The wellness travel trend really gained traction coming out of the pandemic, and with today’s guests more focused on their well-being—both physical and mental—hoteliers must consider adding offerings that not only are attractive to those looking to continue their regimens on the road, but also are revenue generators for their properties.
In the latest Hotel Business Hot Topics session, “Investing in Wellness: Your brand, your guests and your bottom line,” in partnership with Peloton Commercial, panelists discussed the emergence of wellness travel and what that means to both the hotelier and the hotel.
Moderator Sonal Uberoi, global wellness expert and author of “The Wellness Asset: How to transform and futureproof your hotel,” was joined by Ryan Crabbe, senior director, commercial experience, Peloton Commercial; Anne Dimon, cofounder/president/CEO, Wellness Tourism Association (WTA); Sonya Haffey, principal, V Starr; Kenneth Ryan, VP, global wellness, spa & fitness operations, Marriott International; and Celine Vadam, founder/CEO, WE(i) Think.
Ryan began the session by noting that the pandemic allowed everyone to learn of the importance of personal well-being.
“It really allowed us all the opportunity to pause and look at our lives individually,” he said. “We saw more people working out outside—walking, hiking—and then also putting a focus on what they’re eating.”
Once people started traveling again, it was evident that they wanted to bring their heightened wellness focus on the road with them.
“We’ve heard that wellness is now at the forefront of everybody’s mind and self-care rituals are really important to everybody—and they’re taking that with them when they travel,” he said. “This has had a profound shift in what’s going on and driving powerful growth. We’re seeing high demand in our spas, and we’re seeing the best revenues ever—well over 2019—and really strong rates.”
How wellness is defined is different for every guest and, according to the WTA, there are two types of wellness travelers: “Those who already live a wellness lifestyle and want to take that with them on the road, and those who want to use their travel time to actually get on a path to wellness,” offered Dimon.
Historically, when people thought of wellness, it was all about going to the gym to lose weight or improve the physique. Haffey said it’s much more than that now at hotels and includes mental health.
“From head to toe, and through the [hotel]experience, it’s everywhere,” she said. “It’s from the moment that you arrive and how you’re greeted. If someone opens your door and they’re smiling, that immediately releases endorphins in your brain and you start on this wellness journey. You’re going into these hotels and now the scent is a big deal and that scent sparks some kind of emotion.”
Vadam has also seen a shift in the way hotels look at wellness. “It went from like something related to physical appearance,” she said. “The spa was all about aesthetics; the gym was to look good. Now, wellness is really related to health and how can you improve your overall health—sleeping well, eating well, moving well and socializing well. These are the four universal pillars of healthy living and things that you can implement in their various touch points throughout the hotel.”
Fitness is still a big part of the wellness experience at hotels, and some properties have offered access to fitness-based mobile apps so that their guests can not only work out in their rooms if they choose, but they can continue to have access to the app at home.
“We’ve been very successful recently with a launch that we did throughout our Europe, Middle East and Africa [EMEA] properties where we partnered in a digital space,” said Ryan of the Marriott program called Stay Fit on the Go with Marriott Bonvoy. “We’re giving everybody access to a digital app with fitness on demand, and it’s a curated experience for people staying in a hotel with exercises that you can do in the room—bodyweight exercises, meditation, yoga. It just launched, but we’ve got about 400 hotels right now.”
Crabbe is also a proponent of fitness apps. “We certainly find the Peloton app traveling with our members and even non-members a lot more,” he said. “For me, one of the biggest shifts pre- vs. post-pandemic is this idea that connected fitness can deliver motivational and effective training and fitness outcomes. I don’t think that was the consensus before, but people were forced to reevaluate the space and time when they consume fitness. I think a lot of people learned during the pandemic that you could have just as motivating and effective a workout through connected fitness and digital apps [as you would at the gym].”
He pointed out that his company introduced Peloton Hotel Finder, which allows users to find hotels that have Peloton Bikes on property. “During COVID, we were able to look at Hotel Finder and see some of these macro trends,” Crabbe said. “We saw the rise of the omni-fitness seekers—those who are not satisfied with leaving behind some of the habits and experiences that were so memorable and impactful during COVID. They want to take that with them. One of the things that we did was add a brand filter to Hotel Finder. A lot of people don’t even know that you don’t have to be a Peloton member to use Peloton on the road.”
Business-traveler wellness
Whether using a fitness app or the hotel’s facilities, wellness for leisure guests vs. business travelers will likely differ, noted Vadam.
“When you travel heavily for business, that’s where you need to take care of yourself even more to still be productive on the road,” she said. “When you’re on a leisure trip, that’s where are you happy to experience different things and like shake up your routine a bit. But, when you’re traveling for business, you really want to stick to your healthy habits. There’s such an untapped market for business traveler wellness, especially now that companies are realizing that what is good for the traveler is good for the company because it makes them more productive and better able to work during meetings.”
