How much meaning and value do fitness components have within the hotel and resort paradigm?

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. That latter element is where hotels can make a brand impression versus building only another gym with newer equipment and a trending “movement studio”.

To throw my own fitness approach in here, the one big area where hotels should educate guests is in isometrics: muscle-unit-specific exercise without movement. You can do it in the room, and if you have good proprioreception then you can easily spot phasic versus tonic muscle contractions to improve all composing movements that emerge from correct motor unit sequencing: breathing, standing, walking and so on. Lenses this way, yoga is compound isometrics and could be aided by instructions on how to reactivate individual muscles.

That’s but one insider’s take on how hotels could stand apart within the realm of fitness. There are many other ways: circuit training, calisthenics, group classes, hyrox training, dance, martial arts, balance training and so on. Plenty of options to get excited!

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. Fitness programming has been built almost entirely for the first and ignored the second, which is why it's a CAPEX line nobody can justify.

That answers horizontal vs. vertical integration. Horizontal (gyms, clinics, coaches, tech platforms) serves the individual's routine. Vertical (mapping sleep, training, nutrition as one continuous flow ) is where wellness meets sustainability, touching staff wellbeing and the local health ecosystem, not just the guest. Hotels hesitate because they're pricing fitness as a product with an ROI line, when it's infrastructure for a guest's whole way of being.

Longevity is "wellness" with a longer time horizon. The operators who get this right won't ask gym or partnership or app? They'll ask what depth of integration lets them enable a life (not interrupt it with a service). I write about this in Developing Your Marketing Mindset. The short version: if hospitality is about making people feel good, we have a responsibility to do good.

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. Meeting people where they are, and introducing them to easy lifestyle integrations can support stronger and meaningful conversions to reach longer term goals. Hospitality fitness activities are a gateway for people to understand and learn more about their own fitness preferences and lifestyle integrations.

"Stretching and Movement" sessions present less intimidating participation factors than conventional Yoga classes. Not everyone likes Yoga, but everyone understands "stretching" is a good thing. Many times, the goal to include high-tech equipment and advanced systems to showcase extraordinary fitness programs simply can't meet ROI assumptions. Understanding the percentage of high-level fitness users/guests is essential to quantify the strategic direction of any fitness program. Sometimes the best ROI is found in the easy and simple experiences of learning.

Fitness is usually seen as an "amenity" to the hotel experience, meaning it is something the hotel gives away for free, making it a non-revenue generating cost center to the hotel. But this narrative doesn't tell the whole story and causes most hoteliers to undervalue the importance of fitness (along with other leisure facilities.)

The reality is the fitness center is very profitable to the hotel or the resort in ways that we don't typically measure. To truly calculate the value of the fitness area you would have to allocate a small amount of revenue from each guest room night to the fitness center commensurate with the average usage patterns of the facility. If you had the data, you might also allocate a small commission to the fitness center, every time the fitness center became a part of the guests' decision to stay at the property.

If we had perfect data measurement and insights, I think we would realize that traditional hospitality reporting structures vastly underestimate the fitness area and therefore, most hotel operators are not paying sufficient attention to the opportunities to leverage this key aspect of the guest experience.

Fitness is transforming from an isolated basement amenity into a strategic longevity engine.

Horizontal Tech Integration

Hotels can leverage integrated connected solution on fitness equipment to organically connect guests to the wider wellness ecosystem:

CAPEX/OPEX Mitigation: Asset Management software provides real-time utilization data, preventing costly space overdesign and optimizing equipment footprint.

Labor Crisis Relief: Touch screen consoles feature on-demand, virtual coaching and pre-programmed workouts, delivering premium instruction without requiring additional on-site fitness staff.

Financial Performance: Centralized software platforms allow hotels to easily monetize facilities via tiered digital subscriptions or app-based day passes for non-guests.

Vertical Integration

Operators must treat vitality as a continuous guest flow, not an isolated commercial product. Hotels can act as lifestyle enablers, seamlessly facilitating everyday routines:

Training: Connected consoles instantly sync with guests' personal wearables, and training apps and further enhancement with AI enabled programme offerings.

Sleep: Recovery data from evening workouts informs automated in-room circadian environment controls.

Nutrition: Post-workout console summaries push tailored nutritional recommendations directly to room service.

Fitness has graduated into the longevity economy. By utilizing built-in technology, hotels can seamlessly integrate into a guest's lifestyle while maximizing asset value and operational efficiency.

Fitness is far from over; it has evolved into the kinetic core of longevity and lifestyle design. Traditional hospitality models—characterized by rigid, underperforming physical gyms and static schedules—are failing to match modern guest behaviors.

