The Covid-19 pandemic changed way people work but also what they value most: health; social interaction; the great outdoors; and the freedom to travel to see interesting and beautiful places and engage in new experiences.
“The entire ecosystem of travel, tourism, hotels, and hospitality is capitalizing on travellers’ new values that were accelerated by the pandemic,” said Andrea Grigg, senior managing director and global head of Hotel Asset Management for CBRE Hotels, who leads the global hotel asset management and operator selection practice.
Grigg noted that values intensified by the pandemic are taking travellers to places that span the gamut, such as engaging in transformational experiences like wild cooking and sound bath rituals—a meditative/healing experience that bathes participants in sound waves to induce relaxation of the mind and rejuvenate the body.
“In a hospitality world of ever-growing brands, where the room product is becoming a commodity, share is harder to garner,” Grigg continued. As a result, hotels and resorts are increasing their ancillary revenues by creating elevated experienced that cater to the values of the new wave of travellers, which will pay dividends in the long run, she continued.
“Wellness is taking center stage, with both hotels and resorts offering creative wellness programs and capturing business volume and loyalty,” she added, noting that wellness has seen some of the most innovative changes in hotel design, with fitness centers now occupying prime space in hotels that feature stunning urban and ocean views.
Next-level health
Grigg cited the Aman New York Hotel as an example of a hotelier that took fitness to the next level, providing innovative fitness technology. This included Cellgym and CellAir, an intermittent hypoxia-hyperoxia training system to improve health, athletic performance, and adaptation to high altitude, as well as an infrared zone for infrared saunas that heat the body but not the air and VacuTherm Steppers and VacuTherm Treadmills, both of which accelerate body fat reduction and body re-modelling.
Mii Amo in Sedona, Arizona takes wellness to another level too. The hotel stay represents a mind/body/spiritual journey that may last a week or more, noted Patrick O’Hare, architect and partner at California-based EDG Interior Architecture + Design.
Wellness is centerstage even at funky boutiques like Dr. Wilkinson’s Spa & Mineral Springs in Calistoga, Calif., a spa motel from the 1950s that EDG recently refreshed, updated and repositioned to offer a modern spa experience. This boutique motel offers mud and mineral baths and pools—for which the area is renowned, as well as modern lodging facilities to round out a stay in the Napa Valley wine country.
O’Hare said that EDG has taken this amenity a step further, designing several projects that feature a shared service pantry that activates a corridor (usually a pass-through hall) with a social opportunity and provides greater efficiency in terms of hotel labour.
O’Hare noted that the post-pandemic rise in self-care consciousness also has caused hotels and resorts to respond with both simple and complex wellness offerings. “We are seeing personalized and branded packages as a great way to differentiate and make a positive impression with guests,” he said, noting that this often involves a partnership opportunity.
“Understanding what products and treatments will resonate with the guest is key,” O’Hare continued. At a most basic level, this means providing collections of branded, quality bath products, sleep tinctures, hydration masks and balms to balance the challenges of travel. “Taking it to another level, we see menus of treatments which push medi-spa boundaries, including IV bags and vitamin supplements—all that come with a qualified treatment professional,” he said.
Kids and pets
Grigg noted that hotels and resorts also are creating new sources of revenue by rolling out the red carpet to families and pet lovers. For example, some are establishing teen clubs and kids camps that offer learning and experience-enhancing activities and Pet VIP programs that provide over-the-top pet experiences, like puppy brunches and meals of filet-mignon for guests’ “furry kids.”
“It would seem that guest preferences have been diversifying for some time now,” noted O’Hare. “As Boomers age and Millennials and subsequent generations expand in purchase/influence, we see both divergent trends and alignment, especially when we view these audiences based on psychographics rather than demographics,” he added, noting, for instance, that younger generations are more than ready for digital check-in and tech-driven service interfaces for navigating and ordering in hotels and restaurants.
O’Hare said, however, that Boomers too are looking for lightning-fast internet power locations, and they want it for free. And with remote work and increasing bleisure travel, conferences and meetings, there is an expectation for hotels to provide both an inspiring hospitality experience and back-end tech suitable for high-quality digital work. He also noted that the digital-native generation of kids, who consume gigawatts of entertainment and gaming throughout their vacation, also expect high-speed internet.
The digital experience is also an important area for guest interaction, O’Hare continued, explaining that beyond transactional activities, like check-out and room-service orders, there is an ever-growing opportunity to connect on a cultural level with local happenings, art and music, hotel pop-up events, music playlists, health and wellness, and food and beverage experiences. His firm, for example, developed a digital interface for the W Miami that sets the tone for guest stays, going beyond information to provide entertainment.
O’Hare also pointed out that digital activities can be used as a marketing tool to build guest loyalty and attract new guests. The Hotel Californian in Santa Barbara, Calif., for example, live-streams yoga and movement classes, reaching well beyond the current stay to encourage return visits and attract future guests.
“Food and beverage positioning and service still provides the most important differentiator for luxury and lifestyle hospitality experiences,” added O’Hare. “It isn’t necessarily the old model of ‘fine dining’ and ‘all-day dining.’ Today it is an important way to create social energy and reinforce the story of place,” he said. “Without a compelling food and beverage experience, the opportunities to lock-in memories, drive rate and occupancy, and stand out in the field become ever more limited.”
