Forecasts for Hotels and OTAs Are Coming Down – Who’s at Risk?

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Tariffs, plunging consumer sentiment, rising recession risks: The travel industry faces a host of new challenges. Hospitality career profile Research has published three deep-dive reports to help our readers understand the business environment today and prepare for a potential economic downturn in the future. 

This report sets the stage for the upcoming first-quarter earnings season, which will be the first real test of where the travel industry is headed and how its CEOs are approaching the possibility of an economic slowdown. 

Delta was the first major travel company to report results, and the outlook wasn’t good. CEO Ed Bastian commented that “with broad economic uncertainty around global trade, growth has largely stalled.” Delta withheld its outlook for full-year 2025, citing economic uncertainty. 

Uncertainty is likely to be a recurring theme throughout earnings calls in the coming month. Companies often stop providing concrete guidance for future quarters in uncertain times; we expect that major hotels and online travel agencies will also refrain from giving hard numbers. 

In the likely absence of company guidance, we can look to Wall Street analysts and we are already b