Ahead of The Hospitality Show 2026, Apple Hospitality REIT advisory board member K.C. Gallagher, senior vice president and chief operating officer, said that in today's inflationary environment the company remains intently focused on the threat of expense creep, prudently managing expenses across its portfolio to maximize flow-through of top-line improvements and deliver strong bottom-line performance, while working closely with third-party management companies to find and retain exceptional talent. Gallagher said opportunity lies in strategic revenue management that focuses on putting the most profitable business in hotels, taking into account distribution and acquisition costs and factors like length of stay and the number of people per room on variable costs, as well as in the automation, consolidation and integration of disparate systems hotels subscribe to, which could streamline operations, bring data points together for better strategic decisions, automate manual tasks, more effectively layer in AI once systems speak to each other, and reduce subscription costs through vendor consolidation. Gallagher said the company uses its access to performance data to benchmark and identify areas of opportunity and is leaning harder into AI for administrative tasks and basic analysis to direct focus to follow-through.