The hotel and the wellness industries will need a revamp to better serve the current needs of the market. The traditional business models of these industries must shift towards a more integrated and consolidated offering. In wellness, for example, getting people to pay for premium services such as spa treatments has become an onerous task due to all the safety requirements. Similarly, hotels have to do twice the work to get people to book a room with them, and even then, they have occupancy restrictions imposed on them. Additionally, hoteliers have to navigate through the important lay off measures taking place across the board.

To help me better understand how the industries can pivot, in my next Wellness in Hospitality interview, I spoke to David Ryan, the managing director at a resort in a renowned wine region. David has been in the industry long enough to witness other crises, from financial, environmental to the 9/11 attack. In this interview, he shares some smart and valuable insights on how wellness might evolve in the hospitality industry in these challenging times.

Interview Highlights:

1. Shrinking industry

The hospitality industry will undoubtedly shrink as a result of the pandemic. Online meetings and conferencing have seen a massive surge due to worldwide lockdowns and travel restrictions. The pandemic has forced companies to rethink their ways of doing business. For the younger professionals, the transition has been smooth. They were already comfortable with conducting the bulk of their business online. The older generations have required some adjusting. However, they, too, have embraced the use of technology and have warmed up to the idea of hopping on a Zoom call rather than a physical meeting. Hence, the likelihood of business travel regaining popularity is very low in the short to midterm. Hotels that relied on the convention market and business travel will have to pivot their focus. They will need to convert their spaces into something else, for instance, condos or other long-term accommodation. 

2. Drive market

Until there is a vaccine out international travel is likely to remain heavily restricted. Hotels worldwide have already started targeting the local market. They have lowered their prices and are offering packages that attract people who are within a four to five hour drive. COVID regulations have required hoteliers to operate their restaurants and spas outdoors, which is a great attraction for nearby families looking for a change of scenery. However, the biggest challenge with this drive market is that they are not looking for unnecessary opulence. They’re looking for something unique that isn’t too exorbitant to make spending uncomfortable. Hotel operators will have to adapt their offering accordingly. 

3. Indulgence vs Wellness

A typical human response to restriction is overcompensation. This is certainly true for the hospitality industry, where some local markets are currently leaning towards indulgence rather than wellness. People haven’t been able to enjoy the little luxuries they were so accustomed to for a few months now. Their frustration levels are very high. As markets begin to reopen, the emphasis will be placed more on making up for lost time rather than taking up wellness practices. For wellness to work in hospitality, it must be integrated seamlessly into the already existing offer so as to keep the prices optimum. The wellness industry must pivot from the traditional business model and seek more innovative, contemporary means to provide the same services.

Conclusion

For some, the days of expensive spa treatments in opulent facilities are slowly coming to an end. Wellness must take a new shape in the hospitality industry that allows guests to enjoy the same benefits on their own terms. If the wellness industry is to survive this pandemic, there has to be a deliberate shift from exclusive luxury offerings to more immersive, customised experiences that won’t burn a hole in the guests’ and hotels’ pockets. 

Thank you so much to David for making time to share these invaluable insights. Such a pragmatic response to the economic situation is essential to the survival of both the hospitality and wellness industries. You can head over to David Ryan’s article published in LinkedIn to join the great discussion on his great insights.

Next steps:

1. Are you a hotelier and would like to participate in my Wellness in Hospitality interview series? Drop me a note and let’s chat.
2. Do you want to know how your wellness offering is performing? Take the free ESSENCE scorecard here and get an instant snapshot of where your wellness is. It’s a great (and free!) tool that highlights the steps you can take right away to boost profitability.

My last interview focused on the need for the wellness industry to adapt to the times in order to be better integrated into hospitality. Some changes are already being implemented to make sure that wellness becomes safer for guests. However, the standards are not the same across the board, and this poses a huge problem when it comes to integration. The term ‘wellness’ is often used synonymously with spa, and yet the concept is much richer than that. 

