ALIS video: HE’s Rafter focused on outperformance

LOS ANGELES – The data analysts and several pundits at ALIS painted a not so optimistic performance picture for 2026, pointing to political and economic uncertainty as well as escalating costs. Some are forecast negative RevPAR gains for 2026.

There is another camp, Hotel Equities CEO Ben Rafter among them, suggesting 2026 will show more top line growth than expected.

In his interview at ALIS he said January was off to good start, group is holding, and business transient is a little better.  As a result, he has shifted his tone to cautious optimism with performance accelerating 1 to 3 points ahead of forecasts as the year progress, getting easier in the back half as comps get easier.

“I think Q1 is slightly up barring any crazy uncertainty coming out of Washington. But even then, I think everyone is getting used to the negotiating style of this administration,” Rafter said. “I’m cautiously optimistic, but wages and inflation are going up 2-3%, as well. So, it’s not like we are in some sort of rebound yet.”

Rafter addressed performance as well as how he sees technology driving better margins and how they are value-engineering properties to improve bottom line performance.