While longevity researchers continue to unravel the intrinsic mechanisms of how to permanently stave off chronic disease, prolong human life and even reverse aging, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that there is no single cure to every ailment — not yet, at least.
That is to say, there is no silver-bullet treatment that anyone can pay a medical practitioner to quickly take a decade off their biological clock (that is, healthspan) or extend the maximum upper age limit beyond roughly 125 (that is, lifespan). While this lack of a present-day panacea is frustrating for doctors, it’s a brisk business for wellness hotels.
Evidence continues to reinforce that the best way to be as healthy as possible is through holistic lifestyle change. For example, the Mediterranean diet has been a gold standard for promoting vitality — lots of greens, fresh herbs, fruit, nuts and fish. But what should complement this nutritional regimen are consistent, moderate exercise, a cultural emphasis on socialization, slow eating, time spent outdoors and a cumulative lack of stress.
Adopting these daily habits requires a mindset shift that conflicts with modern pill culture. Luckily, the 20th-century mentality of waiting until a problem causes serious illness is giving way to a 21st-century ideal of treating the body like a garden — consistent care with just the right balance of water, sun, fertilizer, probiotics and pruning. And as more guests start to seek out this consistency while traveling as part of this new-age lifestyle, it will mean a steady rise in demand for wellness products at hotels.
Put another way, because longevity and staving off chronic disease require continuous attention and real effort, hotel brands can thus position themselves to develop recurring revenues from this vertical with the proper attention given to service, personalization, packaging and loyalty or rewards offers.
Let’s put this in real terms so that you can visualize how to operationalize human longevity and wellness for hotels. Consider a relatively benign hot mineral bath at a spa. Any balneologist could cite multiple studies showing that these are good for relaxation, improving skin elasticity and relieving joint pain. But the positive effects from a single spa day — whether actual or simply placebo — fade quickly, and thus to realize a long-term effect, long-term exposure is required.
This is simple principle behind exercise, diet, saunas, supplements, meditation, red light therapy and practically everything else short of stem cells or peptides. Deriving healthy revenues from this is far easier said than done, though, as hotel teams must simultaneously deliver an experience that feels good in the moment and also has a convincing lure to elicit return visits for the real health benefits.
From our work in wellness-oriented rebranding and property redesigns, here are some common topics of importance to help generate those return visits:
- Technology. With today’s ongoing labor battles, every piece of automation is important. But more so than that, it’s about data interfaces and customer segmentation to more narrowly define retargeting and loyalty offers so that hotels can more conveniently fit into a person’s wellness habits and the frequency of visitation they desire.
- Theme. Wellness is an umbrella term for so many different practices. To be memorable, brands must tell a simple, cohesive story about their product offerings — one that’s also congruent with their existing customer base. Nowadays, integrations are essential for building a rich, structured database for KYC (Know Your Customer). A core focus is what will allow for word of mouth and ensure that you are delivering great experiences for those core focuses before branching out.
- Context. Often it’s not just about the promotion or the messaging but when and how that offer is presented to the guest. A wellness-primary guest will be more likely to purchase a package and book an appointment far in advance of arrival while a wellness-secondary guest may only be receptive to cross-selling upon arrival. Again, various tech tools can enable contextual delivery and A/B testing.
- Commitment. Just as changing a lifestyle to promote health requires actively altering habits until they become ingrained, the pursuit of profits from wellness won’t happen overnight. It requires a long-term pledge and a cultural change so that any established program is not quietly abandoned but continually improved. When starting with any new programming, as Voltaire said, “Perfect is the enemy of the good.” Sometimes it’s better to launch then tweak and tweak and tweak rather than hold off on getting market feedback.
While involved with a hotel wellness brand redesign project or speaking about wellness at a conference, it’s all but inevitable that someone will ask one of us, “What’s the one thing I should do to be healthier?” Our answer often baffles those still stuck in the 20th-century mold of silver bullets: just think.
More people every day are waking up to a new way of thinking about their own health — one of proactive vigilance and not of reactive reliance on a pill or surgery to solve every problem. As this continues to happen — as people adjust their mindset to one of the regular habits oriented around wellness — there will be profound benefits for the hospitality industry as these individuals seek out hotels for inspiration as well as restoration. It’s a big trend that will play out over a decade, but it’s happening regardless, so find a way to make it work for your top line.
Adam and Larry Mogelonsky are partners of Hotel Mogel Consulting Ltd., a Toronto-based consulting practice. Larry focuses on asset management, sales and operations while Adam specializes in hotel technology and marketing.
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