Hotel Asset Managers Forecast RevPAR Growth for Full-Year 2026

Hotel asset managers expect RevPAR to grow for the full year 2026, according to a new survey from the Hospitality Asset Managers Association. The forecast arrives despite two pressure points the same respondents flagged: softening demand and rising wages.

That pairing matters. Revenue per available room is the industry's core top-line metric, and asset managers — the professionals who oversee hotel performance on behalf of owners — sit closer to the profit-and-loss statement than brand executives do. When they project growth while naming labor cost and demand headwinds in the same breath, the message is that operators expect to price their way past the problem rather than fix it.

What does the survey actually say?

The Hospitality Asset Managers Association, known as HAMA, reports that its members anticipate RevPAR growth across full-year 2026. The survey also records concern about demand and wages. The association did not publish, in the material released, a specific growth percentage, a baseline for 2025, or a breakdown by market segment or chain scale.

That absence limits what a reader can conclude. A forecast of growth is not a forecast of margin. If wage inflation runs ahead of rate increases, hotels can post higher RevPAR and still lose ground on GOP — gross operating profit — which is the number owners actually bank. The survey summary does not address that gap.

Why wages and demand are the watch items

The two concerns named in the survey point at different parts of the ledger. Wages press on the labor line, which in many full-service hotels absorbs roughly a third of revenue. Demand pressurizes occupancy, one of the two variables — with average daily rate — that produce RevPAR itself.

Asset managers expecting RevPAR growth in a soft-demand environment are implicitly counting on rate to carry the metric. That strategy works until discounting competitors or value-conscious travel buyers cap daily rates, at which point both occupancy and ADR stall together and RevPAR follows them down.

What the forecast leaves unanswered

HAMA's findings, as released, do not specify:

• A percentage figure for projected RevPAR growth in 2026
• Whether expectations differ between full-service and select-service assets
• Regional or market-level variation
• How respondents weight demand risk against wage risk
• Any view on food-and-beverage revenue or outlet-level profitability

Each omission is a caveat. Hotel forecasts have a mixed record at the two-year horizon, and the distance between this survey and the close of 2026 leaves ample room for labor markets, group booking pace, or corporate travel budgets to move the outcome in either direction.

The practical takeaway for owners and operators: the professional class closest to hotel economics sees revenue growth in 2026, but has tied that view to assumptions about pricing power it has not spelled out. Watch wage growth data and occupancy trends through the coming quarters; those two indicators will confirm or break this forecast long before 2026 closes.