Hotel and travel players, trends, and how to crack the cases
The main hotel groups and travel platforms, tourism in the Gulf and Asia from 2024 to 2026, regulation basics, and typical case prompts.
Industry brief, with a one-minute summary: Hotels and travelFirm processes and online tests change from year to year and differ by office. Use this to prepare, and confirm the exact current steps on the firm's own careers page.
Key takeaways
- Tourism demand is set by things a single hotel cannot control: visas, flights, events, safety, and the economy.
- Common traps in hotel cases: Looking only at occupancy or only at price instead of RevPAR.
- Global travel reached new highs. UN Tourism estimates about 1.52 billion international tourist arrivals in 2025, up about 4 percent on 2024.
- Saudi Arabia is building a tourism economy.
- The Gulf faced a shock in 2026. From 28 February 2026, a regional conflict closed airspace across parts of the Gulf, and major Gulf airlines suspended most scheduled flights for about a week.
Key idea
Tourism demand is set by things a single hotel cannot control: visas, flights, events, safety, and the economy. Start a hotel case by checking the demand outlook for the destination before you look at the hotel.
| Group | Examples | Sourced facts |
|---|---|---|
| Global hotel groups | Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Accor, Hyatt, Wyndham | Marriott reported about 1.78 million rooms in 9,805 properties at the end of 2025, about two thirds of rooms franchised or licensed (Form 10-K) |
| Regional hotel groups | Jumeirah and Rotana (Gulf), Indian Hotels Company (Taj) and ITC Hotels (India), Minor Hotels (Thailand) | Strong in home markets, often growing through management contracts |
| Online travel agencies | Booking Holdings, Expedia, Trip.com, MakeMyTrip, Agoda | Booking Holdings reported 1,235 million room nights in 2025, up 8 percent, with a shift toward the merchant model |
| Short-term rentals | Airbnb and local platforms | Compete with hotels for leisure stays and face city rules |
So-what
Brands and OTAs both want to own the guest relationship; the owner of the building often pays both.
Trends from 2024 to 2026 (checked September 2026)
- Global travel reached new highs. UN Tourism estimates about 1.52 billion international tourist arrivals in 2025, up about 4 percent on 2024. Europe received about 793 million. Asia and the Pacific were still about 9 percent below 2019 levels, so its recovery continued.
- Saudi Arabia is building a tourism economy. Ministry of Tourism figures reported by Skift show about 122 million visits in 2025 (domestic and inbound), up about 5 percent, against a Vision 2030 target of 150 million visits. Many new hotels, resorts, and events are under way.
- The Gulf faced a shock in 2026. From 28 February 2026, a regional conflict closed airspace across parts of the Gulf, and major Gulf airlines suspended most scheduled flights for about a week. Dubai hotel occupancy averaged about 56 percent in the first half of 2026, about 30 percent lower than a year earlier, and in August the big full-service Gulf airlines were still flying about 20 to 25 percent less capacity than in 2025 (Gulf News, August 2026). Hotel occupancy and bookings in affected markets should be checked with current data before any case.
- Regulators turned to travel platforms. The European Commission designated Booking as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act in May 2024, which limits practices such as requiring hotels to offer the platform their best prices.
Hotels need operating licences and are often classified by stars under national tourism rules. Many cities charge a tourist tax per night. Visa policy decides who can come: easier visas often lift arrivals quickly. Many cities limit or register short-term rentals, and the EU adopted rules in 2024 on sharing short-term rental data with authorities. Competition law applies to OTAs and their contracts with hotels. Labour, fire safety, and food safety rules apply as in restaurants.
| Prompt | Case type | Structure hint | First driver to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Should a developer build a 400-room resort on the Red Sea coast? | Investment and capital project decisions | Demand, RevPAR ramp-up, build cost, operator choice, returns | Visitor demand forecast and access by air |
| A hotel chain in Thailand has falling profits | Profitability | RevPAR (occupancy and ADR), other revenue, costs, fees | RevPAR against the competitive set of nearby hotels |
| How many hotel rooms does a Gulf city need for a visitor target? | Guesstimates and market sizing | Visitors x nights x share in hotels / (365 x occupancy x guests per room) | Average length of stay and target occupancy |
| Should a hotel group buy a regional brand? | Mergers, acquisitions, and due diligence | Pipeline, fees, owner relationships, loyalty fit | Number of signed but not yet open hotels (the pipeline) |
| How do we reduce our dependence on OTAs? | Revenue growth and growth strategy | Channel mix, loyalty, website conversion, cost per booking | Share of repeat guests still booking through OTAs |
So-what
Hotel cases start with demand for the destination, then RevPAR, then who takes which share of the profit.
See the Investment and capital project decisions module for payback and NPV, the Government and economic development case-type module for a worked case on hotel rooms for a Gulf visitor target, and Profitability for the RevPAR tree. The Airlines, airports, and aircraft leasing module covers the flights that bring the guests.
A city in Saudi Arabia expects 3.65 million hotel guest nights a year. Hotels should run at 70 percent occupancy, with 1 guest per room on average. How many hotel rooms does the city need? Round to the nearest room.
Looking only at occupancy or only at price instead of RevPAR. Forgetting that the owner, not the operator, pays for the building. Ignoring seasonality: a beach resort can run at 90 percent in winter and 40 percent in summer. Treating OTA commission as pure waste when OTAs fill rooms that would stay empty. Using 2025 Gulf travel data in 2026 without checking the effect of the conflict.
Which number best compares the room performance of two hotels of different sizes?
An operator earns a base fee plus an incentive fee on GOP. Why do owners like the incentive fee?
A hotel in a new tourist destination opens at 45 percent occupancy. What is the best first question?
Sources for this lesson (9)
- Marriott International Form 10-K for 2025
- Booking Holdings Form 10-K for 2025
- European Commission: Booking designated a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act (May 2024)
- UN Tourism: international tourist arrivals up 4 percent in 2025
- Skift: Saudi Arabia reports 2025 visits above 120 million (January 2026)
- Euronews: strikes on Iran disrupt regional and international flights (28 February 2026)
- Gulf News: Gulf aviation six months into the conflict, capacity and Dubai hotel occupancy (August 2026)
- HotStats: midscale hotels and experience-focused resorts drive profit gains across Europe, with regional GOP margins, via Hotel Online (August 2025)
- HVS: a new approach to hotel management fees (base fees of 2 to 4 percent of revenue)
My notes on this lesson
0 of 5,000 characters. Saves automatically.
Try the 4 remaining checks and drills above to complete this lesson (0 of 4 done).
Spotted something wrong or out of date? Report a mistake. We check every report and correct the page.