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Opinion Articles

Opinion Article

Wellness Real Estate Valuation and Finance

As the wellness real estate market continues to accelerate, it seems increasingly clear that wellness and sustainable asset types will become a new class of properties in the market. Whereas these developments have been underway for a while, these assets often have distinct property features that require reconsidering the wide and general framework of conventional financing, valuation methodologies, CAP rate averages, and WACC factors. This article describes an outlook for this new asset class to help identify and unlock wellness and sustainability in hospitality finance.

Mia Mackman
By Mia Mackman, Owner and Principal, MACKMAN|ES
Opinion Article

My $400 Bagel and Cup of Coffee This Morning

This morning, on my way to work, I decided to pick up bagels for the office and a cup of coffee for myself. Arriving five minutes before the bagel store opened, I parked and joined the line behind three people waiting at the door. Within ten minutes, the line behind me had grown to about twenty people. With only two staff members behind the counter, the line moved slowly.

Andrew Paul
By Andrew Paul, Managing Director, Americas Great Resorts
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Opinion Article

The New Generation of Wellness-Hospitality and Its Workforce

This is a new benchmark for lifestyle, leisure, better health, and premium hospitality. This article reviews the mounting employee tensions in the hospitality market, specifically regarding service workers and provider orientations in spa and wellness departments. Amid a time of significant global and methodical change, a new generation of hospitality is coming of age. This article examines some of the leading pressure points and the acceleration of the various challenges this market faces today. It also points to actionable solutions, unlaid tactics, and nuance to help motivate changes in this important hospitality personal-care sector.

Mia Mackman
By Mia Mackman, Owner and Principal, MACKMAN|ES
Opinion Article

The Experiential Travel Boom: The Big Summer Travel Trends for 2024

Even with the economy's ups and downs, travelers are spending more on experiences. They're going for bucket-list adventures that showcase their unique passions. This booming industry is expected to reach $1.6 trillion by the end of 2024! Airbnb is also stepping up its experience game with the announcement of its Summer 2024 Icons Program. This new initiative promises a collection of extraordinary experiences hosted by the biggest names in music, film, TV, art, sports, and much more.

Ivana Johnston
By Ivana Johnston, Co-Founder and CEO, Puzzle Partner
Opinion Article

Enhancing hotel guests’ well-being: Academic insights for hoteliers

In recent years, the topic of well-being has become increasingly ubiquitous. A report by McKinsey (2024) finds, surprisingly, that millennials and Gen Z are spending more on health and wellness than older consumers. According to the Global Wellness Institute (2023), the wellness economy reached $5.6 trillion in 2023 and is forecast to soar to $8.5 trillion by 2027.

Valentina Clergue
By Valentina Clergue, Assistant Professor, EHL
Opinion Article

The Rise of Sleep Tourism

According to Hilton's third annual trends report, this year will be marked by a pronounced emphasis on wellness travel, with "rest and relaxation" identified as the pivotal trend shaping the travel landscape for 2024. Beyond the traditional offerings like spas, yoga classes at sunrise, and fitness centers with the latest equipment, the pursuit of personal wellness has undergone a significant transformation. As a result, today's travelers, whether embarking on a business trip or a leisurely vacation with friends or family, are placing a growing emphasis on prioritizing sound sleep and rest.

Haley Payne
By Haley Payne, Head of Commercial, Pure Wellness
Opinion Article

Length of Stay is the Best KPI for Proving the Value of Wellness Investments

The word ‘optimization’ implies the use of data and measurements for continuous business improvement, but it also implies making tradeoffs and devoting limited resources to certain tasks ahead of others. For today’s hospitality world, we are confronted by so many data points, so many partners or siloed interests and so many different activities vying for our attention or capital. To make informed, strategic decisions that will unify various operations towards a common objective, hoteliers and owners must carefully pick the key performance indicators (KPIs) that they will optimize and prioritize.

Adam Mogelonsky
By Adam Mogelonsky, Partner, Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited
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Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP)
Opinion Article

Holistic Well-Being: Trends in Health and Wellness Offerings at Boutique Hotels in 2024

The past few years have certainly affected our health and well-being. From somewhat constant concerns about being exposed to and catching COVID ourselves, or having it affect our family members, to long hours working from home offices and worry about childcare, the pandemic left many people feeling depleted and in desperate need of vacations that offer relaxation and recharge.

Jennifer Barnwell
By Jennifer Barnwell, President, Curator Hotel & Resorts Collection, Curator Hotel & Resort Collection
Opinion Article

New Developments in Culinary Wellness

2024 is on track to become the year of wellness tourism. A recent 2023 Hilton travel report paints a vivid picture, indicating that a whopping 50 percent of travelers are looking for travel to address either physical or mental wellness.

Richard Garcia
By Richard Garcia, Senior Vice President of Food and Beverage, Strategy & Execution, Remington
Opinion Article

How GenAI Can Enhance Hotel Wellness Programs

Generative AI (GenAI) as led by the lustrous ChatGPT is rightfully front and center in the news because there are seemingly endless possibilities for how these pretrained models built on large data sets can help speed up various processes at a hotel or enhance the guest experience. But while it’s fun to bloviate in generalities about how the world will be transformed inside of five years as these algorithms pierce the veil of general intelligence, right now on the ground we need narrow use cases for these technologies.

Larry MogelonskyAdam Mogelonsky
By Larry Mogelonsky and Adam Mogelonsky