own teams’ experience, otherwise known as the software’s ‘end users’.

While net unit growth (NUG) — a measure of the increase in available hotel rooms over a period of time — has been a key performance indicator for many hospitality brands, many hoteliers are now prioritizing net revenue growth (NRG) — the rate at which a company’s net revenue increases over time.

As a hotel or resort operator, you’ve likely been pricked by the double-edged sword of online travel agencies (OTAs). Although they garner attention for your property and bring in first-time guests, they’re also costly—both financially and in terms of customer relationships.

Visitation and other tourism indicators in 2024 met or exceeded most 2023 totals. Las Vegas hosted 40.8 million visitors in 2024, surpassing the 40-million visitor threshold for the second year in a row. Gaming revenue for Clark County in 2024 was $13.5 billion, setting a new annual record for the third straight year. In 2024, occupied room nights, as well as total occupancy (83.6%), continued to lag pre-COVID pandemic performance; however, ADR and RevPAR reached record levels.

The hospitality workforce is evolving at an unprecedented pace. AI, automation, rising labor costs, and shifting employee expectations are forcing hotels to rethink how they manage labor. At Unifocus, we’re not just watching these trends—we’re helping hotels adapt with workforce solutions that balance efficiency, cost control, and employee experience.