This week, I got a chance to speak with John Nielsen, general manager of a retreat in Bali, about his views on wellness in hospitality and what the future holds for both industries. Having worked in hospitality for a few decades now, John has experienced the ups and downs of the industry and the insights he shares in this interview are both sobering and encouraging for any hotel owners looking to use wellness as their pivot strategy.

Interview Highlights:

1. Stay focused

Health and safety remain the top priorities for hoteliers the world over. However, all measures taken must remain focused on giving the guests the best experience possible under the circumstances. Safety measures such as social distancing, the wearing of facial masks, sanitising and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) have to be implemented in such a way that they don’t make guests uncomfortable. Hospitality is all about taking care of people and providing a place where they can relax and escape from daily life. Thus, it is imperative to keep all efforts focused on this core foundation otherwise hotels may risk providing a hospital-like experience that will only serve to disappoint guests. As such, hoteliers need to consider the impact of any new policies pertaining to health and safety on their overall guest experience.

2. Define ‘wellness’

There is a lot of confusion surrounding the concept of ‘wellness’. For starters, most people believe implementing wellness in hospitality means putting a spa in your facilities and calling it a day. In addition, there is no standardised way of reviewing wellness such as we find in hospitality. For this integration of the two industries to work, there has to be a clear definition of what wellness is, what the standards are and how success is measured. Only then will we be able to use it successfully to pivot the hospitality industry into a new direction. Wellness is not just about providing massage services and other such treatments. It is a tool that should be used to achieve the wellbeing of guests and staff. 

3. Pricing for value

Pricing remains a sore subject to talk about right now with the economic challenges that the world is facing. The price wars currently taking place within the hospitality industry are understandable in that people want to attract the local guests that they currently have access to. In such times, it is important to make sure that the price offered matches the value being promised. Lowering prices too much undercuts the value offering and is simply unsustainable. On the other hand, increasing the price without sufficient justification can do equal damage and may result in the market losing trust in the industry. Hoteliers must communicate clearly what it is they are offering. When guests understand what their money is buying them, they will be much more open to pay for services. 

Being a wellness hotel may sound trendy right now, but there has to be a benchmark of what this actually means. Conflicting messages must be hashed out and reconciled to form a concise, focused definition that can then be used in hospitality to enhance the guest experience and improve internal communications. As the industry strives to get back on its feet during this pandemic, hotel operators need to keep their efforts focused on hospitality and shy away from anything that may turn their hotels into hospital look-alikes. 

It was such an honour to speak with John and I am very grateful for the wealth of information he shared with me. I am confident that this information will be useful to both hotel general managers and wellness professionals as they look for ideas on how they can become stronger in the current economic climate.

My last interview highlighted the need to have a strategic marketing campaign that goes beyond the current messaging of health and safety using wellness as the centre of hospitality. However, implementing wellness across the whole hotel operation is no easy task. It requires massive investment in both time and money. With the pandemic already threatening to shrink all industries, only those companies with the deepest pockets and the most innovative strategies will come out on top.

In my next interview, Franco Pedone reminds us all to be practical in our approach to wellness in hospitality. Franco is a very experienced hotel general manager who has worked in various markets including the Caribbean, the US, Mexico and Europe. He has seen hotels survive other catastrophes such as natural disasters and in his experience, this situation we’re in will get worse before it gets better.

Interview Highlights:

1. Demonstrable performance

Wellness is a relatively new concept in hospitality with little demonstrable track record of a stellar performance. As such, only those with the deepest pockets can even afford to look at wellness as a strategy for survival. Hotel spas, which are the most common example of wellness implementation in the industry, are very expensive to operate and often come with a low return on investment that might be unattractive to owners. While high overheads are part of the nature of wellness facilities, hoteliers who wish to use wellness as a long-term strategy must answer some very important questions: What are their clients looking for now? How can wellness be implemented under the conditions of social distancing and stretching every cent for maximum returns? Should wellness even be implemented right now or must the industry wait for a time that is more stable? 

