What comes after the spa: 10 predictions for wellness in hospitality (Part 1)

From two sides of the business, on where wellness is heading.

Dear guest,

As summer turns into fall and the atmosphere takes a turn for the spookier, it is time to take out the crystal ball.

This week, I have teamed up with hospitality industry veteran Emily Johnson to bring you some juicy predictions for wellness hospitality.

Enjoy!

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In this letter: serving you hot takes on the future of wellness hospitality on a silver platter. Voilà!

Let me explain! I recently came in contact with a startup that’s able to nudge people into behaving in desired ways. Sounds sus, but the applications are nice, like getting people to choose more sustainable food options at lunch which can lead to reduced food waste.

Now imagine applying this to wellness experience: scattering subliminal cues that craft the state of ultimate relaxation throughout the guest journey. Or even further, connect this tech to guests’ wearables and have them get specific cues based on their Oura readiness score, for instance.

This would be (and as this is a prediction, will be) a game-changer for any wellness-adjacent operator who is catering to guests that are looking for results and want them now.

Smoking is trending, and Highsnobiety reports that Gen-Z is back into drinking. I don’t think this is a surprising turn considering the health-optimization air that has been hanging over us probably ever since covid. The hotel world has of course followed suit, and we now see so many stripped-down concepts wired for tranquility and ✨harmony✨.

But even Bryan Johnson and Andrew Huberman, although they are the self-proclaimed alphas of peak health, will not be able to stop the countermovement of anti-wellness hotels that will be the ultimate havens of doing what you’re not supposed to do. Imagine ciggies served on trays and 24h nightclubs (and rumor has it one very renowned luxury hotel brand focused on wellness is working on a rowdier sister concept).

Not saying I endorse this by the way, just reporting what I see from the crystal ball.

A.k.a gatekeeping is back.

We all know by now the notorious scheme Hermès runs to have clients scramble for the coveted Birkin and Kelly bags. They have to jump through hoops, make purchase after purchase, and only after the fact are they maybe granted access to the hero product.

This is already happening in luxury hospitality, and I think gatekeeping will be huge once the category of wellness hospitality matures and offerings become more sophisticated. An existing example that comes to mind is the hidden (as in you can’t find it on the map) resort Octola in Arctic Finland.

They only have a handful of lodges, and the newest ones are solely reserved for guests who have already stayed in the older ones. In Hermès terms, you buy the Picotin to get the Birkin.

This is how you keep them coming back for more, baby!

Many private members’ clubs function on the premise of community. And not just any community, but curated, exclusive community. We have recently discussed how this is a tough value proposition to scale, but that is not to say it cannot be done.

I think luxury hotels, especially those geared towards communal wellness, will start playing platonic cupid with guests, and make it part of their offering to have open table concepts, joint workshops where art is created and ideas exchanged, and many more curated opportunities for connecting with fellow human beings.

We are currently so focused on our individual views on wellness, but I am certain that hotels will absorb much of the work private members’ clubs have been doing socially til now. Like one tPH reader said:

“I’ve met far more interesting people staying at the same five star hotel as me (and stayed in touch with several of them) than I have at the private members clubs in NYC I’ve belonged to. Which begs the question, what exactly is the point of a private members club today?”

When hotels crack the code on how to capitalize on this – basta!

Once I took what I thought was a cooking class at a quintessential lakeside restaurant in Como, and ended up gutting fish at the fish station and gaining the nickname ’fish girl’ and invitation to come work in the kitchen. While this was not quite the luxe chef experience I was expecting, it ended up being crazy memorable and gratifying (and to this day when I go back to that restaurant they still call me fish girl).

People are already willing pay good money to feel accomplished and like they have put in some manual labor (just look at the growth of Hyrox). Many of us now work behind screens and have a diminishing amount of those moments where we immediately see the results of the effort we exert.

I spy with my little eye a trend of guests wanting to hop onboard the operations, but with experience design behind it, of course.

Imagine tending a property’s zen garden or splitting wood or waking up at 5AM for a bread shift at the bakery. Guests feel like they have contributed and feel a stronger relationship to the property because they have played a teeny tiny part in making the magic happen.

For the rest of the predictions, make sure to jump to Emily’s post. She has a rather controversial prediction about how kids will no longer be segregated from wellness experiences, and hotels will have to come up with ways on how to make eeeeveryone in the group happy. I mean I agree, but how will they pull it off?

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That’s all for this week, but I will not let you go without a little word of gratitude.

Thank you for checking in at tPH, and for those of you who have become returning guests, merci beaucoup beaucoup!!! It’s my utter joy and privilege to get to share my thoughts with you, and I love how our army of hospitality critics (all of you) is growing.

Now I obviously need to hear your predictions, and also if you agree or disagree with the statements above.

I quite enjoyed opening my third eye for this one, so if you liked it, more will follow.

All my best and let’s reconvene next week,

🔑 Emma