Catching the Next Wave: 3 Hospitality Groups To Study in 2026

If you’ve been running a motel for twenty years, you know that new is not always better. But in 2026, the industry is shifting in ways that even the most experienced regional owner can’t ignore. From AI and the major shifts in the OTA landscape to Expedia’s impressive strategic manoeuvres—the ground is moving.

While individuality is important, monitoring the trends and building best practices around hospitality groups that are doing amazing things can create a lot of value, even at the mom and pop motel level. Watch three specific groups: Frasers Hospitality, with their premium “serviced living” push; Travellers Group, a business built on Australian grit and cattle-station trust; and Minor Hotels, which is currently taking the global stage.

These three are proving that whether you’re in a boardroom in Bangkok or around a campfire in the outback, the journey is the entire game. In 2026, the keyword at Motel Coach around driving performance at your motel is “Thoughtful.” By that, we mean think through every step of your guest journey—not just when they arrive at your reception desk.

Frasers Hospitality & The ‘Modena’ Revolution

Frasers Hospitality isn’t just opening rooms. They are executing a disciplined expansion of 18 new residences across Asia by 2028—not guessing where the ball is going, but putting their glove squarely in the path of “serviced living”: accommodation designed for the long-stay guest who wants the comforts of home with the reliability of a hotel. The crown jewel of this push is the Modena by Fraser brand, targeting young professionals in gateway cities like Chengdu and Dalian.

It’s a blunt reminder: if your room descriptions don’t provide everything a guest needs for an extended stay, your Motel SEO results will be wasted.

What makes Modena by Fraser different?

It moves beyond the standard hotel by offering shared facilities and prime proximity to transport nodes, designed specifically for a generation that lives and works on the move. The lesson for regional motel owners isn’t to replicate the model—it’s to ask the same question Frasers asked: who exactly is my guest, and have I designed every touchpoint around them?

Travellers Group: Hospitality Born on the Land

While the big global players focus on refined suites, Travellers Group represents what real Australian hospitality looks like. Our founder, Andrew, didn’t start in a corporate office. He started on cattle stations, mustering mobs across open country before the sun was even up.

That rhythm of the land—steady, trust-based, and looking after one another—is the heart of Travellers. The name was chosen because Travellers caters to people on the move: the family road trip, tradies working away from home, fly-in fly-out workers. Every stay carries that same down-to-earth care you’d find around a campfire.

For us, building a motel isn’t just about the building. It’s about making people feel at home, wherever the road takes them.

Minor Hotels: The Global Heavyweight

If you want to see how to take market share on a global scale, you watch Minor Hotels. Their tactical acquisition of The Wolseley Hospitality Group wasn’t just a purchase—it was a deliberate move into the premium European market. They are proving that you don’t have to be perfect, but you do have to be first when it comes to capturing new traveller patterns.

Whether you’re a small motel or a global group, the fundamentals of Motel Marketing remain the same: understand what your customers are likely to search for, and ensure your rates are priced correctly across all channels.

Minor Hotels’ playbook is a masterclass in intentional growth. They don’t acquire for the sake of it—they acquire to fill a specific gap in their geographic or demographic reach. That kind of disciplined thinking is available to any operator, at any scale.

The Takeaway for Motel Owners

These three groups operate in very different markets, but the thread connecting them is the same: intentionality. Every room type, every brand extension, every acquisition is a deliberate answer to a specific guest need.

That’s the standard to hold yourself to in 2026. Not perfectionism.