“Wellness” is often used as a catch-all term used to describe everything from in-room bath products and basement-level fitness centers to guided ice immersions and forest bathing rituals. Though the word may be thrown around loosely, today’s wellness guests and visitors are anything but casual in their approach to the subject.
They’re intentional. They’re motivated. They’re ready, willing and able to spend. As long as they’re given what they want.
Christopher Norton, CEO of Equinox Hotels, notes that his wellness guests—particularly those who reserve the Sleep Lab experience—aren’t simply booking a place to stay.
“They book transformation,” he said.
And that transformation extends well beyond the $1,700-per-night Sleep Lab experience itself.
“They spend more time on property,” he continued. “They book treatments, training sessions, recovery circuits, curated dining experiences and retail. The pursuit of higher performance becomes the purpose of the stay and that drives longer dwell time, higher ancillary capture, stronger ADR and deeper loyalty. We compete on human optimization and that shifts the entire revenue equation.”
That longer dwell time and higher ancillary engagement applies to more than just sleep-deprived New York visitors. It’s visible across the industry.
A 2025 report from International Luxury Travel Market, Altiant and Hyatt found that nearly two-thirds of travelers surveyed said wellness facilities and services were very important or essential to their choice of hotel. Nearly 70 percent reported booking spontaneous wellness services or experiences, while 92 percent said they are willing to spend extra for a wellness-focused holiday.
“Wellness amenities, such as spas, fitness centers and wellness programming, are becoming table stakes for the leisure full-service traveler, whether in the transient segment or in group travel,” said Rob Smith, CEO of Stonebridge.
Today, wellness certainly isn’t confined to destination retreats. It shows up in the transient guest who adds a massage, the group attendee who books a treatment between meetings, the leisure traveler who extends a stay for a spa day and the local resident who purchases a day pass, membership or service.
Revving the Wellness Revenue Engine
Jackson Thilenius, senior principal at DyeLot Interiors, knows wellness can have a big impact on the bottom line, particularly when it’s implemented strategically. This begins by integrating wellness amenities directly into the overall design narrative to create a seamless experience.
“Hotels often squander the opportunity by trying to upsell amenities as separate and individual services, making it easier for the guest to say ‘no, thank you,’” he explained. “When an amenity is seen less as an opportunity to sell product and more as a natural expansion of the guest stay, hoteliers report a higher percentage of amenity usage.”
Another strategy to unlocking wellness revenue is placing these amenities in unique or underutilized spaces and emphasizing community.
“Non-traditional space activation that enhances the guest experience beyond individual home wellness routines and creates shared, group experiences is what our guests are looking for,” Smith said. “Whether it’s morning pool aerobics, rooftop sunrise Tai Chi or healthy group cooking classes, it’s about bringing guests together in a communal environment.”
DyeLot recently maximized the value of a previously underutilized hotel space in Napa, Calif., when it converted an indoor pool into a day spa with a hydrotherapy experience.
“The pool was a nice amenity for guests, but in the heart of California wine country, it made more sense to relocate the pool outside and introduce a day spa that could drive revenue from both guests and locals,” Thilenius said. “The pairing of separate amenities that feel like a cohesive experience is an essential strategy for driving revenue. Well-thought-out branding and curated design intent become essential allies in delivering excellence.”
Norton agrees that branding, intent and design are keys to meeting wellness expectations. On face value, the 60,000-square-foot fitness area at Equinox Hotel New York may offer an opportunity to improve performance and mind/body/spirit alignment, but it also offers much more.
“Guests don’t access a quiet fitness floor,” he said. “They step directly into a performance engine shared with daily Equinox members. The result is kinetic energy. The space feels alive. Relevant. Aspirational. It never feels transactional or empty.”
For Norton, that integration is strategic. It activates foot traffic, drives cross-utilization and embeds guests into a high-performance culture from the moment they arrive.
Raj Khubchandani, vice president of hotel operations, luxury, lifestyle and company-managed hotels, Americas at IHG Hotels & Resorts, added that—when done right—wellness drives more than ROI.
