In 2002, Mandy Murry was coordinating VIP logistics for the Olympic Torch Relay, a complex hospitality and travel operation spanning 46 states and nearly 22,000 kilometers. A few years later, she was running the kitchen, the front desk, and the P&L of mountain lodge, Snowbird Mountain Lodge. Today, she works with independent hotels across three continents, in North America, Caribbean and Europe. Murry is the person independent hotel owners call when the business has fallen out of sync with the guest experience.

Her argument is simple but pointed: the industry doesn't need more management, it needs stewardship. "I don't manage hotels," she says. "I make sure the owner still recognizes their own business three years in. I come in when a property has a soul but no system, or a system with no soul left in it."

Murry’s range is unusual, leading development, branding, and guest experience strategy for a private island resort development in the Bahamas, running her own property. She now has her own business, where she works with owners, providing hands on advice and support to address blind spots in their businesses. Her breadth of experiences allows her to share insights on how to sustain a personalized, high-touch service for guests who expect both quality and individuality - a sweet spot, but often deeply difficult for independent hoteliers to attain and retain.

The Hotel Sector split between extremes.

The global hotel sector is particularly extreme. Many customers are familiar with the large well-known brands that have come to dominate the travel sector. Despite the disproportionate visibility of large chains, independent operators own more than 66% of hotels worldwide, and boutique and lifestyle properties account for more than half of that figure, according to EHL Hospitality Business School Insights report. The trade-off is structural for this sector; while global brands win on room volume through scale and deep ties based on loyalty and rewards systems , independent owners have the potential to outperform on profit margins when it comes to assessing the customer experience and often deeper and more authentic ties to their local market.

Some major brands are now trying to buy their way into that agility, Hyatt’s acquisition of Mr & Mrs Smith being one example. Independent hotels that hold their identity while plugging into loyalty ecosystems are seeing the payoff: a 34% ADR premium over the broader luxury market, as guests increasingly trade up to premium and boutique stays even while tightening budgets elsewhere. While the numbers seem positive, there is a serious tension, as described by Murry.

"Independent hotels are getting squeezed from every direction. Chains have the loyalty points. OTAs have the algorithm that benefits big names. Private equity has capital invested in large brands. What independents have is character, and most of them are managing it into the ground instead of protecting it." Mandy Murry, Founder Murry Hotel Advisory

That’s the trap Murry sees most often:, boutique hotels are often strong on presentation, weak on the back office systems. "The biggest misconception is that hospitality is a service business," she says. “It's an ownership business wearing a service costume. Every owner who treats it like a hobby with a profit-and-loss sheet attached loses to the one who treats it like a company.”

The consequence is a vicious circle. As competition intensifies, owners default to cutting prices and margins, while trying to match the loyalty perks of the big brands. Staff disengage. Guests do their homework before they book. "There’s no room left for owners who aren't paying attention," Murry says. Roughly a third of American independent hotels report staffing shortages , and with labor costs projected to keep climbing through 2026, that shortfall is expected to grow by another 18%.

Murry’s approach echoes the perspective of Will Guidara, the restaurateur behind Eleven Madison Park’s rise to world’s-best-restaurant status, and author of Unreasonable Hospitality , where he shared his journey. Progressing in the restaurant sector without the four-star training taught him to question every step of service against the one thing that mattered, the guest's experience. Murry works the same way with owners, not writing strategy memos from a distance, but staying in the business with them. "Anyone can write a strategy memo," she says. "Very few will tell you the thing you don't want to hear, and then help you fix it anyway."

Financial pressures ahead continue to grow.

The financial pressure on independents is real and rising. Hotel wage and benefit costs are projected to climb from $127 billion in 2025 to $131 billion in 2026, and labor costs have risen 15.3% since 2019 against just 12.8% growth in operating revenue over the same period according to data from The American Hotel and Lodging Association. Independent hotels are also disproportionately hurt by fragmented technology systems, the kind of integrated data that superior guest experience now depends on. Layer on rising property taxes, insurance, and new fixed-cost levies, and financing gets harder too: liquidity favors premium, stabilized, cash-flowing assets, leaving smaller independents in a tougher capital environment even as deal volume ticks up.

Murry's read on what separates owners who survive this from those who don't comes down to mindset. "It's the shift from 'how do we fix this weekend' to 'how do we build something that survives the next ten years,'" she says. "That's the whole job. Owner mindset. Not manager mindset." She sees the paradox most owners miss: "Hospitality rewards busy and punishes slow, and everyone wants the quick win. I've built my name on refusing the quick win when it costs the long game. That's a harder sell than it sounds. Owners want relief, I build discipline."

The hotel industry doesn't have a demand problem. It has a stewardship problem. Murry's bet is that the owners who figure that out first will be the ones still standing in ten years.