How to elevate the wellbeing experience of your guests

If we’ve learned anything during the pandemic, it’s that wellbeing is important. In the absence of the hustle and bustle of ordinary work, many of us have been able to reconnect with what drives us and how we can meet our own wellbeing needs. As we emerge from lockdowns and travel restrictions, people are eager to travel more and to increase all facets of their wellbeing.

Perhaps because of this, the wellbeing sector is predicted a much stronger than anticipated recovery and is likely to grow by around 4.4% in 2022, according to the Global Wellness Institute. According to the Global Wellbeing Report by Lululemon, there is an increased focus on the three pillars of wellbeing – physical, mental and social – especially the first one.

Wellbeing is clearly on the rise for travellers - it’s  important that you make sure wellbeing is top of your guest list too. There are five key ways you can make wellbeing paramount; know your audience, know the top trends, pay careful attention to the guest journey, expand your offering and make wellbeing an organisation-wide focus.

KNOW YOUR GUESTS

Gathering and analysing data on your guests is essential for various reasons.

• It helps to predict room availability and cancellation likelihood.
• It enables you to understand who your guests are and how to cluster them.
• It provides insights into what your guests really value.
• It allows you to identify areas for improvement impacting revenue and operational efficiency.
• And helps you make more informed decisions about potential investments.

While it’s vital to understand your guests inside out, part of this involves knowing – and respecting – their privacy concerns and data preferences. With a growing interest in sanitisation policies and a demand for private work-out spaces, it’s worth considering individual spaces and in-room fitness solutions.

BE ACROSS TOP TRENDS

It's worth bearing in mind that fitness needs changed radically during the pandemic. For example, the ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) lists wearable technology, home exercise gyms, outdoor activities, strength training with free weights and exercise for weight loss as the top five fitness trends of 2022. We also know from Strava research that, for obvious reasons, the popularity of walking increased in 2021 so hotel guests might be as interested in information about local walking routes as they are in information about on-site facilities.

In order to speak to the travellers needs, keeping abreast of these latest changes is crucial.

THE GUEST JOURNEY

Thanks to the pandemic, the customer journey has become even more important in all aspects of life. As consumers, we're more demanding and we're less tolerant of obstructions. How can you make sure your guests have a seamless experience that will ensure they come back for more? Are there obstacles you can remove or extras you can include?

MAKE WELLBEING A FOCUS ACROSS THE ENTIRE ORGANISATION

Wellbeing must be embedded across the entire organisation in order for it to filter through credibly to the guests. Make sure your own house is in order before attempting a wellbeing path for your visitors.

EXPAND YOUR GUEST OFFERING

A hotel gym can make or break a guest experience or determine a guest's booking. Before deciding on a route for your investment, you should thus ask yourself a couple of questions:

• Do you take into account the latest trends when deciding what equipment to choose?
• Are you agile?
• Do you ensure your equipment is easily transferable or changeable?
• Is your gym open to guests and outside users too?
• Can you offer in-room facilities?

If you don’t have a dedicated room for a gym on your property, converting two rooms into a small gym is a cost-effective way to boost your offer.

In order to provide an optimum wellbeing experience, these points must be embedded across the entire organisation and implemented as part of a hotel-wide policy.