Hotel Gyms or Wellness Hubs? Reframing Fitness as a Hospitality Asset

Hotel gyms often seem to have stuck in the past, with little to offer to today’s health-conscious guests seeking holistic wellness experiences or revenue-diversifying operators eager to tap into new trends. This situation creates an opportunity to move from standalone gyms to integrated wellness hubs.

In the following article we examine what wellness hubs actually are, what defines their operating and commercial models as well as designs, and when they are justified for a hospitality asset. We also look into the relatively few examples of when a well-run gym could still be the way to go for hotels.

Fitness Demand and Trends are Changing

Attitudes towards fitness shifted in recent years, which has major implications for hospitality providers. The share of people who exercise regularly climbed to 61% in 2025 from 44% in 2018, according to a global survey by fitness programs firm Les Mills.

Fitness on vacation is non-negotiable for 23 percentage points more Gen Zers than Gen Xers, exercise app company Strava said. About 51% of business travellers value hotel gyms and 41% actually use them, corporate travel firm BCD has found in a survey.

With the rise of preventive exercise came a boom in recovery culture, which focuses on reducing injury risk and restoring the body’s natural balance. Recovery experiences, such as sauna sessions, ice baths, compression therapy, nutritional supplementation or specialized sleep support have gained popularity in hotel wellness offerings.

Cardiovascular exercise is still popular, although strength training has become mainstream in all guest segments. Growing interest in weight-bearing exercise is driving demand for functional and performance-led fitness spaces. Longevity and extending healthspan remain key wellness trends, boosting demand for diagnostics-lite services, such as body composition analysis, metabolic health testing and biohacking.

Why Hotel Gyms May No Longer Be Enough

Traditional hotel gyms increasingly fail to meet evolving customer needs, in part because of their poor design and limited functionality. They are often geared toward generic cardio or weight workouts, not reflecting the latest trends, and only offer equipment-led experiences with minimal staffing or programming. Their equipment specifications could be outdated compared to fitness clubs that many guests are now used to.

Many gyms are still wedged into dreary basement spaces with no clear visibility to guests, low appeal and limited uptake. Their amenities tend to be detached from the spa, rooms or F&B services, which prevents a seamless and holistic wellness journey.

Conventional gyms may no longer do the trick for hotels either, especially in the upscale, luxury and wellness-led categories. Many gyms tend to exist because guests expect them, and more often than not they are treated as a compliance amenity or an operational afterthought. They rarely influence booking, guest spend and loyalty, and without a meaningful proposition, they don’t really shape brand perception.

How Hotel Wellness Hubs are Different

Hotel gyms, as mentioned above, typically have the primary role of meeting a basic guest requirement, but may have no revenue model to speak of, which partially explains why their overall strategic value for the hotel usually remains low to moderate.

Wellness hubs, by contrast, have a more complex operating model. By definition, they are programmed, multi-functional health and wellbeing platforms that support guest experience, revenue generation and brand differentiation. They normally have separate spaces or zones for fitness, recovery, consultation, social interaction and relaxation, and typically offer assessments, training, programming and events, among others.

Another difference is that wellness hubs provide a guided, personalized and integrated experience, with extensive staff that could include coaches, therapists, wellness hosts and external specialists. Their revenue model has several potential income streams, generated by membership, various classes, coaching, retail or service packages. All this demonstrates why these platforms tend to have a high strategic value for the hotel.

Wellness hubs are one of the top tiers of fitness and wellness facilities. There are six levels in total, depending on service provision, with basic hotel gyms on the lowest level. They are followed by enhanced gyms, fitness studios and fitness studios with recovery options. Up next are wellness hubs, only surpassed by longevity and medical wellness platforms with diagnostics, clinical or semi-clinical treatments, and supervised interventions.

What Shapes Operating Model and Design

Investors and developers weighing the possibility of a hotel gym or wellness hub project should consider several aspects.

Operating model questions should always come before defining design. Stakeholders need to determine if the facility would target hotel guests, members and/or residents, and if it would primarily focus on fitness, recovery or longevity offerings. These factors define required staffing, equipment needs, access control as well as key design elements.

In terms of programming, whether or not daily classes would be held determines studio size and acoustic equipment, while including personal training or coaching in the offer could further increase staffing needs and may require hiring external contractors.

Other key questions are if the project also includes a separate or integrated spa, or if the hotel has a primarily luxury, lifestyle or wellness profile. All of these influence decisions on capex, amenity depth and service planning. Developers also have to decide what types of revenue the facility would generate, if any, which determines commercial model.

Commercial model selection should include assessing if access would be included in the room rate, which typically fits upper-upscale hotels and resorts, or would be based on a pay-per-use structure, a solution normally suitable for recovery services, classes or specialist support offered at lifestyle and luxury hotels.

