Insights

Viewpoints with bite

Dig in to the latest research, industry analysis, MarketCompass and premium market reports.

Viewpoint

The loyalty paradox: when AI books the room, who owns the guest relationship?

A traveler planning a three-night stay opens a chat window and types a request that sounds less like a search query and more like a conversation with a trusted concierge: a quiet room, a decent gym, a walkable neighborhood, flexible cancellation, a late arrival. The assistant asks a question or two, then offers a shortlist with crisp tradeoffs and a tone of calm authority. The traveler picks one. The assistant replies: ready when you are. Book?

Bryan Younge
Bryan Younge
Managing Partner, USA
Viewpoint

Local roots, global scale: five key drivers of management company consolidation

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.

Bryan Younge
Bryan Younge
Managing Partner, USA
Viewpoint

Five drivers of hotel management company M&A in the Caribbean & Latin America (CALA) region

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.

Dr. Clay B. Dickinson
Dr. Clay B. Dickinson
Managing Director, USA
Viewpoint

A unified vision for tourism readiness ahead of the World Cup

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.

Bryan Younge
Bryan Younge
Managing Partner, USA
Viewpoint

The campus as destination

How universities can use hospitality discipline to strengthen enrollment, revenue, and long-term resilience A university campus is one of the most complex real estate products in most markets. It is a learning environment, an employer, a cultural institution, a civic landmark, a landlord, a transportation network, a public realm, and in many towns, the closest thing to a year-round destination resort. Yet most universities still manage the campus experience as a set of separate functions rather than as a single, intentional “arrival-to-departure” journey.

Bryan Younge
Bryan Younge
Managing Partner, USA