Like the guests they serve, hotels are constantly changing. Guided by trends and consumer preferences, hotels regularly rethink and revise everything from check-in and décor to amenities and dining options. For meeting planners, checking out how well a potential conference hotel or resort is keeping up with the times can be a good move.
Here are a few trends driving hotels in 2025.
Goodbye ‘Greige,’ Hello Green
Sure, the neutral decors so pervasive over the past decade are calming, but like vanilla ice cream, they can become a little ho-hum. Enter biophilia, a design trend inspired by nature. Designer Stacy Garcia told HotelManagement.com that as people seek comfort in the outdoors, hotels will echo fields and forests. You’ll see warmer colors — brilliant gold, emerald green, caramel — and natural materials like stone and wood. Another designer, Dan Mazzarini, told the publication that hotels also will add communal spaces beyond the hotel lobby, maybe even carving out conversation crannies on each floor. One hotel space that might be repurposed is the business center. Mazzarini believes new work styles will lead to its extinction. Other designers predict a move away from communal tables in lobbies and toward clusters of small tables and chairs. Designing flexible dining spaces and bars that are natural gatherings places are also goals.
It’s Renovation Time
An uptick in hotel renovations and upgrades is being driven by falling interest rates, a spike in sales of hotels and by the fact that many existing hotels are due for a redo. In a Hotel Dive story, Bruce Ford, a vice president with Lodging Econometrics, said “sales transactions nine times out of 10 lead to a renovation.” A good example is in Mesa, Arizona, where a 180-room Sheraton and a 129-room Courtyard by Marriott near the Chicago Cubs spring training stadium were recently sold. New owners say the Sheraton will be renovated in 2026. Ford estimates that because hotels typically renovate every 10 to 15 years, between 300,000 and 400,000 hotel rooms will be renovated in 2025. With renovation so widespread, planners should ask if a hotel has any upcoming construction projects when they book properties for meetings and events.
Fewer Sips, Better Bites
Hotels and restaurants are noticing a big shift in the American lifestyle: We are cutting back on drinking. For example, at the Pasea Hotel and Spa in Huntington Beach, California, staff say there’s been a 25% increase in sales of nonalcoholic beverages from last year. Laura Nelson, author of “The Inclusive Meeting Planner” (published November 2024), has studied the move toward sober choices at professional events. She says that 34% of people say they are trying to drink less, and 24% say they don’t drink at all. There’s also a growing demand for local foods and experiences, driven largely by millennial and Gen Z guests. A worldwide director of culinary for Marriott International, Stephen Toevs, has suggested that “newstalgia,” the art of taking a traditional food and updating it in some way, can tie foods to their place in the world. Think humble baked potatoes or creamy mac and cheese, topped with locally sourced sausage.
Bleisure is a Big Deal
Combining a business trip with a mini-vacation is nothing new, but as the pandemic has simmered down, this tendency has trended up so much that it’s spawned a new term: bleisure. Allied Market Research estimates that bleisure travel will more than double by 2032 to $731 billion. Hotels are taking note, and those that offer the tools business travelers need and the fun and relaxation a vacationing traveler seeks will be the winners. These travelers want in-room workspaces, fast connectivity, fitness centers, spas and local culture. Some hotels already fit the bill as Forbes pointed out in a recent article — Skytop Lodge in the Poconos has ample conference space set among 5,500 acres of outdoor scenery. And in Memphis, Big Cypress Lodge combines meeting spaces with the aquariums and outdoor gear of a companion Bass Pro Shops, as well as views from restaurants atop the 32-story pyramid that houses it all.
Putting Tech to Work
The pandemic has taught hotels some lessons, like how to operate with less staff and still be efficient. And they’ll continue to find ways to automate more of their tasks, according to Bruce Ford. He told Hotel Dive he expects hoteliers will further simplify check-in with mobile keys or apps and improve energy efficiency with LED lighting and new cooling and heating systems. Other experts expect hotels to add more ways for guests to use smartphones to improve their stays — to adjust their room’s climate control, for example. Like everyone else in the world, hotels are exploring ways AI can be used for menial tasks that will allow staff to focus on more meaningful work like guest engagement. Forbes magazine reported on one out-of-the box tech option offered at the Shashi Hotel in Mountain View, California. The hotel’s new AI technology, aimed at bleisure guests, is called Living Room in a Box and allows guests to recreate the feeling of their own living room within their guest room.
