With wellness tourism a growing force in the travel and hospitality industries (according to the Global Wellness Institute), hotel companies like Hilton are finding big and small ways to capture market share.
“As we look at how wellness has evolved in hospitality, and particularly within Hilton, it's not just spa and fitness,” said Amanda Al-Masri, Hilton’s global vice president of wellness. While both spa and fitness are “table stakes” for a hotel company, she continued, Hilton is looking to incorporate wellness into the full guest experience across all of its brands. “Figuring out how we do that, how we deliver, finding touch points across all our categories means inherently thinking about design.”
Back to Basics
Guests now expect wellness elements in hotels up and down the chain scale, Al-Masri continued. “It means something different for absolutely every person, so while we're happy to see that the definition of wellness has expanded, it also makes [meeting those needs] infinitely more complex.” With that in mind, the Hilton team focuses on the simpler aspects. For example, helping guests sleep well means creating an environment that is cool, dark and quiet—a goal achievable by a wide range of properties. “Those are key touch points that we have with our guests and we know that they're highly correlated to their satisfaction with their stay.”
Hilton’s year-old Tempo brand “leans heavy into the wellness space,” said Adam Crocini, Hilton’s senior vice president of design, wellness and food and beverage. The flagship Tempo, which opened in New York City in August 2023, uses blackout blinds and soundproof windows to keep guestrooms dark and quiet in an active and brightly lit part of town. “You can sleep in that hotel room in Time Square and almost not hear anything that happens outside,” Crocini said.
Being part of a major company can help get these elements incorporated into a wide range of hotels, Al-Masri said. If soundproofing and window-glazing are “already embedded into our process,” she noted “we're able to ensure that they're there. So maybe it's not clear to the end user why we've done what we've done, but if the end product is a nice, low-noise or no-noise ambient environment … we’ve done our job.”
Thanks to investments in elements that promote sleep, Al-Masri noted a growing perception among travelers that they sleep better in hotels—“which we're always happy to hear,” she said. To promote what she calls “sleep tourism,” Hilton has partnered with Rebecca Robbins, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine. “We're working with her on our bedding experience with our supply management team,” Al-Masri said. Robbins and Hilton launched Sleep Retreats at Grand Wailea, A Waldorf Astoria Resort in Hawaii, with the potential to expand to additional markets in the future.
Options and Trends
Wellness can incorporate having a range of options for movement beyond a fitness room, she continued. For example, having access to walking paths outside or open staircases between floors—beyond fireproof stairways behind alarmed doors—can encourage guests to be more active. “It's small, small things,” she said. “We work arm in arm with the architecture, design and construction team in-house [as well as] our interior designers.”
In terms of trends, Al-Masri believes biophilia is here to stay. “There's a reason [why] it's so resonant with owners and guests and, of course, interior designers. It's bringing the outdoors [inside] in areas that … can often feel closed in.” For example, she said, attendees of conventions at large-scale hotels may not be able to go outside for several days while they are in meetings. Having access to greenery and natural elements can help these guests feel better during their stay, she said.
Beyond dedicated guestrooms with Peloton bikes, the Tempo brand sells reusable water bottles and has fillable hydration stations across each property for guests to use whenever they need.
This article was originally published in the July/August edition of Hotel Management magazine. Subscribe here.