Market Trends

🏨 David Tart leveraged his family's North Carolina farmland to develop a Hampton Inn, learning the ropes of hospitality through relationships and risk-taking. Despite lacking prior experience, he acquired a franchise before 2008, benefiting from mentors like David Swinter and Dwayne Parrish. Now with Raines, David manages a diverse hotel portfolio, emphasizing relationship-building. The initial venture into management with Grey Raines, transformed into a company with nearly 3,000 employees, focused on sustainable, relationship-driven growth.

🏨 In the hospitality industry, hotels follow a five-stage guest journey: Attract, Capture, Prepare, Deliver, and Review. Each stage addresses core needs—comfort, safety, convenience, and belonging—requiring adaptation to modern guest expectations. Key actions include refining marketing to target audiences, optimizing booking processes, personalizing pre-arrival experiences, delivering exceptional on-site services, and gathering feedback to build relationships. By mastering these stages and leveraging technology, hotels can enhance guest satisfaction, loyalty, and long-term success.

🌍 RevenYou observes trends in luxury travel, including "bucket list" experiences with unique accommodations and smaller tour operators accessing remote destinations. In Australia, exceptional experiences like the Ghan and Indian Pacific are booked out 12-18 months in advance. There's a growing demand for Antarctica cruises and smaller expedition ships. Slow travel emphasizes authentic cultural experiences and supporting local communities. Unique offerings include staying on a working sheep farm and high-end heli-camping in the Flinders Ranges, combining luxury with traditional experiences.

🏨 Best Loved Hotels has reported a 14.3% rise in reservations for its hotel members over the past year.

📚 STAAH has launched an eBook titled “The Right Channel Mix for Every Hotelier: OTAs, Metasearch, Direct & More” to guide hoteliers on online distribution strategies. The eBook offers insights into booking channels like OTAs, metasearch, and direct bookings. Adam Walsh, STAAH’s Head of Connectivity, emphasizes strategic choice over ubiquitous listing. The guide includes real-world examples, cost breakdowns, and optimal listing practices to balance visibility and cost for different hotel types. Download the eBook for free [here](https://go.staah.com/ebook/the-right-channel-mix?utm_source=blog-therightchannelmix&utm_medium=article-therightchannelmix&utm_campaign=ebook-therightchannelmix).

📈 Chronicling the first half of 2025, the H1 World Parity Monitor found that 75% of hotel searches show OTAs offering lower prices. In 33% of comparisons, OTAs undercut hotel websites. Hotels beat OTAs 45% of the time, achieving parity in 22%. Mobile searches show more undercutting at 38%, compared to 31% on desktops. By June, OTA undercutting dropped to 28%. Operational blind spots, according to experts, often lead to these disparities.

🏨 UK hotels' occupancy increased from 82.7% to 83% in June year-on-year, while London's occupancy rose from 86.4% to 88.1%, nearing the 2019 June record of 90%. These figures highlight strong demand, though rising staff costs remain a challenge. Data source: RSM.

💸 Our Stockholm hotel transformed guest experience via a simple NPS system, yielding a 70% response rate, vastly higher than typical 20-30% from email campaigns. Daily, the front desk manager spent 15 minutes calculating NPS, ranging between 45-50, sparking team discussions for improvement. This "Big NPS" approach predicted online reviews, guided action, and boosted short-term and long-term profits by fostering daily operational excellence and consistent, satisfying guest experiences.

🏨 In H1 2025, 123Compare.me found that 75% of hotel searches show lower prices on OTAs than hotel websites. Rate parity was achieved in only 22% of searches, worsening on mobile devices (38% undercut by OTAs). Hotels offered better rates in 45% of individual comparisons. Disparities are linked to OTAs managing payment flows and applying unauthorized discounts. For profitability, hotels must actively manage rate parity, review agreements, and enhance direct booking strategies.