IHG Owners Association Launches Owner Confidence Index as New Barometer for the U.S. Hotel Ownership Market
Quarterly index taps the Association’s global network of thousands of hotel owners to take the pulse of owner sentiment.
ATLANTA, October 6, 2026 – The IHG Owners Association announced the Owner Confidence Index (OCI), a new quarterly measure of hotel owner sentiment on revenue, profitability and new hotel development. OCI draws on the Association’s strong and growing network of owners of IHG Hotels & Resorts properties, most of whom own multi-brand portfolios spanning thousands of hotels worldwide across nearly every major brand family and chain scale, including properties affiliated with Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., Marriott International, Inc., Choice Hotels International, Inc. and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. That breadth gives the index a distinctive view of the forces shaping hotel ownership well beyond any one hotel company.
Most hotel industry data measures what has already happened. OCI is built to capture what comes next, from the people who finance, build and operate the hotels. Like the consumer confidence measurements that markets watch for early signals, OCI offers a forward-looking view of where hotel owners' expectations are heading.
Each quarter, OCI converts owner responses into a 0–100 score, with 50 representing a neutral outlook, and pairs the results with CoStar’s rolling 12-month forecasts for revenue per available room (RevPAR), gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR) and supply growth. Together, the data show where owner expectations align with—or diverge from—the broader market outlook.
The first OCI survey, fielded in September 2026, finds U.S. hotel owners less optimistic than the market forecast. The overall confidence index registered 45.2, below the neutral mark of 50. The gap is widest on profit: CoStar projects RevPAR and GOPPAR growth over the next 12 months, but owners say rising costs are eroding the gains before they reach the bottom line.
Owners’ written comments point to the pressures behind the numbers. Among owners who provided written feedback, 53% cited softer demand and travel or economic uncertainty, 45% pointed to rising operating costs and inflation and 15% noted fuel and gas price increases (respondents could cite more than one factor). Each response helps build a more complete and credible picture of owner sentiment, strengthening the data the Association uses to advocate for its members and represent owner perspectives in industry conversations.
“Hotel owners have a uniquely informed view of shifts in demand, operating costs and development conditions,” said Steve Sickel, CEO, IHG Owners Association. “Because owners trust the Association with a candid assessment of their businesses across hotel classes and geographies, we can turn those perspectives into a meaningful measure of market confidence. We are beginning in the U.S., and over time OCI will create a valuable record of how owner sentiment moves with the market—one we plan to extend to members in other regions.”
“OCI gives forecasters a valuable new lens on the hotel industry,” said Isaac Collazo, Vice President, Analytics, at STR, a CoStar Group company. “By pairing owner sentiment with market forecasts, it can help us better understand where expectations are shifting and what those changes may signal for the industry.”
Fielded quarterly, OCI will establish a consistent record of how hotel owner expectations change over time. Its broad reach across brands, classes and geographies, combined with CoStar’s rolling 12-month forecast for RevPAR, GOPPAR and Supply Growth, will give reporters, analysts and industry leaders a forward-looking reference point for business planning, advocacy and market discussions.
About IHG Owners Association
Established in 1955 by Holiday Inn® founder Kemmons Wilson, the IHG Owners Association is the hotel industry's only global organization representing owners of IHG Hotels & Resorts properties. Most of its more than 5,000 members worldwide are multi-brand owners and operators whose portfolios span the industry's major brand families, giving the independent, not-for-profit Association a perspective on hotel ownership that extends far beyond any one hotel company. The Association advises IHG leadership on the standards, initiatives and industry issues that shape hotel operations and owner economics, while working to enhance the value of the IHG system and fulfill its mission to strengthen the return on members' hotel investments.
About CoStar Group
CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) is a global leader in commercial real estate information, analytics, online marketplaces and 3D digital twin technology. Founded in 1986, CoStar Group is dedicated to digitizing the world’s real estate, empowering all people to discover properties, insights and connections that improve their businesses and lives.
CoStar Group’s major brands include CoStar, a leading global provider of commercial real estate data, analytics and news; LoopNet, the most trafficked commercial real estate marketplace; Apartments.com, the leading platform for apartment rentals; Homes.com, the fastest-growing residential real estate marketplace; and Domain, one of Australia’s leading property marketplaces. CoStar Group’s industry-leading brands also include Matterport, a leading spatial data company whose platform turns buildings into data to make every space more valuable and accessible; STR, a global leader in hospitality data and benchmarking; Zonda, a leading provider of data, analytics, software and marketplace solutions for the residential construction industry; Ten-X, an online platform for commercial real estate auctions and negotiated bids; and OnTheMarket, a leading residential property portal in the United Kingdom.