HOTELS CHAINS ARE FOREVER tinkering with their guest services in a bid to attract business travellers and secure contracts from meetings buyers. One of the more recent ways they have been doing this is by stepping up ‘well-being’ services, such as spa and gym facilities, healthier menus and enhanced in-room facilities.
Intercontinental Hotels Group has gone one step further with the launch of its new Even Hotels brand in the US in June, while upmarket brand Corinthia has launched new menus for meetings as well as offering the services of the London-based Sleep School to help delegates improve their sleeping patterns while on the road.
But how important are these developments for travel buyers when going through the request for proposal (RFP) tendering process for their hotel programmes? One global travel and meetings buyer told Buying Business Travel that while these well-being initiatives could be a “differentiator”, they did not affect the fundamental decision-making process, which continued to be based on “value for money and location”.
Ryan Johnson, head of land product at FCM Travel Solutions and Corporate Traveller, says it is “rare” for a buyer to ask about well-being facilities within a RFP, with more focus on including breakfast, wifi and parking as part of negotiated rates.
So are hotels wasting their time with their new traveller well-being services still largely ignored within the RFP process? The most common question on this subject in RFPs continues to be whether the hotel has a gym or not, according to major travel management companies.
Former Astra Zeneca global travel buyer Caroline Strachan, who joined American Express Global Business Travel earlier this year, says this is changing as buyers tap into the benefits of “soft value” facilities offered by hotels, which can improve the satisfaction of business travellers during their stays and make them more likely to stay within the hotel programme. “We believe that if companies can select a hotel that provides well-being options in addition to competitive rates and good basic amenities, travellers are more likely to book with preferred hotels and make compliant accommodation choices,” says Strachan.
This is backed up by a survey of buyers carried out by the Institute of Travel & Meetings (ITM) in May, which showed that travel well-being was the second most important driver in changing the behaviour of frequent business travellers (31 per cent), after cost (38 per cent) and just ahead of technology (30 per cent).
Demand from a new breed of travellers may ultimately force buyers to give more priority to well-being facilities during the tendering process, according to HRG’s director of global hotel relations, Margaret Bowler, who believes the emergence of Generation Y (also widely known as Millennials) will drive this change in the next few years. “It will become a bigger issue as Gen Ys will expect to be able to keep fit while on the go – they will expect more than just a gym squeezed into a cupboard,” says Bowler. “To satisfy these customers, hotel companies will be bringing new brands into the market, such as Marriott’s Moxy.”
Impressive facilities
Providing pillow menus and complimentary bottles of in-room water have been offered by many hotels in recent years – especially upper-scale brands. But one global buyer said that brands need to “become more innovative” with their in-room facilities to impress travellers. Amex’s Strachan adds: “Lifestyle-branded hotels provide a wide range of in-room amenities, including sleep accessories, such as scented mists, sleep masks and earplugs, as well as black-out drapes, memory-foam mattresses, yoga mats and balls, and on-demand work-out videos.”
IHG’s Even Hotels, which opened its first properties in Connecticut and Maryland this summer, is treading this path, with its rooms featuring adjustable LED lighting, three choices of pillow and an in-room dedicated fitness zone with personal exercise equipment.
Food and beverage is also a key plank of these properties’ service. Even Hotels has created its own Cork and Kale brand, with menus filled with heart-healthy and low-fat options, including so-called ‘superfoods’ such as berries, broccoli, beetroot, oily fish and wheatgrass. Adam Glickman, head of Even Hotels, says: “Guests fuelling up for a long day of meetings should have access to good-for-you choices made with simple and natural ingredients that also taste great.”
Starwood’s Westin has also been establishing itself as a wellness brand over the last few years and has even set up a “well-being council”. This has pushed through various initiatives such as a new partnership with The Juicery to provide juices and smoothies using nutrient-rich ingredients such as kale, beetroot, pomegranate, mint, spinach and blueberries. Westin has also launched a scheme with sportswear firm New Balance to provide trainers and fitness kits to guests who want to exercise.
