Hotels expand options to keep guests healthy
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Running concierges, a hotel mini bar stocked with produce from the local farmers market and a training wall that comes standard in every room. The hotel industry is moving beyond basement gyms and basic spa menus to accommodate guests’ growing requests to stay healthy while on the road.
The trend has been a mainstay at spas and wellness resorts for years, but now hotels frequented by business travelers and families are showing life on the go doesn’t have to mean sacrificing spin class or a quinoa superfood bowl. Boutique and luxury hotels along with big name brands including Westin and Wyndham have vastly expanded fitness programs and dining options in recent years.
The number of hotels with fitness facilities jumped from 63 percent in 2004 to 84 percent in 2014, according to a study by the American Hotel & Lodging Association. And hotels offering in-room exercise equipment has nearly doubled in the past 10 years, from 7 to 13 percent, according to the study.
“It’s what the marketplace is demanding,” said Dena Roche, wellness travel expert and editor of The Travel Diet website. “People are trying to lead a healthier lifestyle in their daily life so when they go on the road they want to keep doing those things.”
At the Even Hotels, every room has a training zone with a yoga mat, exercise ball, foam roller and a mounted fitness wall with resistance bands plus 19 videos and training guides to help you get your sweat on. Wyndham guests can request a room stocked with an exercise machine and free workout wear, and the W hotel chain partnered with popular yogi Tara Stiles for free in-room yoga videos and a set of tip cards placed around the room to suggest poses to help you relax, wake up or get in the mood.
“It’s pushing from a trend to a tipping point where there’s mass adoption around wellness into every aspect of people’s lives,” Jason Moskal, a vice president at Intercontinental Hotels Group, which owns the Even brand.
“Everyone has a different aspect of what they’re looking for ... the hotel was designed with this idea of wanting wellness on my own terms,” he said.
Rooftop yoga classes are all the rage at hotels across the country including The James Hotel in New York and the Mondrian South Beach.
Spinning junkies only have to walk downstairs at the 1 Hotel South Beach for a Soul Cycle class.
Forgot to pack your workout clothes? No problem. Trump Hotels and Fairmont have partnered with Under Armour and Reebok to style your workout. Westin’s lending program with New Balance had a 16 percent increase in requests in 2015. At the hotel’s Grand Central location in New York, more than 2,000 guests paid $5 to use a new pair of sneakers and clothes delivered to their room.
Kimpton’s running kit includes a map of the Hudson River running path and pre-loaded iPod shuffle. Fairmont and several other hotels have running programs including “run concierges” at roughly 200 Westin locations.
The beefed-up offerings come as guests, particularly younger ones, say it’s one of the deciding factors on where they will stay.
Forty-five percent of millennials and 38 percent of Gen-Xers said spa and fitness centers were influential in where they booked a room, according to a 2015 survey from travel and hospitality marketing firm MMGY Global.
