In Kaiserslautern, ECE plans to convert vacant retail space in the “K in Lautern” mall into a 139-room hotel, raising concerns among existing hoteliers already facing low occupancy rates and recent competition from a 146-room Holiday Inn Express opened in 2023. The project highlights a critical question: who bears the risk of new hotel developments in markets with existing overcapacity, especially when hotel investments are difficult to reverse and failed projects can become permanent urban planning burdens?

Hotel profitability is under increasing pressure due to inflationary headwinds and payroll increases. Relying on traditional income sources is no longer enough: owners, operators and asset managers are now identifying alternative sources both within the hotel and around the site and available land. Strategic thinking on maximising revenue per square metre within the building footprint has led to some creative ideas which crucially do not impact the core business.

The post COVID recovery did more than repair the U.S. hotel industry – it reshaped where value is being created and who is best positioned to capture it. Nowhere is that clearer than in the Sunbelt and its collar markets, where demographic shifts, corporate relocations and “year round leisure” have combined to produce outsized and often resilient hotel performance.

Independent hotel management companies are experiencing a period of accelerated growth across the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA), including Mexico. What was once a fragmented landscape of small, entrepreneurial operators is evolving into a dynamic ecosystem of increasingly sophisticated regional platforms — and capital providers are taking notice. For owners, investors, and lenders, the trend is not simply about operational preference. It reflects deeper structural forces reshaping the region’s hospitality sector: the need for local expertise, the pursuit of scale, the rapid modernization of technology and processes, and the growing demand for transparency, professionalism, and liquidity. Together, these drivers are creating a compelling case for independent operators as credible, aligned, and value‑enhancing partners for capital.

In 2026, the world will turn its eyes toward North America. For a month, the FIFA World Cup will become more than a global sporting competition – it will be a defining measure of how cities, nations, and industries craft human experience at scale.