2. Effective use of space

Generally, wellness facilities are not given prime real estate within the hotel, and so one could argue that this is a major reason for their poor performance. While this is true, more often than not hotels do not utilise the space they have efficiently enough. Real estate is a major part of the hospitality industry, particularly in the United States, where a massive building can be erected and a hotel is put right in the middle of it to make it more attractive.  When it comes to the design and architecture of the hotel, however, we have to go beyond what looks nice and build for high functionality. The crumbling economy affords the industry very little room for error, and so the hoteliers that are lucky enough to get some money to invest in wellness have to be meticulous about the usage of each square foot within their property.

3. Research your target market

In trying to pivot their business models, hoteliers need to remain cognizant of who their target market is. Business hotels, for instance, need to weigh the risks of a total shift and understand what their current market is looking for. In this particular instance, the data indicates a heavy negative shift in business travel all over the world. Does this mean hotels that had primarily targeted business travellers should make a total 180°? Possibly not. Nevertheless, the needs of the target market have definitely changed, and hoteliers need to come up with ways to meet those needs efficiently. Wellness is one of those needs, but to plaster it recklessly onto any and all operations might cause more harm than good. At the end of the day, the hospitality industry is entirely dependent on the client, which means whatever direction it takes from now on must be directly backed up by the same.

Wellness is still building its track record in stellar performance. To blindly implement it in hospitality without enough data or exercising caution would be detrimental. The high overheads that accompany wellness facilities cannot be ignored, especially now that there is very little money to spare on anything that cannot be justified as absolutely necessary. With this in mind, hoteliers need to make sure that any future plans to implement wellness into their operations are backed by extensive research and deep pockets from which to pour out adequate investment. 

Thank you so much to Franco for putting the practicality of wellness implementation in the hospitality industry into perspective. This whole experience will stretch everyone to the limits, and unfortunately, there will be more strife before we can see any positive shift on the horizon.

One thing to be said about the hospitality industry is how resilient it is to crises. There is always room to bounce back much stronger and to adapt to the times. This is something that the wellness industry could learn from during this pandemic. If we wish to integrate the two industries, then wellness must become just as adaptable as hospitality – efficient in its operation with bigger profit margins. 

In my next interview, I talk to Antonio Pereira, who has extensive experience in adapting wellness into hospitality. For the last six years, Antonio has worked with luxury brands and has experience in sales and team management as well as business development. Antonio has also worked on a longevity wellness resort that was ahead of its time in terms of integrating wellness into the entire offering. 

Interview Highlights:

1. Survive, Adapt, Grow

It is difficult to predict what the future holds with any certainty. However, such precarious times always filter out the strong from the weak. For most hoteliers, the short-term goal is to just make it through the year. Survival is the top priority, and so whatever little business can be gained within the shrinking market should be handled with caution. The essence of survival lies in adaptability, which is the mid-term strategy for the industry. A lot of disruption has occurred already within the hospitality industry, and more will follow as markets open up again. Finally, when survival has been successfully achieved through adaptation, the race to grow and reach new heights will begin. The most dynamic brands are the ones that will come out on top.

2. Adapting the spa concept

The costs of running a spa are sizeable, especially now in the wake of the pandemic. As the price wars between hotels continue, spa operations almost become a liability in that prices cannot be reduced too much without essentially compromising the whole premise of running such a facility. Hence, the spa model cannot continue to work as-is. The concept must be adapted to hospitality in order to work. Spa treatments, while they are nice to have as an offer, are rarely a priority to guests. In such situations, hotel operators have to find ways to make them commercially interesting in order to get sales. Hoteliers can look into the positioning of their spas and continue to appeal to their local markets.

3. A psychosocial approach to wellness

The constant outcry about having spas in hotels is the high overheads they come with, in relation to the tiny percentage they contribute to the bottom line. Wellness, however, is more than just the spa. When integrated well, as in the case of a longevity wellness resort for example, it can become the driving force for hospitality. Going forward, wellness in hospitality should not be thought of as just plugging in a spa facility in the hotel and calling it a day but must take the shape of a holistic and personal experience for the guest. At every turn, hoteliers must make sure their offering caters to the physical and psychological needs of the guests because that is what people need right now.

