2025 Hotel Benchmarking Report

Representation in Hotel Leadership

Benchmarking the representation of women and Black leaders in the hotel industry, the Penn State School of Hospitality Management has released the 2025 Representation in Hotel Leadership research report. 

This report indicates the representation of women in upper-level management in the hotel industry has stagnated and Black representation in upper levels of hotel company management has decreased from 2022-25. Conversely, data indicates that progress is being made in diversifying corporate boards, particularly with respect to racial diversity. 

A team of doctoral students supervised by Phil Jolly, associate professor of hospitality management at Penn State, reviewed publicly available data spanning more than 10,000 individuals from 1,439 companies and over 5,500 hotel-investment-conference attendees.