The 5 Stupidest Travel Trends of 2025 — and 5 Worth Repeating in 2026
Apeksha Bhateja
MIAMI – Starwood Capital Group put out a press release on Wednesday with quotes from Chairman Barry Sternlicht announcing the official relaunch of Starwood Hotels, rebranding from SH Hotels & Resorts with more than 40 properties open or in development across three brands and four continents.
“Our journey has just begun,” said Sternlicht, founder and chairman of Starwood Hotels and chairman of Starwood Capital Group. “As we embrace bold ideas, expand into new markets, and continue to reinvent the hospitality landscape, we hope to build a legacy that will inspire future generations. The best is yet to come.”
Sternlict added, “Reintroducing the Starwood Hotels name is personally very exciting for me. It’s a tribute to a legacy that millions of people know and trust—and it comes at a decisive moment in our company’s history. Over the past decade, SH Hotels & Resorts has built three extraordinary brands, including the mission-driven 1 Hotels, which demonstrates how guests can live a luxurious, sustainable life without sacrifice. I didn’t want to do another typical hotel brand after W. The world doesn’t need another brand, it needs a better 1. By reviving the Starwood Hotels name, we aim to marry this trusted legacy of youth, innovation, and guest focus with our modern, tech-enabled, personalized approach to hospitality. As we take this next step, we’re doubling down on our mission to inspire, innovate, and make a difference—for our guests, our partners, and the planet.”
At ALIS in late January, now Starwood Hotels CEO Raul Leal told Hotel Investment Today, “We’re going to be looking for opportunities to help grow the new Starwood platform all over the world… We have the capital to be able to do deals, and we’ll be out there looking to grow this thing. It may not be Starwood 1.0, but we certainly respect the legacy of Starwood 1.0 and want to build on that.”
Today’s Starwood pipeline includes the debut of flagship properties in Tokyo, Melbourne, and Copenhagen, as well as further expansion into new markets such as the Middle East and Southern Europe.
The 1 Hotels brand launched in 2015 will open properties this year in Seattle, Melbourne (including 114 residences), Copenhagen and Tokyo. Openings beyond 2025 include Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Paris, Elounda Hills in Crete, Austin, Texas, Riyadh, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
The luxury Baccarat Hotels brand with a flagship in New York City is expanding in the coming years to Rome, Florence, Riyadh, Dubai, and the Maldives. No opening dates have been given.
Treehouse Hotels, the newest of Starwood’s three brands with a flagship property in central London, is expanding to Manchester, England, and the Silicon Valley in California this spring. Additional hotels in the pipeline include Adelaide, Australia, Riyadh, and Miami’s Brickell neighborhood.
Several branded residences are also in development to add to 1 Homes South Beach and Baccarat Residences New York. Upcoming Baccarat Residences will complement hotel openings in Dubai, the Maldives, and Riyadh, while new 1 Homes locations are launching alongside hotels in Melbourne (debuting this year), Crete, and San Miguel de Allende. Baccarat Brickell is planned as a standalone development.
Sustainability emphasis
The new Starwood said sustainability has and will continue to be a cornerstone of its growth strategy.
All properties work to achieve LEED, BREEAM or similar certification, demonstrating a dedication to sustainable design, construction, and operations.
To date, SH Hotels & Resorts has offset 46,612 tons of CO2, significantly reducing its environmental footprint. Expanded zero-waste programs have resulted in a 75% diversion rate, with 3.4 million pounds of materials recycled annually. Certified Sustainable Gatherings have achieved a 99.6% diversion rate, setting a new standard for eco-conscious events. In addition, 417,265 pounds of materials have been reused and donated in 2024 alone, including more than 52,681 pounds of food donated to over 35 charity partners.
Properties like the new 1 Hotel & Homes Melbourne will showcase Goods Shed No. 5, an example of adaptive reuse that preserves the city’s cultural heritage while incorporating circular economy principles and innovative sustainability practices. At the new 1 Hotel Seattle, reclaimed timber, biophilic design elements, and moss-inspired art merge the built environment with the Pacific Northwest’s natural beauty.
Across the portfolio, plant-forward menus and partnerships with local farms highlight a dedication to rethinking culinary practices while minimizing environmental impact. Hotels also present organic bath products and upcycled amenities to refillable water stations that reduce reliance on single-use plastics.
Starwood said the hotel team will grow from 3,900 to more than 5,000 members in 2025. Community engagement programs like the 1 Less Thing initiative—which encourages mindful disposal—and partnerships with local organizations further amplify this impact, providing contributions to the communities surrounding each property.
NEW YORK CITY – Private equity giant Brookfield is a bit of a contrarian investor and its Managing Partner and Head of Hospitality Investments Shai Zelering hinted that this moment in time, one still lacking in liquidity, might be their opportunity to get “really active.”
But instead of Brookfield Asset Management’s more typical “buy, fix, sell” model, Zelering told Hotel Investment Today that he expects the company with $23 billion in hospitality assets under management to be more of a “fixer” over the next 24 months.
“We’ll be very focused on problem solving, where before it was growing platforms,” said the New York City-based 11-year veteran of the firm. “By that I mean fixing broken capital structures or capital deprived platforms or [single asset] hotels. We can join venture, provide capital solutions, preferred equity.”
What has not and will not change for Brookfield is its owner-operator mentality. Zelering said they are not interested in financial engineering fixes. “We really want to focus on the operations fundamentals of the business – either through capital infusions or guidance and collaboration with the managers,” he explained.