The past interviews have highlighted extensively the need for the hospitality industry to adapt to the emerging wellness industry and use it to enhance their service offering. However, as shown by this interview, the wellness industry cannot realistically expect to conduct business as usual going forward. The consolidation of both industries lies in how well they adapt to each other. Time will tell how far we can go in this regard, and once again, the most innovative will emerge on top.

My sincere gratitude goes out to Antonio for taking his time to answer my questions as extensively as he did and sharing his insights with me and my audience. 

In my last interview, Klaus Spiekermann highlighted that adding value – rather than dumping prices – would be the winning long-term strategy going forward. Right now, wellness is perfectly positioned for seamless integration into the hospitality industry to provide enhanced guest experiences and add value to the offering. Already, some wellness facilities have opened up in countries such as the UK, with reports of increased prices to cover the cost of maintaining health and safety measures put in place. However, the hospitality industry seems to be treating the situation differently, opting instead to absorb the costs that come with implementing COVID regulations in their hotels.

My next interview with Matt Beroujon, a hotel general manager whose expertise lies in strategic planning and execution, touches on the internal impact of the pandemic on the hospitality industry, primarily on staff and small operators. Matt also reiterated the need to come up with a stronger long-term strategy that will attract guests without compromising the price or perception of the services offered.

Interview Highlights:

1. A surplus of talent in the job market

One of the biggest marks of this pandemic has been the surge in unemployment, in almost all industries, but particularly within the hospitality industry. There is a floating belief that the hospitality industry will shrink in the next couple of years or while the pandemic lasts. There will be a surplus of talent lying around, hence the job market will become even more competitive than it was before. With very few jobs to go around, the hospitality industry might witness the rise of smaller, fly-by operations that might rival the traditional setup of hotels. The one advantage that these smaller players will have is the speed of adaptation. Thus, hotels need to adapt to the situation much quicker and pivot their business model in order to stay ahead of the curve.

2. Marketing as a tool for changing guest perception

The hospitality industry is currently faced with the task of rebuilding trust. Currently, hotel CEOs are publicising new and improved health and safety protocols that are or have been implemented in their operations. Everyone is highly cautious about their movements and engagements at the moment, and so it is imperative to keep people assured of the measures put in place to protect them. However, it is not enough to just reassure guests. Hotels need strong marketing campaigns that speak directly to the wellness needs of the guests and shift the perspective to encompass a holistic approach to the guest experience. To gain market reappraisal, the industry must think beyond safety alone and emphasise overall wellbeing.

3. Wellbeing as the nucleus of hospitality

The world has settled in with the idea that the pandemic will be part of our lives for at least another twelve months. Because of this, health and wellness are the highlight of all messages across the board, from physical hygiene in washing and sanitising our hands regularly, to mental health practices such as meditation and ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response). Thus, it is essential for hotel operators to keep the wellbeing of the guests at the forefront of all operations, from F&B right up to investment. This downtime within the industry can be invested in retraining staff on how to effectively communicate and represent this relatively new aspect of hospitality to the guests. Once the industry opens up again, wellness standards will be the requirement for any hotel to be successful.

Adaptation is the key to turning this situation around. Hospitality will inevitably go through a remodelling that will ultimately put wellbeing at its centre. A transition such as this is not easy, hence the need to constantly learn, try new things and move fast. In the end, the strongest players will be the ones that managed to read the sign of the times and pivoted their business models without losing their essence.

I am grateful to Matt for his time and sharing his insights with me. Now is the moment to invest time, effort and money into rebuilding an industry that is strong, resilient and future-proof.

In keeping with the notion of survival of the fittest, the hospitality industry has already begun experiencing price wars and mass retrenchments of staff on all levels of operation. Industry professionals have to endure the arduous task of crisis management which, in some cases, means re-educating clients on what the industry is about as well as setting the record straight on false information. With all this happening, it is easy to get sucked into the idea that the future of hospitality is very bleak. However, my next interviewee thinks otherwise.

