The American Hotel & Lodging Association has welcomed the decision by the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Labor to release 35,000 supplemental H-2B visas for fiscal year 2026, calling the move a critical lifeline for seasonal hotels that continue to grapple with worker shortages.

The latest allocation, announced on December 31, 2025, comes as travel demand remains strong in many U.S. leisure markets and as hoteliers warn that staffing gaps could limit room inventory, amenities and service levels during peak seasons.

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AHLA backs visa boost but calls current cap outdated

In a statement released January 15, 2026, AHLA President and CEO Rosanna Maietta applauded the joint action by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor to free up thousands of additional H-2B temporary nonagricultural visas beyond the program’s statutory limit. She said the move would make it “easier for small business hoteliers to access the seasonal workers they need” at a time when hiring domestic staff for short-term roles remains challenging in many regions.

Maietta also underscored that the association views the current legal framework as fundamentally misaligned with industry realities. The H-2B visa program, which is capped by statute at 66,000 visas per fiscal year, was designed decades ago to supplement the domestic workforce during peak periods. AHLA argues that the numerical cap has become increasingly arbitrary as travel volumes, hotel supply and labor-market dynamics have shifted, particularly in destination regions that rely heavily on seasonal tourism.

While praising the release of the supplemental visas, AHLA framed the December 31 decision as a stopgap rather than a structural fix. The group is urging lawmakers and the administration to replace the fixed annual ceiling with what it calls “a more predictable system based on the need for workers instead of the arbitrary, outdated H-2B visa caps in place today.” For hotel owners and operators, predictability is as important as volume, since staffing decisions for an upcoming season are often locked in months in advance.

Details of the supplemental H-2B allocation

Under current law, the H-2B program is limited to 66,000 visas per year for temporary nonagricultural workers, split evenly between the first and second halves of the fiscal year. In recent years, Congress has given the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Department of Labor, discretionary authority to make tens of thousands of additional visas available through temporary rules when there is clear evidence of strong employer demand.

For fiscal year 2026, DHS and DOL announced they would release 35,000 extra H-2B visas on top of the statutory 66,000. This year’s supplemental pool is significantly smaller than the 64,716 additional visas that were authorized for fiscal year 2025 under the previous administration’s temporary final rule, and it marks a step down from the pattern in recent years in which federal authorities routinely made the maximum supplemental allocation allowed under congressional authority.

The agencies have indicated that the extra visas for 2026 will be targeted at employers with pressing seasonal needs, similar to prior allocations that prioritized returning workers and certain nationalities. Although detailed breakdowns for the current year have not yet been fully implemented, previous temporary rules have typically set aside large portions of the supplemental visas for workers who held H-2B status in one of the past three fiscal years, which can streamline vetting and deployment.

Travel and hospitality companies that rely on the program say the supplemental pool often determines whether they can fully open their seasonal operations. Ski resorts, coastal hotels, national park lodges and destination properties in remote areas tend to be among the heaviest users, since they have limited year-round labor pools and must scale up quickly for relatively short peak windows.

Seasonal hotels still struggling to fill key roles

Even with the additional visas, hotel owners and managers across the United States report that they face continued difficulty in recruiting enough workers to operate at full capacity during peak travel periods. While broader U.S. unemployment has eased compared with the immediate post-pandemic period, employers in remote and resort destinations say local labor pools remain tight, especially for physically demanding, lower-wage jobs that are not available year-round.

For many independent hotels and resorts, the H-2B program is used to staff essential frontline positions such as housekeeping attendants, groundskeepers, maintenance technicians, bell staff and back-of-house food and beverage roles. These functions are critical to keeping rooms clean, facilities operating and restaurants open, but they can be hard to fill with local workers when the season lasts only a few months and housing costs in popular destinations are high.

Industry groups warn that without sufficient seasonal staff, hotel operators may be forced to leave rooms out of service, reduce operating hours for amenities such as pools and restaurants, or scale back services that guests have come to expect. In destinations that depend heavily on tourism spending, such cutbacks can ripple through local economies, affecting everything from tax revenues to employment in related sectors like transportation, tours and attractions.

AHLA’s statement ties the supplemental visa decision directly to these on-the-ground realities, arguing that the expanded pool will “assist American businesses with seasonal workforce” needs by allowing them to staff up in time for upcoming travel surges. For small and mid-size hoteliers with limited financial reserves, the ability to run at or near full capacity during peak weeks can determine whether the year is profitable.

Comparisons with previous years and shifting federal policy

This year’s H-2B announcement comes against a backdrop of shifting federal policy on temporary worker programs. During fiscal years 2024 and 2025, the government used its discretionary authority to release more than 60,000 supplemental H-2B visas annually, effectively nearly doubling the size of the program compared with the statutory baseline. Those larger allocations were widely credited by travel and tourism advocates with preventing deeper service disruptions as leisure travel rebounded.

The decision to limit the 2026 supplemental pool to 35,000 visas represents a significant reduction from those recent highs, and it suggests a recalibration in Washington over how aggressively to expand the program above its statutory cap. At the same time, authorities have continued to stress that H-2B is intended as a complement rather than a substitute for domestic workers, and they have layered on additional compliance requirements and worker protections in recent temporary rules.

