Industry expert predictions for room rates remain robust despite diminished confidence in demand

Analysis by Brannan Doyle, research analyst II, market insights: We asked our global community of industry professionals to rate their general business confidence over the next three months (short-term), the next year (medium-term) and the next two years (long-term). Ratings for the long term in particular remain optimistic, with 51 per cent of respondents indicating their confidence rate as an “8” or higher on a 10-point scale.

However, trending these results over our first year of the survey shows a slow, but steady decline in confidence ratings for each of the time spans.

While not a severe cause for concern, this trend does seem to mirror the moderate growth in wariness of an economic recession, as explored in the Q3 2023 survey. But there is some good news on that front, as recession fears among all respondents worldwide have tapered off since the last survey. In fact, out of all possibilities on the “industry challenges” list, “concerns regarding a potential recession” dropped further than any other item between our past two surveys.

In terms of actual hotel performance, the patterns described above do seem to have an impact on expectations for demand forecasting. Across all three hotel demand segments, the percentage of respondents that expect either “strong improvement” or “some improvement” is trending slowly downward. It’s not entirely bleak, however, as the majority of experts still expect growth in both business transient and group demand.

Read the full report here.