Travel & Data Trends

The San Francisco lodging market has been experiencing a major rebound in performance, with RevPAR up 8.9% as of year-to-date August. This improvement has been driven by a strong convention calendar, major employers implementing return-to-office mandates, and modest growth in tourism levels. San Francisco Travel Association anticipates Moscone Center will generate over 650,000 room nights in 2025, which equates to roughly 106.0% of 2023 levels but only 68.0% of peak 2019 performance. Salesforce, the city’s largest private employer, implemented a full return-to-office policy in January 2025. Gap, Inc. has been phasing in a return to office, increasing from two days a week in January to five days a week by the end of September 2025. The City of San Francisco has also implemented a four-day in-person mandate beginning August 2025.

U.S. hoteliers are struggling to increase revenues in 2025, as rooms revenue (the largest source of revenue for hotels) increased by just 0.8% during the first half of the year, according to CBRE’s August 2025 edition of Hotel Horizons®. Given the expected slowdown in U.S. lodging performance during the second half of 2025, CBRE’s forecast for the annual growth in RevPAR is just 0.1%.

When we hear the term Digital Transformation, it can be daunting and confronting. Yet another new term that can make us feel inadequate or that we are in some way falling behind. Digital Transformation is really a term that describes operational transformation. It means moving your business processes from manual or behind-the-scenes activities to technology-enabled processes for both staff and the customer. Ultimately, it’s all about how you operate your hospitality operations.

What if I told you that the era of focusing only on room rates is over?

On February 17, 2025, thousands of corrections officers at more than 25 prisons across Upstate New York went on strike over staffing shortages, poor working conditions, and the implementation of the HALT Act, which limits the use of solitary confinement in New York State prisons and jails. In an address to the public, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul reported that these strikes were considered illegal, as the state’s Taylor Law prohibits public employees from striking. The strike lasted 22 days before the State and the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA) reached an agreement that brought many of the striking employees back to work.

When heads of state come to visit your hotel they usually make a bit of a show. The Russians are no exception; they even bring their own warship, the KGB and a wad of cash!

It’s often said that there are three main markets that will always exist: health, wealth and relationships. Luckily, this is exactly what hospitality does! But what does it mean to actually care for our guests’ health?

Read the latest edition of the HVS ANAROCK monthly industry update, MONITOR (Monthly Overview of National Industry Trends and Hospitality Report), for the key trends in the Indian hospitality industry.

In the latest episode of Matt Talks, Mews CEO Matt Welle spoke with Jason Noronha, co-founder of D3x – an AI company built by hoteliers, for hoteliers. What began as a solution to a single operational pain point has evolved into a technology that promises to change how hotels operate.

If you’ve been anywhere near LinkedIn lately (including my profile), you’ve probably been hit by an alphabet soup of acronyms: AI, GenAI, AEO, GEO, MCP, A2A, and maybe even a mysterious “agentic something”.