Klaus Spiekermann is an experienced multi-unit hotel general manager for luxury brands. He specialises in business growth, guest experience and colleague engagement. Having worked his way up in the industry, and with his zeal for acquiring and sharing knowledge, Klaus has valuable insights on how the hospitality industry can come out of this pandemic looking stronger than ever with a renewed focus on wellness.

Interview Highlights:

1. Added Value over Lower Pricing

Lower pricing might seem like a good idea to attract more guests to your hotel right now, but it is a poor long-term strategy. Keeping cash flows in the green is obviously the top priority, but hoteliers must not forget to keep all channels of communication alive – both with guests and with staff. One effective way to ensure long-term success is to change aspects of the product and not the product itself. Each department needs to be adapted into the new normal in a way that best serves the guests’ needs because ultimately, guests are the ones paying. Adding value to the offering is a strategy that not only ensures the survival of the industry but also positions it to emerge from this pandemic stronger than before.

2. Understand Your Hotel Type

Wellness in hospitality is becoming more widespread; however, its implementation must be done carefully. The way you treat wellness in hospitality will depend on what type of hotel you are operating. Resorts in exotic areas can afford to run on lower price points because they can maximise on volume. This is not the case for city hotels, whose market consists primarily of people on the go, like business people or travellers. With this in mind, it is important to look at the classical KPIs and adapt them to your specific hotel type in order to run successfully. Wellness facilities generally have high overheads, so there has to be extensive research and reasoning to support the investment that has to be made in staff and equipment.

3. A Hybrid Wellness Offering

This concept merges traditional wellness practices, such as classic spa treatments, with emerging technologies to provide a well-rounded experience for guests. As we communicate, certain words tend to carry certain connotations with them. Right now, the word ‘spa’ immediately evokes an image that might be discouraging to guests in the wake of new social distancing regulations and health and safety precautions, and also to investors due to the natural high overheads of spas. However, there is plenty of room for adaptability. Incorporating technology into the wellness offering can significantly improve the guest experience both physically, through treatments and psychologically, by eliminating problematic assumptions. Essentially, wellness will need a redefinition that encourages guests to pay for the experience and assures hotel owners that they are making a wise investment. 

About fifteen years ago, having a spa in a hotel was considered a ‘unique selling point’. Today, it is equally unfathomable to operate a five-star luxury hotel that does not have complete wellness facilities (a spa and fully equipped gym). While the pandemic forces us to operate under strict regulations for health and safety on both sides, speaking directly to guests has revealed that they don’t want things to change. The human factor of both hospitality and wellness is something we cannot afford to downplay. As such, pivoting the business model should not mean removing the essence of hospitality – the essence that centres around the wellbeing of guests. Rather, the hospitality industry must seek to add more value to the offering.

Many thanks to Klaus for his time and sharing his astute, insightful and global perspective. It is clear from this interview that the hospitality industry will be more robust and consolidated after this pandemic is over.

In my last interview with Yagna Prathap, I established that hoteliers must make wellness the focal point of all decision-making as the world moves towards a more health-conscious future. This requires in-depth research into what the customers are looking for now, coupled with astute people skills in order to make the guest feel well catered for. 

To help me understand this issue better in the context of Wellness in Hospitality, I interviewed Riaan Drever. Riaan is a hands-on leader of people and processes, with a special focus on emotional intelligence. Currently based in the Maldives, a country that relies heavily upon tourism, his approach focuses on how to effectively deal with the different range of personalities and the varying mindsets guests will have towards travelling during this time. 

Interview Highlights:

1. Mindful hygiene measures

Hotels have always kept a very high standard of cleanliness; however, taking the necessary additional health, safety and sanitation precautions will come at a cost – to both the profit and loss and the environment. The increase in single-use apparel and disposable material will lead to an increase in waste, along with the cost of managing that waste. Additionally, the increase in the use of chemical products for sanitation purposes, although effective in killing viruses, will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the environment. These additional costs, however, cannot simply be transferred to the guest. Increasing rates to justify the increase in PPE costs and using guest safety as a justifiable reason to negatively impact the planet, is a short-sighted strategy. In order to stay competitive, hoteliers must find a way to absorb these additional expenses and minimise their environmental impact, while keeping the safety of their guests and staff first and foremost.  

