This Week in Hospitality | Hotel & Restaurant Trends | Volume 2

The hospitality industry continues to show signs of strength, but the bigger story this week isn't simply that hotels are performing well or that new restaurants are opening.

It's that the businesses getting attention are being increasingly intentional about experience, positioning, community, and sustainable growth.

Here are a few stories we’re watching this week, and what we think they mean for hospitality brands.

Hotels Are Still Having a Strong Year

U.S. hotels posted another strong week, with RevPAR increasing 7.2% year over year for the week ending August 8. Occupancy reached 70%, while ADR increased 4.1%. Philadelphia and Chicago were among the strongest-performing major markets, while Miami and Nashville saw declines.

The bigger picture is even more interesting. STR and Tourism Economics have raised their forecast for 2026 U.S. RevPAR growth to 4.4%, driven in part by continued demand and the pricing power created by major events like the World Cup. At the same time, 2027 is expected to moderate to 2.1% as the market moves toward a more normalized growth environment.

Our take: Strong market performance can create a false sense of security. When demand is there, it's easy to overlook the things that aren't working as well as they should.

The smarter question for hospitality leaders isn't simply, "How do we take advantage of this demand?"

It's, "What are we building now that will continue to perform when demand normalizes?"

That means investing in positioning, direct demand, guest experience, and the systems that turn a strong market into sustainable growth.

What Happens When a Hotel Restaurant Becomes Its Own Brand?

Maleza, the modern Mexican restaurant at Drift Palm Springs, is opening a standalone location in Costa Mesa. What's notable isn't simply that the restaurant is expanding.

It's why.

Since opening in 2023, Maleza developed an identity and following beyond the hotel itself. TMC Hospitality says the restaurant stopped functioning like a hotel amenity and began behaving more like an independent brand with its own point of view and local following.

The Costa Mesa location will be purpose-built for its new community, with an emphasis on local frequency and repeat visits rather than simply copying the Palm Springs concept. TMC is also being deliberately selective about expansion, making it clear that not every concept in its portfolio needs to become a standalone brand.

Our take: This is a great example of the difference between expanding a concept and building a brand.

A concept can be replicated.

A brand has to earn its place in a new market.

Before expanding, hospitality businesses should be asking whether their concept has a strong enough identity to travel, whether guests are choosing it for reasons beyond convenience, and whether the experience can be translated without losing what made the original successful in the first place.

Growth for the sake of growth isn't a strategy. Disciplined growth is.

Nostalgia Is Having a Moment

B.J. Novak's Chain is moving from a popup and food festival concept into a six-month food hall residency at Topanga Social in Los Angeles.

The idea is simple but clever: acclaimed chefs recreate iconic dishes from major restaurant chains, but reinterpret them through their own culinary perspective. The goal isn't to perfectly recreate the original dish. As one participating chef put it, it's about capturing the feeling of eating it and taking it somewhere unexpected.

That distinction is important.

The appeal isn't necessarily the food itself. It's the memory attached to it.

Our take: Hospitality brands sometimes underestimate how powerful familiarity can be.

People don't just remember what they ate or where they stayed. They remember how something made them feel, what it reminded them of, and the stories attached to the experience.

There's a lesson here for hotels and restaurants of every size. You don't always need to create something completely new to create something memorable. Sometimes the opportunity is finding something familiar and giving guests a reason to experience it differently.

A Hotel Restaurant That Earned Its Way Out of the Hotel

Maleza isn't the only restaurant story this week that points toward the importance of identity.

The story of Michael Zentner's Merci in Charleston offers another interesting example of what happens when a restaurant builds a strong enough point of view to stand on its own. Merci is a tiny European-inspired bistro that has quickly developed a reputation well beyond its size, including becoming a 2026 James Beard Award finalist for Best New Restaurant.

The restaurant's approach is intentionally focused. With just 26 seats, limited reservations, and a highly curated experience, scarcity is part of the model rather than something the restaurant is trying to overcome.

Our take: Not every hospitality brand needs to be bigger.

Sometimes the opportunity is becoming more distinct.

When you know exactly what you are, who you're for, and what experience you're trying to create, the right guests are much more likely to recognize the value.

That's positioning.

And in an industry where so many brands are trying to appeal to everyone, being specific can be a competitive advantage.

The Restaurant Labor Market Is Changing

Restaurant employment has returned to roughly pre-pandemic levels, but the labor market underneath those numbers is shifting.

Restaurant employment peaked at approximately 12.4 million workers in May 2026 before declining in June and July. At the same time, quits, job openings, hires, and total separations have all declined year over year, suggesting the labor market has moved back toward employers.

That might sound like good news for operators dealing with staffing challenges.

But there's another side to it.

Our take: A changing labor market doesn't eliminate the need to build a strong workplace or a strong guest experience.

If anything, it creates an opportunity for operators to be more intentional about the people and systems behind the experience.

Guests experience the brand through employees. The way a team communicates, solves problems, handles pressure, and delivers those little moments of hospitality ultimately becomes part of the product.

The labor strategy and the guest experience strategy shouldn't exist in separate rooms.

They are connected.

The Bigger Picture

If there's one thing tying these stories together, it's this:

The hospitality brands getting ahead aren't simply chasing more demand. They're becoming more intentional about what happens once that demand arrives.

They're building concepts with a clear point of view. They're thinking about how experiences translate into new markets. They're creating reasons for guests to return. They're paying attention to the people delivering the experience. And they're thinking about growth as something that needs to be built, not simply captured.

That's the part of hospitality we find most interesting.

Because the best growth strategy isn't always about doing more.

Sometimes it's about getting much more intentional about what you're already doing.

We'll be back next week with more hospitality news, trends, and the stories we think are actually worth paying attention to.