Given Brookfield’s scale and scope, the “fixer” focus will more likely be on platforms than individual assets, and Zelering points to its May acquisition of Generator Hostels’ European brand and hotels from Queensgate Investments for €776 million ($869 million) as an example: buying a platform, growing it, improving it and refreshing a brand to make it more profitable.
“We believe that through consolidation and acquisition, we can double the size of the [Generator] platform,” Zelering said. “What we really like about it, practically and philosophically, is its affordability of travel. We want people to get into the habit of traveling. For us, it ties into so much of our strategy, which includes our student housing business.”
The question about Generator, Zelering added, is how they continue to elevate the brand without charging more because the demographic suggests keeping it affordable. The biggest answer, he said, is the opportunity surrounding revenue management because the mix of room types is much more complex than typical hotels. “We’re very excited about that,” he added.
While Generator is typical of the niche plays Brookfield likes, Zelering said that if they find single assets in the luxury sector or other well-niched segments, they will pursue those deals, as well.
Part of what is driving this strategy is the headwinds of the past five years, starting with COVID and lingering today with the ongoing side effects from Liberation Day and sluggish U.S. inbound travel.
“During those five years, many owners got very creative with structures and financial solutions,” Zelering continued. “What I expect to see is people saying, ‘I just need a simple partner. I need to simplify the structure.’”
At the same time, he said certain owners that deprived their assets from capital investments will be looking for capital infusions and assistance.
“So, I think those are the two situations that we’ll be focused on most,” Zelering said.
Macro plays
With 12 different hospitality platforms and about 45,000 rooms in its system, Brookfield has other opportunities and challenges to manage and create long-term value.
It owns Atlantis Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas and in August completed a $1.93 billion refinancing.
Over the past five years, Brookfield has invested more than $260 million in the resort, including renovating guest rooms, the Atlantis Casino and several new F&B outlets. With the recapitalization, they aren’t done yet with Zelering explaining there is a five-year, $450 million capital investment plan in place.
“This is an asset that the more you give it, the more you get back,” he said. “It’s an iconic hotel and a family experience like no other. That’s a place [family travel] that we like to invest in, and we see incredible return on capital.”
Zelering more than once emphasized how increasingly important it has become to be positioned with assets that thrive on bringing families together. “If I look at the demographics of baby boomers, they want to spend more time with their families, and I think that changes the way that they travel. It’s partially why you see cruises doing so well.”
In addition to family travel, Zelering said positioning assets around the affordability of travel is important to Brookfield, which partially explains the Generator deal and led him to say “maybe we’ll find a platform that needs reinvigorating like the old roadside motel concept. And maybe it’s going to be experiences that are not luxury but are just differentiated.”
Zelering also believes the hotel industry is going to continue to have dynamic opportunities surrounding live events. He said the country has a chance to reverse the decline in inbound traffic in 2026 with the FIFA World Cup and, if done well, it will provide a long tail till the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“We must, must, must be focused on this,” he said. “It’s the difference between value extraction and value creation. We have an opportunity to create value for the industry. Will we do it? Are we really focused on getting the most out of these events?
“I came back from Dubai and every country that is looking to grow should take a lesson there in terms of their focus on the hospitality industry as a steppingstone for everything else. What they’ve accomplished in a relatively short time is quite formidable, and the sense of service and welcoming, law and order, and product is something that we should all be envious of... Maybe we cannot fix everything, but at least having a welcoming attitude and a service mentality will go a long way.”
New markets
While a majority of Brookfield’s hotel activity has been in North America and Europe, it is stretching to markets like India and has its eyes on the U.A.E.
Brookfield owns India’s luxury Leela brand, which it took public in June and previously stated it plans to add seven properties by 2028, primarily in India.
“I don’t think Leela belongs in all markets. It’s one of those brands that belongs where it is. But we have a lot of opportunity to grow,” Zelering said. “India is one-third the size of the U.S. and has five times the population. There’s so much room to grow with discipline and Leela Palaces gives an incredible experience at a fraction of the cost, relative to the U.S., Europe, and everywhere else... You have to look market by market, but India is growing at an incredible pace.”
Zelering is also a fan of Dubai and confirmed they are close to a deal for a single asset there.
“Our team is in heavy, heavy discussions with opportunities, but it’s undeniable that there’s a lot of interest in that region and we haven’t closed anything yet,” Zelering said, adding that they have developed a stretch on the beach in Dubai with restaurants that are performing very well.
M&A outlook
When asked about the near-term future of hotel M&A activity, Zelering pointed to the 2008 financial crisis and how it took two years to regain momentum. But once it did, he said, there was 14 to 16 months of incredible transaction pace.
For the record, Brookfield has sold about $1 billion worth of hotels this year and has acquired about $1.5 billion, according to Zelering. “Not a great year, but a productive year,” he added.
“There’s a lack of liquidity in the market right now,” Zelering continued. “However, it has set the stage for more activity... So, I think that the opportunities are coming. We have a robust pipeline, and we remain very pragmatic. But I don’t think somebody is going to flip the switch and you’re going to see all this activity. I think it’s going to be slow moving, and the advantage will be with groups that have the scale and the scope to respond to the market dynamics.”
Bigger picture, Zelering thinks the worst of economic uncertainty is behind owners. “Inflation is tamed. Liquidity is coming back. Capital markets are open for business,” he said.
He praised owners and operators for maintaining their fiscal discipline and suggested hotel valuation are reasonable compared to other asset classes.
“CMBS default rates are not flagging hotels,” he said. “We’ve had a tough period, and we are past that.”
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