Hotel gyms: dead space or untapped revenue? Five tips to make them work

Installing a hotel gym is a big investment. After all, there’s no sure way of knowing if it will work out. 

According to Booking.com data, 30% of hotels across major gateway cities list a gym. Climb to the five-star tier, however, and that figure jumps to roughly 80%. In that gap sits the $100,000 investment question: is a hotel gym worth the space it occupies, or is it real estate that would earn more as bedrooms or something else? 

A recent episode of Matt Talks Hospitality put that question to two people who see it from opposite sides. Lou Zameryka, Global Head of Hotel Enterprise and Connectivity Partnerships at Airbnb after 17 years at Booking.com, has spent his career at the intersection of travel and wellness.  

Borivoj Vokrinek, Strategic Advisory and Head of Hospitality Research at Cushman & Wakefield, has advised on hundreds of hotel investment projects and sees most gyms as a cost that rarely pays for itself. 

Both make a compelling case. The more interesting finding is where they end up agreeing. 

The case against hotel gyms 

Borivoj’s argument starts with the numbers. A typical 75 square meter hotel gym is, in his words, "non income generating." Put three extra rooms in that space instead, run the math on occupancy and average rate, and the opportunity cost is significant. For a 200-room hotel, he calculates the shortfall runs to around €90,000 (around $100,000) a year. To claw that back through gym membership fees alone would mean charging guests six to ten euros a session, on the assumption that only around 20% of guests use it. 

That 20% figure lines up with research from Cornell, which found roughly 23% of hotel guests use the gym, and just 3% use in-room fitness equipment. Guest reviews rarely mention the gym one way or another, and a separate Cornell study found no measurable link between having a gym and a guest's intention to book. Expectations, in short, are low. People find a way to make it work regardless, whether that means a run outside or turning their stay into a cheat week/recovery period. 

In markets where real estate is expensive and every square meter has to earn its keep, that math is hard to ignore. 

The case for hotel gyms 

Lou does not dispute the numbers. He disputes the assumption that a hotel gym has to be a cost center at all. The wellness market, he points out, is growing fast: 26% of the US population now belongs to a fitness club, with Gen Z and the over-65 cohort the fastest-growing groups. That is an audience most hotels are not intentionally serving. 

His argument is that a gym built with real thought behind it can attract share, support a premium rate, and build loyalty among a specific type of traveler. That’s the antithesis of a box-ticking amenity nobody talks about. The problem, in his view, is not the gym itself. It is building one with no clear purpose, hiding it in a badly lit basement, and never mentioning it again. 

What makes hotel gyms work out? 

Asked directly whether they would build a gym in a 150-room lifestyle hotel in a European city center, both said yes. Borivoj would put it in the basement and use the freed-up prime space for extra rooms. Lou would lean further into the wellness angle, perhaps with a rooftop yoga deck that doubles as an evening cocktail space. Neither would build one without a reason for it existing. 

This is the thread running through the conversation. The real debate is not gym versus no gym. It’s intentional versus incidental. A dim room with a treadmill and a water cooler serves nobody and rarely gets photographed, let alone booked because of it. A gym built around a clear guest profile, properly lit, well designed and actually promoted on the hotel's own website rather than buried behind a filter on an OTA, has a shot at becoming a genuine differentiator. 

A few practical ideas surfaced repeatedly: 

1. Give it a street-level presence. A separate entrance and visibility from passing traffic invite local residents in, turning a guest-only amenity into a second, higher-margin business. 

2. Solve for daytime dead hours. Most gyms sit empty for large stretches of the day. That window works for group classes, personal trainers, or even a rentable meeting space. 

3. Partner rather than build. Not every property has the space for a full gym. A relationship with a local studio or run club can meet the same need without the capital cost. 

4. Photograph it properly. Guests increasingly research hotel gyms the way they research rooms, hunting through review sites and social posts because hotel websites rarely show them. A well-lit photo gallery is now part of the pitch. 

5. Think beyond the treadmill. Yoga mats in the room, a weights corner by the bed, or a wellness concept that spans sleep, nutrition and mental health can serve travelers who want more than a squat rack. 

Whether a hotel builds a rooftop gym, tucks one into the basement, or sends guests next door, the underlying advice is the same: decide who the gym is for, then commit to it. The alternative – an unphotographed room nobody mentions and even fewer people use – is the one outcome everyone on the episode agreed to avoid. 

Listen to the full conversation on the Matt Talks Hospitality podcast. 

Watch the episode