2. Astute people skills

It is important that we prepare for all the different personalities that we will deal with, especially now that we are in this high-stress situation. There has to be a level of shrewdness when dealing with each guest. For example, there are going to be guests that don’t feel the need to wear a mask at all. Other guests might be the exact opposite of this with germophobic responses to the measures taken. We have to be able to quickly read the kind of person we are dealing with and deploy the right member of staff who can efficiently handle that specific personality. Hotels may also have contact-tracking incorporated into their day-to-day operations so they have a record of guest behaviours and activities should any problems arise.

3. Observe international responses

This is especially true for smaller markets such as the islands, where the effects of the pandemic are largely economic and less health-related. The lack of adequate information to come up with accurate forecasts for these smaller demographics means that they must rely on the international community for cues on how to move forward locally. It is important to learn how the industry leaders in other countries are tackling similar challenges, and what the response to their message is online. Disruption is bound to occur in situations such as this, with new players rising and price wars emerging. Ultimately, what matters is the wellbeing of our guests, and we have to make sure we stay informed on how best we can achieve that end.

A huge part of wellness is caring for the environment around us. Right now, this is made particularly difficult because of all the extra precautions we must take to keep in line with the new industry regulations. However, this pandemic gives us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to really think outside the box and come up with new solutions that disrupt the status quo. We have to be willing to go the extra mile when it comes to service delivery, and we must keep an eye out for new innovations in other markets so we can adapt quickly and move into the future with a stronger business model.

Many thanks to Riaan for shedding light on how to keep the guests’ needs in mind, and for the timely reminder that hospitality is all about managing different personalities from all walks of life and making them feel comfortable and catered for, while also caring for our environment.

My previous interview with Noelle Homsy – the first in a series of interviews with hoteliers – established the urgency of pivoting within the industry and taking a more holistic approach to hospitality. Hoteliers must continue to focus on the big picture and innovate beyond the survival stage as they try to manage the effects of the pandemic on their operations.

With this in mind, I interviewed Yagna Prathap, a hotel operations planning and F&B expert with a background in design, technical services, renovations and hospitality project management. As a professional who has experience as both a client (hotel owner) and operator, he brought valuable insights on how hotel owners need to respond and plan ahead with their renovations and designs to reflect the times and still deliver excellent services to guests within the new expectations.

Interview Highlights:

1. Pandemic-proof structural design

Health and safety measures that help to reduce the spread of the virus must be incorporated into the hotel designs. While luxury remains a major aspect of the final look, care must be taken to make design very simple and easy to clean, while shying away from design elements that could be ‘virus attracting’. One example of this shift in design is how the lobby will be treated going forward. Before, it was the primary space of social activity with multiple actions happening simultaneously. Now, the lobby will be designed with more space and limited seating in keeping with the new social distancing norms. Another design aspect would be incorporating spaces for disinfectants and sanitisers while also making sure that luxury is not compromised in the process.

2. De-stressing made simple

The global pandemic has decreased the ability for business and leisure travel, which means hotels must look at ways to capture their local markets. Because wellness is still considered a minor aspect of the entire experience, operators need to look into creating packages that give their local communities a quick de-stressing experience that would normally be found in destination resorts without breaking the bank. Such operations are not meant to turn a massive profit at this stage and so they have to be structured in a way that is affordable to the guest yet still allowing the hotel to at least break even, if not make a slight profit. Practically speaking, these packages need to be refreshed from time to time to keep the local community interested.

3. Wellbeing as a priority

The pandemic has rightly put health and safety, and ultimately wellbeing, at the forefront of everyone’s mind, be it hotel owners, operators or guests. This, of course, largely feeds into the wellness aspect of things (the tools to achieve the ultimate goal of wellbeing). Hotel management must now look at things from the guest perspective and answer the questions that guests would have in this regard. The biggest task we have now is to build trust so that our guests feel comfortable and safe in our spaces. This change will not bring a quick turnaround, but is rather a long and slow process of recovery before we gain traction again. Wellbeing, both of our staff and guests, has to be kept at the focus of every decision.

