Hotel Asset Managers Anticipate Continued RevPAR Growth Into 2026

A survey of the people who oversee hotel investments on the owners’ side found broad expectations of year-over-year RevPAR growth — a quieter but telling signal about how capital views the lodging cycle.

Published: November 13, 2026 | Performance & Outlook

The News

Most respondents to a survey conducted by the Hospitality Asset Managers Association (HAMA) said they expect year-over-year RevPAR growth for their portfolios heading into 2026 — a meaningful statement because asset managers sit closest to the real operating picture across thousands of properties.

Asset managers occupy a unique informational position in the hotel business. Unlike brand executives, whose outlooks are framed by franchise-and-management-fee growth, or analysts, whose data comes from large samples, asset managers see bottom-line performance asset by asset — budget-versus-actual, payroll hours, GOP flows, banquet mix, rate integrity, channel shifts and financing stress. When that population leans constructive, it is less a sentiment measure and more a ground-truth read.

The optimism tracks with what the industry’s quarterly and weekly data have shown: rate-led RevPAR growth, extended-stay demand surging, corporate travel firmer and the supply pipeline historically thin. For asset managers, those conditions mainly mean flushed NOI — more gross profit with little added cost — because incremental RevPAR in a low-supply, high-rate environment drops largely to the bottom line. That’s why asset-manager optimism tends to understate bullishness on occupancy and overstate conviction on margins.

The survey’s practical significance comes from what asset managers are planning. When this cohort expects growth, budgets shift: capital-improvement plans get funded rather than deferred, sales-and-marketing spend gets restored after cutbacks, payroll hours get added to protect service quality, and financing decisions get made from a position of strength rather than retreat.

The caveats asset managers would flag themselves: the gains are not evenly distributed. Full-service urban hotels facing weak convention calendars or group pushouts, resorts competing with international-demand weakness and economy properties squeezed by budget-travel fatigue will trail. The average hides meaningful dispersion — and asset-manager planning reflects that mix rather than a single broadly applied assumption.

What it means for hotel and travel businesses

For owners: If your asset manager is projecting growth, hold them to a plan: approved capital schedules, restored service standards (housekeeping and F&B staffing especially — deferred understaffing is where guests feel prior-year cost cuts first) and channel-mix targets that reduce OTA-dependency while direct and loyalty demand are strong.

For operators and managment companies: Asset-manager optimism reflects into 2027 budgets. Management companies pitching portfolios this winter should bring margin-protection, productivity-engineering and technology-enabled labor arguments — because asset managers underwriting growth will be scrutinizing GOP margins, not just RevPAR.

For suppliers: Vendors selling to hotels know that asset-manager budgets are where sales happen. Expect procurement conversations to reopen for guest-facing and back-of-house technology, energy-efficient equipment and staffing/software productivity tools. Time your pitches for the December-through-March budget-decision window.

For lenders-investors: Survey-backed RevPAR confidence supports both refinancing activity and transaction appetite. Assets with delayed 2025-2026 capital plans are candidates for value-add plays now that earnings growth is visible enough to underwrite.

Watch item: Asset-manager optimism is grounded in current conditions, which remain supply-thin and rate-led. It does not inherently price in a macro deterioration, group-bookings pushouts or a meaningful softening in corporate travel. The assumptions embedded in 2026 budgets should carry those scenarios as sensitivities, not certainties.

Key numbers

• Survey source: Hospitality Asset Managers Association (HAMA)
• Headline finding: most respondents expect year-over-year RevPAR growth into 2026
• Signal value: better margin visibility than sentiment measures — asset-level operating data
• Market context: rate-led RevPAR growth, historically thin supply, firmer corporate demand