What’s your global wellness strategy?
Hilton has always been committed to wellness. We have deep expertise in fitness and spa, but we’re looking to expand into areas that have emerged as critical to our customer promise, which is delivering an optimal stay.
We knew travellers had an interest in wellness, but our 2023 trends report (see p73) showed it’s much bigger than that – more than half of the 8,000 people surveyed said they’re looking to engage with wellness experiences. The audience has become increasingly diverse and their expectations of wellness are expanding too. The findings were compelling and we had to react.
On top of that, all of our main competitors are going after wellness. So Hilton brought me on to define what wellness means to the brand and how it aligns with its core values. We don’t want to follow suit, we want to engage with wellness in a way that feels uniquely ours.
It’s a huge mandate and even though wellness has been a big component of hospitality programming for decades, what we’re doing is innovative.
What are you doing that’s so different
As the wellness consumer diversifies, our goal is to reach as many people as possible – not just guests in our luxury or full-service properties, but across our entire portfolio of 19 brands and a million guestrooms in 123 countries.
Spa and fitness facilities remain an incredibly important way for us to engage with guests. But if we want to democratise wellness and scale it up, we need to embed touchpoints outside of their walls and our partnership with Peloton is the epitome of this approach. Every single Hilton hotel in the US, UK and Germany and the majority in Canada will have a Peloton bike in it and every bike delivers personalised workouts to guests.
This non-prescriptive approach enables us to meet people where they’re at in their wellness journey – an ‘opt in’ if they want. This is something I’m most proud of and we’re expecting to engage in more partnerships like this.
What major wellness initiatives can we expect?
One of the biggest things we’re going after is sleep. It’s an overall driver of wellbeing and critical to how people perceive their stay has gone. And we’re looking at all of the wonderful elements that are coming up in the industry – sleep experts, equipment and partners. Getting the right room temperature, bed linen, noise levels and light exposure. Assessing what we can provide as an option for guests.
It’s nice to be one of the few
female leaders in this space...
women bring a different
perspective to the table
Fitness is a huge category for us too. Our trends report showed that 47 per cent of travellers list physical wellness and accessibility to fitness amenities as a priority. And these are savvy people, highly opinionated and well-educated about the market.
At its most basic, this is about having really lovely, well-resourced gyms. But it’s also about having access to outdoor spaces and knowing where to direct guests if we can’t offer something in-house. That could be providing a running route in the city, pointing out hiking trails or tapping into the local fitness culture.
We’re creating the next generation of in-room movement. Ryan Crabbe launched a wonderful concept called Five Feet to Fitness (see www.SpaBusiness.com/fivefeettofitness) which brings more than 11 different pieces of equipment and accessory options into the hotel guestroom. We’ll expand on this and introduce different categories of movement such as yoga, stretching and meditation.
What else is bubbling under?
We’re looking at wellness at a category/brand level as well. There will be a complete refresh of the Conrad and Waldorf spa concepts and with that will come a variety of different programmes.
And most certainly there are regional and property-led executions of wellness that deliver a pure cultural experience.
The challenge of focusing on
far-reaching wellness is not
to detract from the incredible
work our spas are doing
At Conrad Koh Samui, we have wonderful workshops where you learn about local healing herbs and create compresses to use in your spa treatment, for instance. Or at Royal Palm Galapagos we’re offering a 30-day wildlife sabbatical which enables people to work and experience nature like you can’t get anywhere else for an extended period.
Where do spas fit within all of this?
The challenge of focusing on far-reaching wellness is not to detract from the incredible work our spas are doing. They are an extremely important element at Hilton and still a huge priority. The refresh of the Conrad and Waldorf spa concepts is emblematic of that.
We’re building amazing new facilities and continuing to deepen and evolve our offerings because the mandate of spa is increasing. It’s no longer just about pampering or relaxation. It’s about offering those authentic experiences, engagement, the quality of our practitioners and training.
How are you shining a spotlight on spas?
It’s about uncovering the great work that our onsite teams are already doing and ensuring it sees the light of day by liaising with our marketing people. And that comes down to gathering information. It’s not sexy. But at a corporate level, a lot of value people like myself bring to the table is focused on processes – how we organise the flow of information and share that across departments and regions.
It’s exciting to see that this is an all-female team.
It’s wonderful, isn’t it? Even my boss, Lara Hernandez, senior vice president of global brand innovation and planning, is female. Hilton takes equality very seriously and one of the many variables women bring to the table is a different perspective. Many of us are mums and children force us to find balance. We can empathise with how stretched business guests can be – juggling timetables, travelling and being pulled in different directions. I think a lot of my male colleagues are also wonderful, but I have to be honest and say that it’s nice to be one of the few female leaders in this space.
What keeps you motivated?
Most people choose hospitality as a profession because they love to serve. That’s an innate passion in me and I really believe that democratisation helps us do right by our guests. So when I think about wellness, I feel a huge responsibility to deliver the core things – eating, movement, sleeping – even if people don’t stay in a luxury property. It’s a basic right.
Democratision of wellness
helps us do right by our
guests and I feel a huge
responsibility to deliver it
