Danni Santana

Hotel companies are always looking for the next big trend. It's pretty hard to ignore business travelers' desire to meet in refreshed spaces and get some work done outside the guest room.

It's no secret that lifestyle brands cater to a particular type of traveler, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty of money still to be made in the space. As lifestyle veterans, Dream Hotel Group could have a leg up over larger chains that have more capital to play with.

Sometimes it's obvious when a company is growing too fast. This doesn't appear to be one of those times. Oyo wants to be everywhere customers want to vacation.

Choice Hotels realized years ago that Comfort Inn's look was outdated. The company has to hope that spending billions on renovations and new marketing materials will make the brand successful again.

One could find Best Western's boutique hotel strategy confusing on price comparisons, but it’s the customer’s choice if they want to pay for the experience.

Hyatt keeps packing on the partnerships to please reward members, which is probably the smart play for the time being. Creating alliances with hoteliers is a faster solution than building a slew of new properties in new markets from scratch.

Hotel chains are always in search of the next big thing in innovation or loyalty that will give them an edge over the competition. But in discussions with industry professionals at the NYU Hospitality Conference this week, it seems most would be willing to settle for reliable Wi-Fi and USB ports in rooms. Maybe simple is better?

It used to be that hotel CEOs outright dismissed homesharing. But now that more hospitality companies are taking the plunge, the top brass is making the case for why the hotel giants can do it better.

While Design Hotels is not solely dependent on its loyalty agreement with Marriott to bolster its brand, our bet is that growing the number of hoteliers leveraging the partnership will help substantially.

Hyatt is not the first and will not be the last hotel company to launch a new lifestyle brand or division. You can take that to the bank. The sector's popularity is only matched by that of the homesharing market.