Data Centers Are Rewriting the Hotel Development Map
Photo Credit: A Sierra Suites hotel Gemini
Skift Take
If you’re a hotel developer waiting for the next travel boom to tell you where to build, you’re already late. Some of the next best markets will look like “non-destinations,” but deliver durable demand from the infrastructure supercycle.
An infrastructure supercycle is coming, and it’s a big issue for hotels. That’s one important takeaway from Brookfield's 2026 outlook, which makes clear that the next wave of "growth" is physical: steel, concrete, cables, power plants, grid upgrades, cooling systems, and enormous data centers that make AI usable at scale.
That matters for hotel development. Demand can be roaring, and projects still don't happen if you can't build at the right cost, with the right labor, and financing with room for error. The infrastructure supercycle squeezes all three.
Let’s start with the U.S., where the AI data center buildout is becoming a construction-labor vacuum. The same skilled workers that hotels need — electricians, HVAC technicians, controls specialists, commissioning teams, emergency-power experts — are being hoarded by data centers. And the equipment hotels rely on, from switchgear and transformers to generators, now comes with longer lead times and highe