Ryan agreed, and pointed out, “At many of our hotels, we hold large conventions and big group events, and we are asked by more and more meeting planners, ‘Can you do a wellness zone?’ or ‘Can you do a Zen den?’—types of areas where, during the event, people can go and get their wellness and really recharge, disconnect and tune out.”
There’s always been an F&B element in wellness as consumers consider eating healthy as one of the primary goals in their journey. An audience member asked where wellness travel fits in with F&B options on property. At many hotels, healthy items at grab-and-go kiosks and breakfast buffets are likely limited to yogurt and fruit.
Vadam said the issue comes from hotel chefs’ lack of training. “It’s not that they don’t want to make a healthier meal,” she said. “It’s just they don’t really know how to put together a balanced plate. A vegetarian meal is not only picking out the meat and throwing some tofu in there or just having vegetables. You really need to know the different nutrients to have something balanced for your guests.”
Before the focus was put on wellness and eating healthy on the road, Haffey noted, “when you ordered a vegan platter, you just got a salad.”
Dimon explained that more and more guests have different food needs, ”so [hotel]restaurants and properties need to be able to serve these clients these guests with a variety of food preferences. It’s hard being a chef these days.”
Employee wellness
Wellness is not just about your guests, as an employee’s well-being is essential in running a hotel efficiently—especially in this environment where hotels are dealing with a labor crisis.
“If you’re treating your employees a certain way and they’re happy and healthy, then that reflects your brand,” Uberoi offered. “Any reviews are probably going to be based on one of your employees. So, if you’re treating them a certain way, they’re going to treat your guests a certain way, and you’re gonna get a return on the investment that you just put into that employee.”
Ryan noted, “That’s actually Mr. Marriott’s philosophy on the company he built. If you take care of the associates, the associates will take care of the guests, and the guests will return. Our entire [portfolio]of 8,000-plus hotels around the world are all born on that statement.”
Peloton, Crabbe noted, has a separate division dedicated to corporate wellness. “We’ve got tons of research that shows increased positivity [equals]increased productivity,” he said. “We [recently]launched a partnership with Hilton, and one of the really neat things we were excited to do was to start to make connected fitness and the app accessible to more than just guests. This is really our first foray into seeing how offering a 90-day free trial to the team impacts them at the individual level and at the property level.”
Continuing on the subject of employee wellness, Uberoi asked if a four-day workweek would be beneficial for both team members and the hotel.
“Any of the research I’ve read about the [four-day workweek] showed that there was an increase in productivity and in employee happiness,” said Haffey. “It might not be feasible [for some companies]…but I feel like it would be smart.”
Marriott has become more flexible with the working hours of therapists at their spas, noted Ryan.
“One of our biggest challenges is always having great quality therapists to be able to perform the treatments,” he said. “The flexibility that we’ve employed is really working with people and working on their terms as to what schedule works best for them that can fit into our operation. Sometimes it requires you to have a few more people on staff, but they’re happier because they’re working when they want to be there.”
Work-from-home has recently become a big topic when it comes to employee wellness and productivity.
“At the corporate office, Marriott has adapted to a hybrid model where we have only so many days that we’re required to be in the office,” noted Ryan. “I think what the pandemic has taught us is that we can work from anywhere and be very successful and, in most cases, even more productive. Having that flexibility has really been an opportunity for us to hire the top talent throughout the organization because people are living in different places but they have a lot of value they can add to our organization.”
Uberoi asked the panel if they believe guests are willing to pay a higher rate in order to have an integrated wellness experience.
“I think that depends on the guest,” said Haffey. “If a family is going to Disney, they’re not even going to be at the location. They’re going to be at parks, so they’re not going to be willing to [pay more].”
She then talked about the triple bottom line of business—profit, people and planet—and noted that today’s guests are including that framework when deciding their booking plans.
“How you’re affecting all of those things are really impacting how the consumer is making decisions now,” Haffey said. “If they read that your company—no matter how wonderful it is— isn’t doing things a certain way, they’re not going to go there. Do you recycle? Are you conscious of the environment? How are you treating your people? How are they treating me? They’re looking at that.”
Dimon believes it’s not always all about the bottom line. “If people go away, and they say they had a great experience, that’s value too because they will tell other people which will bring more people or they will come back,” she said.
Crabbe, who spent eight years at Hilton before joining Peloton, pointed out that it’s not easy to figure the return on investment (ROI) of wellness offerings. “What’s the ROI of spa and fitness?” he asked. “It’s not all tangible. For me, ROI is really about the return on your reputation, what’s making you attractive for today’s wellness customers and your return on on social. How much does what you offer inspires people to share?”
