Wellness in a Hospitality Space

As I work with clients around the world on new projects, I’m increasingly finding that there’s quite a bit of confusion about what wellness actually means to a hotel. Hotel owners, general managers, and even industry leaders have made an automatic shift so that they now equate ‘wellness’ with spa & fitness. My job is to look layer by layer at the programming across all levels of the hotel to help my clients understand the holistic role wellness can play in the property’s overall strategy and positioning.

If you are building wellness into the initial concept and positioning of your hotel, choosing a wellness strategy becomes particularly important. Often the additional money required to build a quality wellness facility loses the battle for dollars and cents – mainly because traditional hotel models have a difficult time understanding how to price wellness facilities, and how to work the P&L to support ROI so that wellness programs can grow. So it is vital to understand what role wellness will play at your property, whether you’re just starting out or you’re trying to refocus your efforts. To help understand the different ways that wellness can be built within a hotel, I have identified three levels of wellness, from a Full Wellness Destination right through to a Resort property with Spa & Fitness.

The first model, the Full Wellness Destination, is one where the sole reason for guests visiting the hotel is for wellness. Wellbeing is the driving force of the property, and the rooms complement the programming. My favourite example of this is Kamalaya Koh Samui in Thailand, a wellness retreat centred around a cave that once served Buddhist monks as a place of meditation and spiritual retreat. Kamalaya has created a five-star resort in the spirit of this, and offers wellness programs for everything from stress management to weight control, detox, sleep enhancement, improving body posture, emotional balance and yoga. On the opposite end of the Full Wellness Destination spectrum is Lanserhof, which has locations in Germany and Austria. Their concept combines holistic medicine with regeneration and prevention, and is based on the findings of the Austrian physician F.X. Mayr. For both Kamalaya and Lanserhof, wellness – or medical wellness – is the driving force of the business.

The second model is a Wellness Resort, where wellness plays a distinct role in the overall programming and strategy of the hotel, but is not the driving force. This model allows flexibility in positioning, and may have components of wellness in food and beverage offering, in-room wellness programming, spa and fitness, and potentially an outdoor yoga or movement offer.  This model might even have a few rooms or villas dedicated to wellness concepts. Wellness has its place but doesn’t dominate. Our best example of this could be Como Shambhala in Bali, which is described as a “Retreat for Change,” and features resident experts including a yoga teacher, Ayurvedic doctor and resident dietician. Raffles Bali which is opening within 2020 is another good example of this concept, including a private hilltop spa, boutique high-quality fitness center, and a Signature space within the property to do meditation within an existing cave on property. The spacious private villas focus on creating a comforting space where guests genuinely want to spend time surrounding by lush tropical gardens. The ‘Sleep Serenity Ritual, brought to you by your personal butler, accentuates the desire for restorative rest. A sustainable herb garden offering healthy cooking lessons motivates home-grown nutritious food which is not only indulgent but equally beneficial to your wellbeing Hotel amenities rooted in local and sustainable practices as well as the rotating visiting practitioner program are a few examples of how to elevate traditional programming to position the hotel as a leader in Wellbeing.

The third model I offer is a Resort with Spa & Fitness; these properties may have a beautiful spa, offers of relaxation and self-care, fitness facilities, a luxury environment that makes you feel good, healthy options on the menu, and some dedicated programming labelled ‘wellness’. But in the overall positioning, this hotel would market luxury spa over wellness. Of all the hotels I’ve visited recently, 90% of them called themselves ‘wellness hotels’ or ‘destinations’, when in reality, they were resort properties with a luxury spa and fitness. 

Wellness isn’t a label we can add to anything; it isn’t meant to be a commercially driven marketing ploy. Wellness is a lifestyle, and within that, is so vague that it can mean something different to many people and cultures.

Within my role as Global Director for Well-Being at Accor Luxury, wellness has a distinct role for each brand I manage. Fairmont Fit is our largest platform, and offers a wide spectrum of wellness that is individual to each hotel. Green Spaces, Lifestyle and Local Culinary Cuisine, High-Tech Fitness and Movement Studios, Luxury Spa and In-Room Programming are just a few ways that wellness is presented to our guests. For Raffles, the Emotional Wellbeing program includes Design for Harmony, which focuses on designing spaces throughout the hotel that make us feel good; Nutrition for Pleasure, which includes healthy food and snacks presented in unique ways; and Serenity Rituals, where we create relaxation rituals throughout the guest journey, from sleep to spa to sound vibrations. These are just two examples of how wellness can play a different role to different brands and consumers, but both represent resort or urban properties where wellness is part of the offer, but not the driving strategy.

Wellness in other corporate brands can be incorporated into a wide range of offerings beyond the obvious spa and fitness. This could include in-room programming focusing on sleep, sensory and sound; the approach to nutrition or culinary desires; how to design for wellness; sustainability; leisure and recreation programs; nature and how we engage with the guest; movement and mindfulness practices; and employee wellness programming. These approaches go well beyond the four walls of the spa or fitness center, and not every hotel is equipped to hold space for that. But these components can be easily woven together, creating a collective of people and collaborations that help support and drive the concepts that live within them. 

Another way we help to drive the concept of wellness in our hotels is to have a dedicated Ambassador within the hotel. This doesn’t mean a Spa Manager – this role goes beyond spa, and is designed for someone who is embracing wellness authentically in their own life. Accor recently created these positions with intention; this is not a title that is handed out to anyone wanting ‘wellness’ or to hotels who simply want to change the title of their spa director. We encourage this as a senior role, and an Ambassador of Wellness should possess a greater connection to the world of wellness. The position supports the wellbeing of the guests and how they experience wellness at the hotel, and has a strong influence on all things well-being. This role will also help support the greater understanding of wellness throughout the property, driving expertise and guest expectation.

There is confusion out there about what wellness means, but often we are creating it ourselves as we follow the trends, hoping to own a space that actually isn’t ours. So I end with asking you to consider the following: How does wellness fit into your hotel, and where does it sit in the pecking order of the other big revenue drivers? How can we as spa professionals change the way wellness is perceived at conceptual stages and work towards creating a stronger ROI for our owners and asset managers? How will you begin to shift your wellness models now that the touch experiences are a little more vulnerable than before?