M&A in 2025 shifts to value: KPMG

NATIONAL REPORT – KPMG’s new report on M&A in the Travel, Leisure & Hospitality industry reveals the market prioritized “quality over quantity” in 2025 as the number of transactions slightly decreased.

The hospitality and leisure sectors drove the market, accounting for $49.2 billion of the total deal value across 774 deals, with major investments in luxury hotels, resorts, and large-scale gaming platforms.

Key investment themes included the rise of hybrid leisure (physical venues plus digital engagement), a premium on eco-luxury assets, and a pivot toward data-driven platforms to capture demand for major global events.

In the second of 2025, there were 448 deals (+12% YOY) with deal value of $39.6 billion (+229.8% YOY).

A sharp rebound in deal value amid disciplined volumes defined the second half of 2025 (H2’25) with capital flowing into scaled, premium, and technology-enabled assets while financiers and operators remained selective on price and risk. Expectation setting from earlier quarters—muted activity in the first half of 2024 and a cautious thaw in late 2023—set the stage for a value-heavy H2’25.

Companies are looking toward strengthening their positions and consolidation, particularly in the gaming space. There’s also going to be continued investment in technology, with a focus on tech-driven hospitality solutions.

Daniel Fischer

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Deal value increased 83% year-on-year (YoY) overall in 2025 to $51.6 billion while deal volume pulled back modestly by 3.1% to 848 deals, indicating fewer but higher-value transactions. Strategic buyers were more prominent, accounting for 53.7% of deal value—an increase of 146.8% YoY. Private equity (PE) backed deals accounted for 46.3% of total deal value—a dip of 23.1% YOY.

Deals clustered around luxury and eco-luxury hotels and resorts, illustrated by Blackstone’s $1.2 billion purchase of Hamilton Island, KSL Capital and Tortuga Resorts’ $2.0 billion purchase of the Playa Resorts real estate portfolio from Hyatt Hotels Corp. (following Hyatt’s $2.6 billion acquisition of Playa Hotels & Resorts N.V.), and MCR Hotel’s acquisition of Soho House and Co. for $2.7 billion. These transactions were anchored in average daily rate (ADR) resilience, loyalty monetization, and repositioning capital expenditures (capex).

The big money concentrated in leisure and hospitality; travel stayed quieter, with activity skewed to platforms, content, and data/insights rather than capacity plays. The acquisition of IGT’s Global Gaming and PlayDigital business and Everi by Apollo Funds for $6.3 billion, Bally Corp.’s International Interactive business by Intralot for $3.2 billion, and Soho House & Co. Inc. by a group of investors for $2.7 billion are the testament to this.

Three takeaways anchored H2’25. First, luxury and eco-luxury in lodging continued to outearn, attracting both strategic consolidation and real-asset-capital recycling. Second, hybrid leisure (physical venues plus mobile engagement) tightened the loop from user acquisition to recurring revenue. Third, travel ecosystems tilted toward information, events, and analytics to capture high-value demand ahead of 2026’s tentpole calendar.

“What we’ve seen early this year and what we expect to see throughout 2026 is some market recovery and some increased M&A activity,” said Daniel Fischer, Advisory Hospitality lead at KPMG. “Companies are looking toward strengthening their positions and consolidation, particularly in the gaming space. There’s also going to be continued investment in technology, with a focus on tech-driven hospitality solutions.”