A membership model could work best at urban hotels or branded residence assets, while resident service charges could be a good approach for shared amenities at mixed-use luxury projects. Programme packages and third-party partnerships could fit wellness-led resorts and luxury or lifestyle mixed-use assets, respectively.

The most commercially flexible model is probably the hybrid approach, which includes guest access in rates, services residents and charges local customers. Wellness hubs have a high ancillary revenue and membership fee potential compared to traditional hotel gyms. They also have a strong contribution to guest satisfaction and a moderate to strong potential to support room rates.

Design and planning implications are evidently more complex for wellness hubs than for traditional gyms. Wellness hubs should have a prominent visibility for customers and a larger and more zoned gross floor area. Their typical requirements also include more extensive back of house spaces and operations, for example, for laundry or storage, and high-quality changing room design, which is appropriate for guests and members.

Attention should be paid to providing suitable spaces and design for the circulation of guests through dry, wet and recovery zones, and to acoustics requirements for mixed training and relaxation uses. Adjacency to the spa and F&B units would provide better access to recovery services, nutrition and social wellness. Connection to outdoor spaces can be truly valuable for resorts, retreats and branded residences.

When is A Wellness Hub Justified?

Adding a wellness hub can generate specific benefits for operators, depending on asset category, typical guest profiles or the characteristics of the local market, among others. Properties with a wellness or longevity positioning naturally require a wellness hub, but other categories, like luxury and lifestyle, can also benefit from these facilities partially as they usually support brand premium.

Wellness hubs can be also justified in resort or retreat settings, as guests have more time to engage. The same applies to long-stay guests in other types of hotels, who can create higher usage and stronger demand for programming. Shared wellness amenities support value and service charge for branded residences, while adding fitness and recovery can create new demand for underutilised existing spas. A strong local market has a potential for memberships or increased day use.

The strongest wellness hubs are defined by a clear operating model. This starts with assessment, a personalised programme and movement, continuing with recovery and nutrition and leading to measurable or felt results and post-stay continuation.

For many upscale and luxury assets, the strongest opportunity is a hybrid arrangement, where a high-quality gym is supported by recovery, movement, coaching and social wellness, all scaled to the hotel’s market, chain scale and operating model.

References for Various Positionings

Several properties stand out globally as references for superb wellness hubs. Chenot Palace Weggis in Switzerland provides a strong benchmark for health hotels with longevity or medical wellness positioning. It has a structured, method-led wellness offering that combined diagnostics, detox, diet and recovery and programmed guest journeys.

In a reference for exceptional non-medical wellness resorts, Kamalaya Koh Samui in Thailand has a business model based on retreat-led programming, emotional balance, nutrition, detox, stress recovery and movement. It is no surprise really that this property was ranked number one on Health Travel’s top list of best wellness resorts in 2026.

For urban wellness hubs, the best references include Siro One Za’abeel in Dubai, which offer fitness suites equipped with private gyms and recovery suites featuring therapy beds, among others. Another example is Surrenne at The Emory in London, a high-end private wellness club attached to ultra-luxury city hospitality, which combines spa, fitness, recovery, various treatments as well as longevity-oriented programming.

When is A Gym Just Still Sufficient?

Developing and operating a wellness hub comes with several risks and challenges. First and foremost, overbuilding or overprovision can be a serious problem if insufficient demand fails to justify the dimensions of the facility. Capex intensity can be another issue, as thermal or specialist equipment may prove to be too expensive.

Poor commercial planning could result in overestimating membership and local capture, and brand selection can also go sideways, for instance, as a medical wellness or performance-led hub may not suit every hotel.

Operations can become fragmented with fitness, spa, F&B and guest rooms not working in an ecosystem, and higher service expectations requiring trained teams may put too much of a staffing burden on the hotel. Programming failures can result in empty studios and recovery rooms reframe fitness as a new value proposition, ultimately damaging credibility.

These examples underline that adding a wellness hub is not always the right answer. A simple but efficiently run gym could be perfectly suitable for hotels that target short-stay guests, have a limited local market or constrained space, operate with a low wellness positioning or doesn’t have enough staffing capacity.

Reframe Fitness as A New Value Proposition

Hotels considering updating their fitness concept shouldn’t be thinking about just adding more space or new equipment in their likely outdated gym. They should consider making a strategic step forward and transform their gym into a wellness hub to generate more revenue and enhance guest experience.

Wellness hubs can unlock tremendous value, although they may work better for some properties than others, depending on operating model, asset segment or positioning. Sticking with a standalone gym remains justified only in a few cases. The best approach for many assets, particularly in the upscale and luxury segments, is to support a well-functioning gym with wellness features and amenities in a hybrid model.

Reprinted from the Hotel Business Review with permission from www.HotelExecutive.com.