Travelers this year are looking to slow things down, disconnect and focus on themselves, and experts say hoteliers should take note of key wellness and well-being trends that reflect this evolved mentality.
Consumer interest has shifted toward having a comprehensive experience — one that emphasizes a healthy mindset across the board, not just relegated to the onsite spa and fitness center.
Ken Cruse, CEO of SCP Hotels, equates it to feeding your children vegetables; you don’t want them to think about how veggies are healthy for them, just that they are enjoyable.
The industry should be looking at “not compartmentalizing wellness, but rather making it an integral component, whether the guests are aware of it or not, they're doing something good for themselves,” he said.
With this shift in mindset for the consumer, hoteliers should focus on a holistic, pervasive approach to wellness, specifically among these trends for 2025.
Sleep tourism
If there is one thing a hotel guest should get out of a stay, it’s probably a good night’s rest. But this year, hotels should be going the extra mile for guests, providing them more restful amenities.
TJ Abrams, vice president of global wellbeing at Hyatt Hotels, said this means providing in-room content for Hyatt guests through their partnership with Headspace. However, some Hyatt hotels — such as the Andaz 5th Avenue — have extra features, such as a white noise machine, an essential sleep oil for guests to wear, blackout curtains and specialty mattresses.
“All of our hotels have the Headspace content in room, and each hotel starts to do unique things,” Abrams said.
Guests can opt into these specialty sleep experiences, but Lynn Curry, principal at Curry Spa Consulting, warns hoteliers of segmenting these experiences too much. If some rooms have enhanced air quality and mattresses, other guests are left to question the conditions of their standard rooms.
“Every hotel room should be a sleep room,” Curry said.
Embracing analog travel
You might have heard of FOMO — the fear of missing out — but have you heard of JOMO? The joy of missing out is something Abrams said he and his team at Hyatt are also looking to for inspiration for their 2025 wellness and well-being strategy.
“Analog wellness is this idea of a slow travel,” he said. “With the Instagram culture and us being so connected to our phone, we're finding that more and more people are looking for tricks that allow them to actually be present and to like truly be immersed at a deeper level.”
This trend is all about going back to basics, and for SCP, a big part of the company’s holistic approach to hospitality is incorporating nature, Cruse said.
“From a planetary standpoint, wellness in nature is, in our opinion, elevated,” he said. “Humans are a part of nature, and we’ve spent a lot of time throughout our existence creating a separation with nature, so any time we can do a wellness endeavor that brings us back with nature, we’re moving much further in the right direction.”
Pam Cruse, who founded SCP with her husband, Ken, and is the head of awareness of brand and culture for the company, said that at the end of the day, wellness can be as simple as being present in the moment.
“This isn't just for 2025,” she said. “It's on the doing and the being.”
Merging experiences with fitness
In that same vein, SCP offers unique experiences for guests to connect with nature, have access to fitness opportunities and enjoy the local attractions. Ken Cruse gave the example of a sunrise surfing lesson that some SCP hotels offer.
“Surfing is a stealth workout. You don't even realize you've been out on the water for a couple of hours, and you come back and your muscle strength, your joints — the whole thing is just activated in their very different way than you would have if you did a more traditional workout,” he said. “Beyond that, there's the mental health benefit from forming connections with the local community and doing it in a way that's different.”
Hyatt, too, is combining fitness to its experiences while prioritizing local communities. Abrams said the company has more than 200 of these experiences with 125 well-being ambassadors.
“Guests want to be immersed in sort of the locality of the environment,” Abrams said. “But there's a unique way [of taking] something that's supposed to be just a local experience and make it transformative, or in some cases life changing, for people because of how it's facilitated by the instructor leading the class.”
Expanding spa hours, amenities
When it comes to in-spa experiences, the industry is gravitating toward less structure with opportunities to enjoy facilities outside of appointments. Curry points to labor shortages as a factor driving this trend.
“People don't want to have just one hour on a treatment table, and sometimes spas cannot offer the hour on the treatment table because they don't have enough staff,” she said.
What spas can offer is open treatment features, which traditionally has meant hot tubs or saunas. One thing in particular that’s on the rise is hydrotherapy, Abrams said. The industry is seeing interest in cold plunge and communal baths that create community around hydrotherapy.
Guests are also interested in extended spa hours, and Curry advised hotels to prepare to accommodate that, “especially for female business travelers who will forgo dinner out to be able to go to the spa to … get a massage at 7 p.m."
“Nighttime wellness seems to be a really interesting trend,” Ken Cruse added. “We've done this spa after hours program that's been incredibly successful. … For many years, we thought the spa experience was sort of an eight-to-six experience, but it's [really not anymore].”
Continued emphasis on healthy food, beverages
More mindful menu options will continue to be a priority for guests, Pam Cruse said, adding mocktails and non-alcohol beverage options are here to stay along with organic, locally sourced food options.
“Consumers are not just going to accept poor food quality and sourcing,” Pam Cruse said. “That is coming through on restaurants, and travelers are going to demand it when staying at hotels. People are going to hold a higher standard for the food they have when they are traveling.”