What is a wellness hotel?
A wellness hotel is a property designed to help guests enhance their physical and mental wellbeing. These hotels integrate wellness into different aspects of the guest experience: spa and fitness facilities, healthy dining options, access to nature and more.
While traditional hotels tend to focus on comfort and convenience, wellness hotels target holistic health. There are a variety of different approaches that a hotel can take: yoga and meditation classes, chef-cooked meals, training plans, mindfulness workshops, digital detoxes and outdoor activities, to name just a few. Many wellness hotels offer programs that combine these elements into comprehensive health and wellness packages.
For hotel owners, positioning your property as wellness-focused can attract guests who are willing to spend more in search of rest, relaxation and revitalisation. Hotel spa and wellness packages can encourage longer stays, earning your property even more revenue and delivering enviable financial stability and occupancy rates.
This blog will explore the rise of wellness travel, and how a hotel business can capitalise on the significant opportunity that this growing sector presents.
Table of contents
Why is hotel wellness important in modern hospitality?
Hotel wellness is important in modern hospitality because today’s guests actively prioritise physical and mental wellbeing when choosing accommodation, with wellness tourism representing 18% of all travel spending. The market is projected to grow from USD814.6 billion in 2022 to USD2.1 trillion by 2030, making wellness offerings essential for attracting high-value guests and driving long-term profitability. Hotels that invest in wellness enhance brand differentiation, extend average stays, and increase additional revenue from spa treatments and wellness packages.
By integrating wellness into its offerings, a hotel can attract this broad and big spending audience, and set itself up to claim a slice of the ever-growing wellness pie.
Committing to a serious investment in health and wellness can enhance a hotel’s brand differentiation, extend the average length of stay, and dramatically increase ancillary revenue through spa treatments, on-site dining and health and wellness packages.
In short, the focus on health and wellness isn’t a trend. It’s fast becoming an essential pillar of the guest experience, and by investing in it now, it can become a driver of long-term profitability.
Key takeaways
- Wellness tourism already accounts for nearly one-fifth of global travel spending – a number that continues to grow.
- Offering health and wellness services and stays helps a hotel to attract high-value guests and keep them longer.
- Wellness is not a trend, it’s the future – and a very profitable one for hotel brands who are willing to invest in it.
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How do wellness hotels attract guests?
Wellness hotels attract guests by offering comprehensive health-focused experiences that combine accommodation with spa services, fitness facilities, healthy dining, and mindfulness programs. Successful properties differentiate themselves through targeted branding, authentic design elements (natural light, calming colours, nature access), and specialised amenities like yoga studios and wellness consultations that align with specific guest needs.
The most successful wellness hotels understand that the guest experience begins pre-arrival. Your online presence – your website, social profiles, OTA listings – need to reflect the desires of your guests and how your hotel meets them. Influencer partnerships can be a particularly effective way to get your target guests through the door.
Once they arrive, the property itself needs to offer a sense of healing through strategically designed elements such as natural light, calming colour palettes and access to nature. The ancillary services you offer must deliver on whatever wellness promises you’ve made, and could take the form of day spas, mind-body classes, meditation spaces and healthy dining options.
Success ultimately lies in authenticity – this can’t feel like a cash grab. If a guest sees a hotel’s wellness efforts as genuine, and if staff culture and guest communications reinforce this authenticity, the guest is far more likely to return.
Key takeaways
- Successful wellness hotels target specific guests by aligning branding, design and services to their needs.
- A strong online presence and strategic influencer partnerships can help secure bookings.
- Authenticity builds trust, ensures guest satisfaction and encourages repeat visits.
What are the benefits of transforming your hotel into a wellness hotel?
The hotel wellness opportunity in numbers:
- Hotels with major wellness offerings (USD1M+ or 10% of total revenue from wellness) have an average total revenue per available room (TRevPAR) that is 108% higher than hotels with zero wellness offerings.
- 80% of guests are more likely to return to hotels that offer personalised wellness services, like tailored fitness regimes or custom spa treatments.
- Nearly 60% of consumers who travelled for wellness in 2024 said they expect to do so again in the next year.
What can a focus on health and wellness deliver your hotel business? Here are some of the most compelling reasons to choose this path:
Increase revenue
Wellness-focused travellers generate higher revenue for three key reasons. First, they book longer stays. Wellness experiences require time, with guests typically staying 2-3 nights longer than standard leisure travellers to complete multi-day programs. Second, they purchase more ancillary services: spa treatments, fitness classes, healthy dining upgrades, and wellness consultations all drive additional revenue beyond the room rate. Lastly, they accept premium pricing. Guests seeking transformative wellness experiences are less price-sensitive and willing to pay higher rates for properties that deliver comprehensive wellness amenities and programming.
Improve guest satisfaction
When the guest experience is carefully curated, it will deliver the health and wellness outcomes that your guests are looking for, ensuring they leave satisfied. As outlined in the stats above, happy and healthy guests are more likely to return, and they’re also more likely to share their experience with their family and friends, which creates new customers.
Strong brand reputation
With 90% of guests reading hotel reviews before booking, success is increasingly dependent on how your brand is perceived online. By prioritising guest health and wellness, you build lasting customer relationships.
How can hotels manage hotel spa and wellness amenities?
Hotels can effectively manage spa and wellness amenities by combining strategic staff development with technology that balances automation and personal touch. Success requires training teams who understand both hospitality and wellness practices, implementing systems that accommodate different guest booking preferences, and using integrated platforms to track preferences and deliver customised experiences that drive ancillary revenue.
The aim is to strike a balance between operational efficiency and personalised service. Booking systems, for example, allow guests to reserve a spot in a class at their leisure, but it’s important to offer easy access to staff for guests who prefer to make their reservations with a human.
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What are the challenges of running a wellness hotel?
A focus on health and wellness doesn’t guarantee success for a hotel. Challenges include:
High initial investment
Developing a wellness hotel can involve significant upfront costs: new facilities, specialised equipment and expert staff don’t come cheap. Careful planning is critical to turning this outlay into long-term profitability.
Staff training
Wellness hotels need staff who understand both hospitality and health. Recruitment is key, but so is staff training, both in terms of the technical aspects of your wellness offerings, and in how you want workers to represent your hotel.
Focusing on sustainability while maintaining profitability
Sustainability is a key part of wellness hospitality, as health-conscious guests are typically eco-conscious too. The challenge lies in reducing your environmental impact without reducing your margins.
Key takeaways
- Wellness-focused hotels achieve more than double the TRevPAR of non-wellness properties.
- Track guest wellness preferences in your PMS to deliver personalised experiences that drive repeat bookings. Start with simple details like preferred workout times, dietary restrictions, and spa treatment history.
- Hotels need to understand the business challenges that come with a focus on wellness before committing to this strategic direction.
Kris Vanaerschot,
Chief Commercial Officer
Helios Hotels
Frequently asked questions about wellness hotels
Why is wellness tourism becoming more popular?
The factors behind the surge in wellness travel have been widely discussed and debated, but our stressful modern lives and increased health awareness seem to be leading people to view travel as a chance to prioritise health, balance and revitalisation.
What ROI can hotels expect from targeting wellness-focused guests?
Hotels with carefully crafted wellness offerings typically enjoy higher revenue per available room (more than 2x the TRevPAR of non-wellness hotels), as well as longer stays and greater guest loyalty, all of which enhance profitability.
What amenities do wellness hotels need?
The amenities you choose will reflect the guests you are targeting, but options include day spas, fitness and yoga studios, meditation spaces, on-site restaurants and easy access to nature.
