This Week in Hospitality: Hotel Growth, Guest Experience & Restaurant Trends | Vol. 3
Hospitality continues to have a pretty interesting year.
Hotels are posting strong performance, major brands are doubling down on technology and conversions, and independent restaurants continue to find ways to create experiences that feel distinctly their own.
But one story this week stood out to us because it gets at something we talk about constantly at Bridge & Bottle: great hospitality isn't just about what happens during the transaction. It's about what guests remember afterward.
Here are a few stories we're watching this week and what we think they mean for hospitality brands.
Hotel Performance Continues to Hold Strong
U.S. hotels posted their 18th consecutive week of positive year-over-year performance for the week ending August 15. Occupancy reached 68%, ADR increased 3.5% to $163.56, and RevPAR climbed 6.2% to $111.29. San Diego led the top 25 markets, with RevPAR up 22.8%, while Tampa saw the largest increase in occupancy at 11.7%.
Our take: A strong market is a great time to build, not a reason to stop looking for opportunities.
When rooms are filling and revenue is growing, there is less urgency to question whether the guest journey is actually working as well as it could. The hotels that use this period to strengthen direct demand, improve the booking experience, sharpen their positioning and create stronger reasons for guests to return will be in a much better position when the market inevitably becomes more competitive.
Growth gives you room to improve. It shouldn't give you a reason to stop.
Hotels Are Betting on Growth Through Technology, Conversions and Experience
Hotel companies came out of Q2 with widespread RevPAR gains, but the more interesting story may be how they're positioning themselves for what comes next.
Hotel Dive's review of Q2 earnings points to several major themes: strong luxury demand, continued portfolio growth through conversions, increased development activity and a growing investment in AI-powered search and booking tools. IHG and Wyndham launched AI-powered search tools through ChatGPT, while other major brands continued broader enterprise AI initiatives.
There's also a continued push toward collection and lifestyle brands, giving independent properties access to larger distribution systems while allowing them to maintain more of their individual identity.
Our take: Technology is changing how guests find and book hotels, but it isn't replacing the reason they choose one property over another.
If anything, the increasing number of ways guests can discover a hotel makes differentiation more important.
Being present everywhere doesn't help much if the brand itself doesn't give people a compelling reason to choose it. AI can help someone find you. A strong brand and guest experience give them a reason to book.
More Restaurant Groups Are Looking Beyond the Big Markets
For years, restaurant expansion often followed a predictable path. Start in New York or Los Angeles, expand into other major markets, then continue planting flags in cities with large populations and strong tourism.
That's starting to change.
Nation's Restaurant News reports that established hospitality groups are increasingly looking toward mid-size markets like Detroit, Nashville and Kansas City. Two Hands is preparing to enter Kansas City, while major groups including Union Square Hospitality Group and Ten Five Hospitality are making moves in Detroit and Nashville.
The interesting part isn't simply that these cities are attracting new restaurants. It's why.
Operators are looking at population growth, real estate, economics, neighborhood trajectory, local culture and whether their concept can actually become part of the community. Two Hands founder Henry Roberts specifically described Kansas City as a market with the community and individuality that align with the brand.
Our take: This is a good reminder that expansion shouldn't start with, "Where can we open?"
It should start with, "Where does this brand make sense?"
That's an important distinction.
A market can have impressive growth numbers and still be the wrong fit for a particular concept. The strongest expansion strategies consider not only the economics of a market, but whether the brand has a legitimate reason to be there.
Having both lived here and with Jordan still calling Kansas City home, we've watched the city's hospitality scene continue to evolve. The opportunity is real, but so is the importance of understanding the neighborhoods, the people, and what makes the market different.
You don't build a local following by simply arriving in a city. You build it by becoming part of one.
Kansas City's Parlor Closure Is a Reminder That Location Still Matters
On the other side of that Kansas City growth story came some tough news this week.
Parlor, which opened in 2018 as Kansas City's first food hall, is closing its Crossroads location. The seven independent restaurants operating inside were reportedly informed this week, with the food hall citing a significant shift in visitation and a changing environment.
For Kansas City, this one hits a little differently.