The potential challenge I see with achieving this ultimate goal of overall wellbeing is the perception regarding the tools (in other words, wellness experiences) required to achieve this goal. Wellness has a perceived (and unfortunately, in some cases, real) low ROI compared to other departments within the hospitality industry. This mindset has largely been fed by the fact that the traditional hotel ‘wellness’ model, essentially made up of an underperforming spa and a non-revenue generating show-piece gym, has always been set up to fail from the outset. Some of the contributing factors include unrealistic expectations, broken business model, operationally ‘unintelligent’ facilities and a focus on profitability of individual product offerings instead of the entire hotel product ecosystem. 

However, as Yagna rightly stated, if hotels are to survive this phase, they will need to keep wellbeing, along with health and safety, as top priorities in devising new ways to attract local guests before international travel fully opens up again. A big thank you to Yagna for sharing his thought-provoking views on how to shift perspective and take this time as an opportunity to rebuild a more robust industry.

There is no doubt that the hospitality, travel and wellness industries have been hit hard by the global pandemic. How effective and sustainable the recovery of these industries will be will depend on how each manages to successfully pivot and adapt to the changing reality. But first, we must understand where we are, what are the main challenges we face, why we’re facing them, and from there craft how we get can out of this stronger.

Over the coming weeks, I will be running a series of interviews with hoteliers from diverse backgrounds to gain valuable insights on how they are dealing with the current situation and what strategies they have in place for the short, mid and long term.

Kicking off the series, I interviewed Noelle Homsy, a hotel development manager based in the United Arab Emirates, to get her view on the future of wellness in hospitality. Noelle comes from an architecture background, designing villas and commercial buildings, before moving into hospitality. Her insights into the changing behaviours of travellers and how the hospitality industry must respond have garnered positive responses from the business community. 

Interview Highlights:

1. New Guest Behaviour

Guests have been in isolation for over 40 days, the period it normally takes for new habits to stick. Staycations are also becoming more popular for their flexible and hassle-free nature, giving rise to a new type of guest. As such, the hospitality industry must find innovative ways of meeting the demands of this new guest. We are no longer just selling a room and service to people. Travellers today are seeking holistic experiences that cannot be replicated elsewhere.. Currently, hotels are focusing more on managing guest perception and complying with health regulations in order to regain the trust of travellers. The next phase would be to grow out of survival mode and pivot the industry.

2. Thoughtful Hotel Design

This aspect encompasses both architectural design and service design. Guests are highly unlikely to leave the house just to be cooped up in another four-walled room – they can get that at home. What is more likely to encourage travel is the prospect of learning something new. A study by Colliers International shows that there are four pillars that the industry needs to focus on – Ecotourism, Wellness, Adventure and Agritourism (EWAA). Of these, wellness tends to be the anchoring pillar that runs throughout the industry. Thus, wellness must be included in all aspects of the hotel, from the architecture to the service delivery. Going forward, wellness will become a huge part of preventative health care, and hoteliers must keep this in mind. 

3. The Big Picture

One of the major characteristics of a free market is competition. Right now, prices are being slashed all around to stay competitive. While this could help with survival in the short-term, it is definitely detrimental to the longevity of any business. A more long-term strategy needs to be developed, where the industry players innovate beyond the survival stage and into a new business model. This is the role of the regulating bodies. As they device this long-term strategy, we will see the industry grow back to its original dominance organically. However, these regulating bodies have to align all hospitality stakeholders and hospitality development with this overarching tourism destination strategy. 

This year is marked primarily by the need to survive as a business, but Noelle urges hoteliers and investors to keep a watchful eye on market trends as we move into a new phase of growth and innovation in the industry. I am grateful to Noelle for this insightful take on the future of hospitality after COVID-19. You can read her article on Staycations available on her LinkedIn profile.