BERLIN — The 2019 opening of the first Equinox Hotel created plenty of buzz.
The first hotel outpost from the established fitness club brand, located in New York City’s new Hudson Yards mixed-use development and owned by Related Companies, was meant to herald a 10-year plan to develop 30 hotels.
But then the global pandemic hit and the company pressed pause on new projects.
Today, Equinox Hotels CEO Chris Norton, former chief operating officer of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, said the company is ready to hit fast-forward on further expansion, this time targeting resort locations in addition to the urban locations that were part of the original plan.
The strategy is “to look at North America as our No. 1 development market,” Norton told Hotel News Now in a video interview during the International Hospitality Investment Forum. “We’re in a number of sites. We’ve bought some parcels of land in some places we think are priorities.”
Beyond that, the Middle East and key cities in Europe also are on the list.
“After opening in Manhattan, which is the center of the world, a competitive market, and a very important proof of concept for us, it was important that we would look at resorts early on in the game so we wouldn’t be pigeonholed like some brands are,” he said.
Branded residences also will be part of several upcoming Equinox Hotels locations.
Norton said the ultimate plan is to uphold the foundation that “the Equinox brand is a lifestyle; it is not just about hospitality and a hotel stay. It’s movement, it’s nutrition.”
“You buy into a lifestyle and you have a shared value system around things that are important to you,” he said. “That expands beyond the hotel, beyond the residence, into the food and beverage … and of course into the [fitness] clubs. Today, Equinox has more than 100 fitness clubs in the U.S., United Kingdom and Canada.”
In urban locations, Norton said the Equinox experience is integrated.
“We cater to the traveler in the hotel and we cater to the local customers in the club,” he said.
In New York, the 60,000-square-foot fitness club at the Equinox Hotel New York has more than 5,000 members, and on a weekly basis, 30% to 40% of hotel guests use the club.
In future resort destinations, the club model will be different because resorts won’t necessarily have a feeder market to sustain a full fitness club on its own, Norton said. Then it becomes even more important for the brand to lean on the experiences of wellness and health in many interpretations, he said.
“Successful club models like ours have the authenticity and the authority to program experiences that nobody else can do,” he said.
Above all, Norton said the brand is addressing the renewed focus of many of today’s travelers on happiness and health.
“One of the things the pandemic brought to the forefront is that the No. 1 indicator for happiness is your health,” he said. “Part of health is movement and exercise, and part is mental agility.”
For more from Norton on these topics, plus his thoughts on what’s driving luxury travel demand, watch the video above.