“Wellness increases the ‘stickiness’ of the relationship between hotel brands and guests,” he said. “Hotels and brands have a significant opportunity to differentiate themselves through curated, next-level wellness programs and experiences.”
Khubchandani considers the standard indoor and outdoor fitness facilities, fitness apps and self-guided workouts as baseline amenities nowadays. The more impactful approach, he argued, is personalization.
“Meet guests where they want and help them be their best selves while away from home,” he added.
This may be the right approach, as 84 percent of ILTM’s survey respondents said they want services to be tailored to personal health goals. In response, IHG’s Six Senses hotels offer non-medical wellness evaluations that provide recommendations to improve sleep quality, maintain a healthy diet and find the right physical activity routine. Several of these properties also feature Alchemy bars where guests can make their own skincare products from natural ingredients.
Exclusivity can also be a major factor when commanding a premium. Equinox leverages this by cultivating partnerships with valuable health and wellness industry leaders. This includes Dr. Robert Dorfman, a Beverly Hills-based aesthetic surgeon and regenerative medicine physician, who designed a series of transformative skincare treatments for the hotel.
“Exclusive treatments like BioRegenesis with Dr. Dorfman translate cutting-edge science into high-value, on-property experiences,” Norton said. “These are not one-off activations. They are revenue-generating platforms that deepen loyalty, extend the guest relationship beyond the stay and reinforce Equinox Hotels as the benchmark for performance luxury.”
High Performance Requires High Investment
As Khubchandani mentioned, capitalizing on wellness today goes far beyond a simple gym. Relocating an indoor pool, offering personalized alchemy experiences and partnering with the leading experts in their field demand more than a sweat equity investment—and they should.
The right services and amenities can capture a wide variety of travelers, but with a single treatment costing hundreds to thousands of dollars, that customer is going to be discerning.
“The primary challenge [when trying to turn wellness amenities into meaningful profit centers] is authenticity,” Norton said, noting that this space is saturated, and today’s traveler is informed. “They can immediately distinguish between engineered performance and aesthetic wellness. A few candles and a meditation app do not create outcomes.”
Instead, he believes outcomes are created through meaningful investments in science, expert talent, integrated design and technology that produces measurable results.
In other words, authenticity.
“When the offering is authentic and outcome-driven, it commands a premium that guests are willing to pay for and, more importantly, they feel they have received genuine value,” he continued. “That translates into longer stays, higher ancillary spend and the kind of guest satisfaction that drives organic advocacy.”
Authenticity can also mean choosing to do a few things well, versus chasing the latest wellness trends. This, Khubchandani warned, can be a losing battle.
“With such a wide variety of guests and broader wellness trends that feel at times like they change by the minute, it can be difficult for brands and properties to truly understand—and program to meet—what guests want,” he added.
That uncertainty can quickly become expensive. The capital required to launch and maintain impactful wellness programming continues to rise.
To mitigate that risk, Khubchandani recommends using data and analytics to inform preferences, patterns and trip purposes among the hotel’s different demographics. This prevents the property from under- or over-programming. IHG also emphasizes disciplined resource allocation and clear ROI alignment, prioritizing best-in-class luxury and lifestyle experiences, as well as high-touch service that guests will remember.
“More efficient resource allocation helps hotels maximize top- and bottom-line value and ensures we are investing in areas most likely to resonate with guests and generate positive results,” Khubchandani explained. “We work closely with our owners to build the business case for new wellness-focused programs or features and coordinate the appropriate investments and deployment.”
The capital for wellness may not come cheap, but the investment can be worth it. One-off treatments, day passes, monthly memberships, wellness packages and exclusive retreats can all command significant revenue. The thing is, a hotel can’t expect a guest or visitor to be “all in” if they’re not willing to be.
“The brands that will win are those that commit fully,” Norton said. “High performance cannot be seasonal or superficial. It must be a foundational philosophy built into the asset, supported by science and delivered by credible talent. When guests can feel the difference, the market responds.”
This article was originally published in the April/May edition of Hotel Management magazine. Subscribe here.