Parlor was part of the Crossroads' evolution and helped create a model that gave independent chefs access to commercial kitchens and a built-in destination without requiring them to take on the cost of a traditional standalone restaurant. It was an amazing concept that we absolutely loved, with so many options in one place you could never go wrong starting off a night out at Parlor. Now, those seven businesses are suddenly looking for new homes.
The closure also raises a larger question about what happens when the environment around a hospitality concept changes.
Axios reports that Parlor had previously cited crime and its impact on business as a major concern, including $575,000 in losses attributed to break-ins in 2024. At the same time, crime in the Crossroads is down significantly this year, illustrating just how complicated the relationship between perception, actual conditions and visitation can become.
Our take: Hospitality doesn't operate in a vacuum.
A great concept still depends on the neighborhood around it. Foot traffic, accessibility, safety perceptions, nearby businesses, development, parking, events and changing consumer habits all become part of the guest experience, whether an operator wants them to or not.
That's why market strategy can't stop at demographics and a real estate deal. You have to understand how people actually experience the place.
Parlor's closure is obviously a loss for the Kansas City hospitality community, and we're especially interested to see where the seven concepts go from here. But it's also a reminder that even strong concepts have to continuously evaluate the environment they're operating in.
Your Hotel's History Might Be One of Your Best Marketing Assets
One of the more thought-provoking pieces we came across this week argues that hotels may be overlooking one of their most valuable assets: their own history.
Hotels often sell the things that are easiest to describe and compare: room size, amenities, restaurants, pools, views and rates. But the history, architecture, stories and memories attached to a property can create something much harder for a competitor to copy.
The article takes that idea a step further, exploring how hotels could intentionally create experiences that introduce children and families to a property's history. A hotel becomes more than a place to stay. It becomes part of a family's story.
That’s where we think the idea gets really interesting.
Our take: You don't always need to invent something new to create a memorable experience.
Sometimes the best experience is hiding in plain sight.
That old photograph in the lobby. The story behind the building. A local tradition. A longtime employee who knows every detail about the property. The restaurant recipe that's been around for decades.
These aren't just pieces of the property; they're potential pieces of the guest experience.
When you turn those details into stories guests can actually participate in, you create something that is much harder to replicate. A competitor can copy your room design, but they can't copy your history.
Lumbre Is Another Example of Building With a Point of View
Tastes Pretty Good Hospitality has opened Lumbre, a Spanish restaurant in Tampa's North Hyde Park neighborhood. It's the latest concept from a group that already operates Rocca, Streetlight Taco and Bar Terroir.
What caught our attention is the intentionality behind the concept.
Chef Nick Orr spent time in Spain training on traditional grills and working in kitchens in the Basque region, Madrid, San Sebastian, Barcelona and Valencia. That experience directly shaped the restaurant's menu and approach, which is centered on honoring Spanish tradition while creating something that feels genuine to the team behind it.
Lumbre also represents Orr's first ownership role after nearly a decade with the restaurant group.
Our take: There's a difference between opening a restaurant and giving people a reason to care about one.
The strongest concepts tend to have a story behind them, a clear point of view and people who genuinely believe in what they're creating. That's what makes a restaurant feel like more than another place to eat.
In a crowded market and always-growing market, being clearly yourself is often more valuable than trying to appeal to everyone.
The Bigger Picture
This week's stories are all different, but they point toward something we think hospitality leaders should be paying attention to. The industry is getting better at creating experiences. The challenge is creating experiences people actually remember.
Technology can make booking easier. Strong revenue management can fill more rooms. A beautiful renovation can generate attention. A new restaurant can create buzz. Expanding into a new market can create enormous opportunity.
All of this requires something under the surface: a clear understanding of the brand, the market, and the guest.
The brands that win aren't necessarily the ones doing the most. They're the ones making the most intentional decisions about where they show up, who they're trying to reach and what they want people to remember.
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 being intentional about what you are always doing. You need to know when the market, the concept, or the experience needs to change, but a complete scrap of your current model isn’t always necessary.
We'll be back next week with more hospitality news, trends and the stories we think are actually worth paying attention to.
