Wellness & Wellbeing

From my experience leading spa and wellness teams, confidence grows when team members understand what is expected, receive the right training and tools, and know their leaders will support thoughtful decisions.In hospitality, employees must often respond in the moment.

A phrase I use to govern any project and life in general is: "Show me the incentive, I'll show you the incentive."The simple fact that we have KPIs often means we try to optimize for those KPIs as a proxy for the guest experience, but it ends up being a facsimile.

Sustainable hospitality excellence begins at the top. Leaders must align around a clear mission and values and visibly walk the talk. Culture is not what appears on a wall; it is what colleagues experience through inclusion, recognition, support, communication and accountability.Empower people to make decisions in the interest of guests and colleagues within sensible guardrails, and recognize the small wins.

As a former PT and pre-med, I can tell you confidently that 99.9% of people don’t exercise properly. So, yeah fitness definitely has a place at hotels, both for allowing people to stay active while traveling but also in teaching them how to move properly.

Is fitness over? It was never the destination. It was always about wellness, and wellness has two dimensions, not just one. Wellness is that of an individual's mind, body, spirit, soul. Sustainability is wellness of a people, a place, and the planet.

An important aspect to consider is that people vary widely in their interest level when it comes to fitness. While physical movement is a fundamental part of well-being, not everyone is interested in making strides in fitness or recreational activities.

As Wellness Director and Sleep Certified Coach at a mid-size chain, I see sleep disruption as an operational and revenue lever—not just comfort. Your data aligns with ours; the gap is systematic technology integration, not awareness.Three Tactical Recommendations:1.

From my perspective, sleep is no longer a standalone service it has evolved into a core wellness pillar that requires a fully integrated, multi-dimensional approach. At Carillon, we are intentionally developing a comprehensive sleep wellness ecosystem that supports the guest journey across spa services, in-room experiences, and targeted retreat programming.Our sleep-focused retreats combine education, diagnostics, and personalized therapies designed to address the root causes of sleep disruption, including stress, nervous system imbalance, inflammation, and lifestyle habits—moving beyond passive relaxation to deliver measurable results.Within the spa, we incorporate both hands-on treatments and advanced touchless technologies that promote parasympathetic activation, recovery, and nervous system regulation.

Sleep is not a product, amenity or service hotels can sell to their guests. Hotels may facilitate, improve, or damage sleep quality. Or just ignore the issue altogether. Sleep has tangible and intangible attributes many beyond the control or influence of the hotel.

We are entering a defining era for wellness one shaped not only by global change, but by a profound shift in how people value their health, time, and quality of life. Wellness is no longer an amenity; it is becoming the foundation of modern living.Throughout my career, I’ve seen our industry evolve from offering moments of escape to creating pathways for longevity, resilience, and transformation.

It was inevitable that every hotel brand would figure out that wellness can be a huge revenue stream that also complements GRR. Hence, the biggest challenge is maintaining or growing "saliency" of a brand's wellness programs.For those who haven't studied psychology, salience is the word to describe what's top of mind, neurologically speaking, or actively being focused on by the brain's electrical networks.

The number one challenge is that wellness behavior has evolved faster than spa operating models—and as a result, the spa is no longer the primary gateway to wellness; it is one of many.Consumers are engaging in wellness more frequently through fitness, recovery, longevity clinics, and local access models, but much of that engagement is happening outside the hotel spa.

It is difficult to measure the ROI of wellness programming because much of it is intangible, but I believe they are a strong investment and that they do add value holistically. By “holistically” I mean they add value in a number of ways that transcend the departmental profit of the programs themselves.

2020 brought to the forefront the uncertainty of life. This state of mind made us question the quality of our lives and focus on our vulnerability. The result is an all-time high level of interest in our health and wellbeing. Hotel spas are poised to support this human need, one option is with wellness programs.Demand for wellness programs is coming from consumers as evidenced through continued demand for online tutorials that teach ways to improve our well-being and success stories of spas worldwide that, when allowed to open, have seen guests return with confidence.

Before addressing the questions of investment, let us first consider the underlying aspects of the massive changes that society is experiencing. There is no doubt, COVID-19 is nudging us to look within. When we first went into lockdown in the spring, the opportunity to slow down was a first for many.

The COVID-19 crisis has had an immediate and traumatic impact on our way of life, beyond the walls of our working environments. As we navigate strategies for repositioning properties, restructuring operational protocols to create stronger internal systems that back employee mental health and wellbeing present valuable coping services.

The topic of mental health has long been stigmatized in the U.S. and other parts of the world. In 2018, the World Health Organization issued a report that identified mental illness—that is, any mental disorder—accounts for more disability in developed countries than any other group of illness, including cancer and heart disease.

The Caribbean, a region primarily reliant on tourism, will continue to be majorly impacted over the next several months during the pandemic. Destinations are not only impacted by the loss of overnight guests but additionally by the 12 million travelers who take excursions by Cruise Ship annually, where small businesses rely on the cruise travelers daily spend.