Some labor advocates have argued that even the 35,000-visa supplemental pool is too generous, contending that employers should raise wages and improve working conditions to attract more U.S. workers instead of relying on temporary foreign labor. Business groups counter that many of the affected jobs are in regions where housing is extremely expensive and where local populations are too small to meet seasonal demand, making a purely domestic hiring strategy impractical.

AHLA has positioned itself squarely on the side of continued and predictable expansion, while also signaling support for rigorous enforcement against bad actors. The association maintains that properly run H-2B programs not only fill gaps that would otherwise go unfilled but also support existing U.S. jobs by enabling hotels to stay open, invest in renovations and maintain higher year-round staffing levels in management and supervisory positions.

What the move means for travel-dependent destinations

The travel impact of the 35,000 supplemental visas is likely to be felt most acutely in U.S. regions where tourism is highly seasonal. New England beach communities, mountain resort towns in the Rockies and Appalachians, coastal areas along the Gulf of Mexico, and gateway communities near national parks and other major attractions all depend on a surge of workers for a limited season. Hotels in these locations often report receiving many more reservations than they can honor unless they can assemble full teams in advance.

When H-2B visas are limited or delayed, hotel operators sometimes respond by imposing minimum-stay requirements, closing off blocks of inventory, or scaling back group bookings because they cannot be certain they will have sufficient staff. Those measures can raise prices for leisure travelers, make it more difficult for families and tour operators to secure rooms, and compress demand into fewer properties that are able to fully staff up.

By contrast, a more robust and predictable flow of seasonal workers can support a healthier competitive environment, in which more properties can open fully, spread demand across a destination and maintain steadier rates. Local tourism authorities watch the H-2B allocation closely, since hotel capacity directly influences how many visitors they can realistically attract and how aggressively they can market peak periods.

In remote areas where hotels are among the largest employers, the economic stakes are even higher. Seasonal workers spend money in local shops and restaurants, use local transportation services and, in many cases, return year after year, developing relationships that help operations run more smoothly. Hoteliers say that having veteran temp workers who already know the property and the community can be particularly valuable during compressed training periods.

Pressure builds for long-term immigration and labor reforms

While AHLA welcomed the December 31 decision, its latest statement makes clear that the association views the annual scramble over supplemental H-2B visas as unsustainable. Industry leaders say they would prefer a system in which the number of visas available each year is more directly tied to demonstrated labor-market needs, with transparent criteria and timelines so employers can plan their seasons with greater confidence.

Policymakers on both sides of the aisle have floated reforms that would link visa availability to economic indicators such as unemployment rates in specific regions or sectors, but consensus on broader immigration and labor reforms has repeatedly stalled in Congress. Debates over border security, asylum policy and other high-profile issues have tended to overshadow more targeted proposals to adjust programs like H-2B, even when those proposals have support from business coalitions and some regional lawmakers.

AHLA and allied organizations in the broader travel and tourism sector are expected to use the 2026 supplemental announcement as fresh evidence in their lobbying campaigns for a more modern framework. They argue that with travel demand evolving and competition from international destinations intensifying, U.S. hotels need policy tools that reflect current realities rather than those of previous decades.

For now, however, the industry remains locked into the familiar cycle of watching for year-end announcements from DHS and DOL, then racing to align hiring plans with whatever supplemental cap is set for the upcoming season. That reality leaves hoteliers navigating uncertainty at the very moment they are making commitments on capital expenditures, marketing budgets and group business contracts for the year ahead.

How hotels are preparing for the 2026 season

In the wake of the latest announcement, hotel human resources teams and management companies are moving quickly to map out how the additional visas might translate into staffing levels for 2026. Operators that have used H-2B workers in the past are in the process of coordinating with their immigration counsel and overseas recruitment partners to identify returning workers and fill key roles in advance of high season.

Larger brands and management groups are also updating their workforce strategies to balance foreign seasonal labor with domestic recruitment and retention efforts. Many have increased wages in recent years, expanded employee housing options where feasible, and introduced incentive programs aimed at encouraging workers to stay for multiple seasons. The supplemental visas are being viewed as one piece of a broader staffing puzzle rather than a complete solution.

Smaller independent hotels, which often lack dedicated HR and legal departments, may face greater challenges navigating the application process within the timelines dictated by federal agencies. AHLA and regional hotel associations have stepped up outreach and training to help these businesses understand their options and obligations under the H-2B program, emphasizing compliance with wage, housing and workplace standards for foreign workers.

As the 2026 travel season approaches, the effectiveness of the 35,000 supplemental visas will be measured not just in abstract numbers but in visible outcomes on the ground: whether hotels are able to open all their rooms, maintain service levels and keep amenities operating during the busiest weeks of the year. For many hoteliers, AHLA’s endorsement of the latest government action reflects cautious optimism that, at least for this season, they will have a better shot at meeting the labor demands that come with robust travel demand.