To remain competitive, hotels must rethink integration through two strategic lenses:

- Horizontal Integration: Operators must move past tactical vendor fixes. Facing CAPEX pressures and staffing constraints, hotels should act as curated ecosystem hubs—partnering with specialized boutique brands, fitness tech platforms, and clinical practitioners. This scalable approach avoids overdesigned facilities while delivering elite, flexible programming.

- Vertical Integration: Fitness, sleep, and nutrition must transition from isolated hotel services into a continuous lifestyle flow. Hotels must pivot from product providers to enablers, utilizing "wellpreneurs" and biometric tracking to seamlessly support a guest's home routines while traveling.

Ultimately, repositioning fitness requires treating movement as preventive healthcare and longevity engineering. By embedding biological intelligence and expert curation into the guest journey, resorts can transform fitness from a fixed-cost amenity into a vital, high-performing asset.

After 26 years across properties from Hilton and Marriott to Six Senses, I've watched the hotel fitness center evolve from differentiator into expensive obligation.

The data confirms what operators already sense: Cornell research shows 46% of guests intend to use the gym — only 22–23% actually do. Meanwhile, a 300m² luxury fitness room, almost invariably equipped with Technogym (which has effectively captured the five-star market), represents €300,000–€400,000 in CAPEX before maintenance, staffing, or opportunity cost.

For most property typologies — non-group, non-destination-wellness hotels — the ROI case is thin at best.

My position: unless you operate a group hotel, sports resort, or dedicated wellness destination, the traditional indoor gym model deserves serious recalibration. Not elimination — recalibration.

Two alternatives consistently outperform on both engagement and financial efficiency: outdoor fitness infrastructure, which costs a fraction of indoor equivalents and integrates naturally into the guest experience; and programming over hardware — guided movement, nature-based fitness, locally anchored activity — which generates higher capture rates and stronger emotional connection to the destination than a room full of underused machines.

The industry's real opportunity is not better gyms. It's better enablement — which sometimes means building less and activating more.

I don’t think fitness in hospitality is over; it is evolving. I see it less as an amenity and more as a means to support the life guests want to lead. The focus should be on relevance and authenticity, not volume.

There is an important distinction between integration and accumulation. Hotels don’t need more offerings; they need to determine where deeper integration creates value. The right level of integration depends on the property’s brand, guests, and ability to execute well.

There is also a third dimension: quality. What is offered should be relevant, safe, credible, well-designed, and genuinely used. Depth should come from quality and connection, not simply more programming.

Fitness should also move from participation to outcomes, helping guests maintain routines, recover, sleep better, explore, or build sustainable habits.

Integration does not always mean ownership. Local partnerships can bring expertise and authenticity while strengthening the surrounding community.

Ultimately, the best fitness program may not feel like a fitness program at all. Hotels don’t need to become fitness centers unless fitness is central to their brand and business model, as it is with Equinox Hotels. It should feel like hospitality, and leave guests with something they can take home and continue.

Fitness isn’t over. But our definition of it may have become too narrow.

Its value within hotels and resorts extends far beyond a room of equipment or the percentage of guests who use it. Guests are continually managing energy—preparing for meetings, recovering from travel, maintaining routines, improving sleep, seeking clarity, or getting ready for what comes next.

That makes fitness one component of a broader wellness ecosystem encompassing movement, recovery, sleep, nutrition, outdoor activity and even the rhythm of meetings and daily schedules.

The better question is no longer, “How do we get more guests into the fitness center?” It is, “How can the property help guests manage their energy throughout the day?”

That doesn’t mean hotels need to own every solution. Strategic partnerships with coaches, gyms, technology platforms or specialized providers can extend the ecosystem without unnecessary operational complexity.

The opportunity is to understand how guests want to live, then create environments that support how they want to feel and function.

Hotels that think this way can create a meaningful point of differentiation: places where guests don’t simply stay, but leave feeling better, thinking more clearly and able to work, connect and engage more fully.

Fitness in hospitality is gradually moving beyond being just another hotel amenity and becoming part of the wider guest experience. As interest in wellness, fitness and longevity continues to grow, hotels need to think differently about both horizontal and vertical integration.

From a horizontal perspective, there is an opportunity to work more closely with coaches and technology providers to create fitness and wellbeing experiences without significant capital investment. The approach will vary by property type and guest. City hotels may focus on convenience and helping travellers maintain existing routines, while resorts are better placed to support recovery, structured activities, and more immersive wellness journeys.

From a vertical perspective, hotels could benefit from a better understanding of guests' exercise habits, sleep patterns, nutritional preferences and overall wellbeing goals. Rather than viewing fitness as a standalone facility, there is an opportunity to position it as part of a broader wellness journey. In doing so, hotels can play a role, helping guests maintain routines that matter to them through experiences and relevant partnerships.

The question is no longer whether fitness sits within wellness or longevity, but how deeply it should be integrated into the guest experience to create meaningful value, differentiation and stronger guest loyalty.