John Freudenthaler, Starwood’s regional director of sales for Western Europe, says: “While these elements do not tend to come up in the initial stages of the RFP process, we can see how much our corporate clients appreciate programmes such as the New Balance Gear Lending and superfoods breakfasts at our Westin properties.”
HRG’s Bowler says most hotel chains have already adopted these well-being initiatives or are “rushing to catch up”, and she adds that one of the consequences could be the end of room service, at least as we know it. “The whole eating experience is going to change and I think traditional room service is going to be taken out, as it doesn’t make the hotels any money,” she says. “Hotels will increasingly have a marketplace approach offering a range of healthy foods that are designed to keep people alert throughout the day. It’s a refreshing change from the days when everything was deep fried.”
Bowler also believes that technology will have a “big impact” on what hotels will be able to offer as well-being services. A good example is Swissotel’s interactive jogging maps, introduced as part of the chain’s Vitality programme which uses Google Maps to show running routes, as well as the option of joining regular jogging groups led by general managers.
Money-making meetings
Many of the biggest well-being initiatives launched by hotel groups have been focused on the lucrative meetings market, with new programmes, such as Radisson Blu’s Experience Meetings, Accor’s Meet with Mercure and Marriott’s Meetings Imagined, offering ‘brain foods’ to improve delegates’ productivity and also a fresh approach to the design and layout of meetings rooms.
Radisson Blu, for example, has introduced Brain Box break-out rooms at some of its properties in the UK, which are designed to stimulate creativity with a more flexible and colourful layout than a traditional meeting room, and allow delegates to write ideas and thoughts on the walls. Marriott, meanwhile,has been “reimagining” traditional meeting spaces so they can be tailored to client requirements with an increased focus on using natural light to stimulate creativity – rather than windowless conference rooms in the bowels of the building.
Steve Manfield, UK and Ireland marketing manager for Radisson Blu, says the Experience Meetings initiative was launched last year “in response to changing customer demands”. The programme also includes wifi access, creating “carbon neutral” meetings and offering loyalty points to planners. The company took to the road on a tour of the UK and Ireland this summer with a specially-designed truck to showcase this concept to more than 400 clients and bookers.
Rest assured
Many hotel groups are also offering buyers and their delegates advice on how to improve sleep and tackle jetlag while travelling and attending events, and some hotel spas offer massages and treatments tailored to ease problems arising from these issues.
Corinthia has gone one step further with its new Performance Sleep programme, which has been developed with London-based sleep expert Dr Guy Meadows, and offers different levels of advice and consultation on improving sleeping patterns while on the road. “This programme is targeted at the corporate world to teach travellers how to switch off at night and enhance the ‘sleep knowledge’ that guests receive,” says Meadows.
“They are used to living like a hamster on a wheel and have forgotten how to switch off, which affects their sleep. How you sleep at night is what makes you perform brilliantly during the day. If you are deprived of sleep, studies have shown that your creativity drops by two-thirds.” Meadows adds that even a one-hour time difference can affect travellers more than they might think. “The loss of one hour causes accidents to increase by 20 per cent for the next five days, while the risk of heart attack goes up by 7 per cent,” he says.
All this is undoubtedly food for thought for both travel and meetings buyers, and well-being is likely to move up the list of priorities in coming years. But price, location and inclusions such as wifi and breakfast will remain the most crucial factors when putting together a hotel programme.
“Corporates aren’t going to choose to stay at a hotel because of nutritional menus or jetlag therapies,” says FCM’s Johnson. “However, once they have stayed at a property offering these services, they are more like to become a repeat guest and request to stay there again.
“They may even ask their procurement department to add that hotel to their corporate programme or travel policy. It also depends on the type of corporate: SME [small- to medium-sized enterprise] executives often travel with their spouse and family, who are more likely to make use of spa and well-being facilities while their other half is at a meeting.”