In today’s hospitality landscape, asset managers face a triple squeeze: rising construction costs, escalating labor expenses and flattening ADRs. At the same time, hotel guests demand more personalized, differentiated experiences. In this climate, underutilized spaces — breakfast rooms, lobbies, parking lots — aren’t just dead weight. They’re latent assets waiting to be activated.

The practice of selling naming rights for professional sports stadiums has grown into one of the most visible and lucrative sectors of sponsorship marketing. What was once considered a novelty—putting a corporate name on a building—has become a multi-billion-dollar industry with far-reaching implications for teams, municipalities, investors, and brand partners alike. In the NFL alone, naming rights agreements collectively generate well over a billion dollars annually, and new deals continue to climb to unprecedented valuations. Yet the naming rights story is no longer simply about signage, media mentions, or having one’s brand on the skyline. Today, the real value is unlocked when the naming rights contract is designed as part of a fertile ecosystem—a symbiotic environment where the sponsor’s brand, the stadium, the fans, and the surrounding community are actively engaged. The name on the building becomes only one component of a broader, carefully orchestrated strategy.

It’s no secret government policy changes have shifted the ways domestic organizations operate in 2025. For U.S. hotels, slowdowns of government-related business have impacted a variety of stakeholders in the space, and depending on the portfolio, some more than others.

Any hotel chain knows of the existence of the chain scale, a ranking system based on hotels’ average daily rate and the number and quality of amenities and services they offer. The chain scale offers six classes—luxury, upper upscale, upscale, upper midscale, midscale and economy— and chains can move from one to another as they make changes to hotels, such as adding (or subtracting) an amenity or altering their room rates. Are there any advantages to moving up or down on the chain scales? Absolutely, say industry experts. First, let’s look at why the chain scale is important.