He noted that EDG carries the dining narrative outside the kitchen to fill every square-inch of the dining space. He cited a recent project with at the Four Seasons in Cabo San Lucas, where the designers worked closely with local artists and craftspeople to create culturally immersive food and beverage experiences designed and executed with care and attention to detail.
Food and beverage amenities vary depending on the type of traveller hoteliers want to attract. For example, Grigg notes that family-oriented hotels or resorts may offer a food hall-type eatery that provides variety of food choices popular with families like pizza, hamburgers, and chicken nuggets, while luxury hotels catering to older adults offer elegant dining choices that include a Michelin-starred restaurant, or in the case of younger couples or singles, several food and beverage choices, including a nightclub or other entertainment venue.
New F&B options
Chicago-based Lori Mukoyama, global leader and design principal for Gensler's Hospitality Practice, noted that even hotels catering to families are now providing more than one type of dining choice that includes grownup options too. “We are seeing a combination of amenities that may include a rooftop bar for parents, so they can slip out and get a drink or be causal enough to have the kids with you,” she said, noting that even food hall amenities are including a separate zone where parents can get a drink.
Mukoyama noted that interior designers are finding ways to engage solo travelers and make them feel more socially connected than in the past. She said, for example, that single tables are being mixed throughout the main dining room, rather stuck away in the bar or a back corner away from other guests.
Robots also are making a debut at some hotels, delivering room-service orders or extra towels and linens, which both improves service efficiency and lightens the load for staff. Mukoyama said that gimmicky technology like robots is a hit at hotels catering to families, especially at theme park resorts where that kind of fun and quirky is expected.
But she noted that this would never work at high-end, luxury hotels, like a Four Seasons, where guests are expecting a beautiful, authentic experience throughout and personalized service.
Mukoyama said, however, that a seamless flow of amenities from inside to outside is a huge design feature at all types of hotels today. “Guests like the feel of an environment that blurs the boundary between inside and outside,” she explained, noting that this amenity is popular whether it’s in a cold or hot climate.
Hotels and resorts, therefore, are locating outdoor amenities adjacent to indoor amenity spaces like a restaurant or bar that opens onto a terrace with a firepit and creative seating, like log benches, rocking chairs and hanging swings, Mukoyama added.
She also said that the indoor-outdoor concept is sometimes expanding vertically to occupy two floors with a permeable connection to adjacent outdoor spaces. For example, a fitness center would have lots of glass oriented to capture a visual of the sun during cold months, with doors that open to outdoor spaces in warm months to move fitness classes outdoors.
Mukoyama noted that guests are high on rooftop bars and pools, which may be combined with a sustainable amenity like a green roof, as well as parks or green spaces for hiking, biking or hosting entertainments. These amenity spaces also are being designed to serve more than one purpose. She noted, for example, that an outdoor pool area might convert to a cool lounge club at night.
“We’re also seeing seating that transforms with the space to bigger lounge beds at night where guests can lay back and listen to music,” Mukoyama added, noting that this eliminates the need to constantly move and store it.
Cultural relevancy
People want to stay in an environment that feels culturally relevant to the places they visit, Mukoyama continued, noting that this is driving partnerships with local retailers to create popup retail stores onsite that offer locally sourced items, such as wearable art popular with teens and more expensive, hand-crafted jewelry for adults that may only be available in a specific region.
Cultural sensitivity is also driving changes in other amenities.
While luxury hotels have offered in-room bar setups for a while, O’Hare said, for instance, that in-room bar setups offered by luxury hotels is another amenity playing on the locale’s culture with hotels offering hyper-local or highly curated setups of local beverages, mixers and snacks.
Sustainability has become increasingly important to hotel guests, but O’Hare stressed that today it is more of a “table-stakes requirement” than a differentiating feature. “This commitment is more aligned with predilections of younger generations, but there is an appreciation on the behalf of most travellers that reducing waste and energy is a good idea,” he said.
“That said, many travellers are savvy and educated about the true impacts of hospitality development, so it can seem disingenuous to create a billion-dollar development on a pristine coastal parcel in the wild, and then preach about saving water by asking luxury guests to avoid washing their towels,” O’Hare remarked.
“Guests, hotel employees, and hotel investors are increasingly paying attention to sustainability and corporate social responsibility,” added Grigg, noting that data suggests that guests want to stay at a sustainable hotel but are not necessarily willing to pay more for their accommodations. She said, however, that a hotel can differentiate itself by incorporating ESG principles into the guest journey.
It's also good for business, as many corporate groups now require a hotel to meet ESG requirements to be considered for a group event, she said. In addition, investors view sustainability as ways to reduce costs, comply with stakeholders’ ESG requirements, and guard against asset obsolescence, Grigg continued.
In response, developers are becoming much more stewardship-oriented about their development footprint, reforestation, carbon offsets and support of local communities, said O’Hare, noting that even brands like Loge, Outbound, and KOA are developing hospitality destinations with a lighter footprint and are reducing site work and heavy construction activity.