What is next for Accor’s wellbeing offering?

What does your day-to-day as global vice president of wellbeing at Accor look like?

We are an internal team supporting all of our brands across Accor to develop and create wellness and wellbeing solutions and strategies. We work on three primary areas, one being the strategic elements of wellbeing for each brand and determining the most appropriate way of deploying appropriate wellness strategies for each brand, as they have different price points, requirements, and scale.

The second element is design and development to create and realise spaces that are appropriate, create ROI, and that are future-proofed in terms of spa, wellness and fitness. We work with a variety of owners and developers globally to realise that we need to market different brands.

Thirdly is thought leadership and marketing to elevate the conversation of wellbeing and making wellbeing a company imperative internally. This involves educating our team members, our spa leadership, and our general managers on why wellness is important. That comes through white papers, lectures, thought leadership pieces, and different elements of presentations.

How do you define wellness at Accor?

Wellbeing is an outcome that is driven by wellness, and wellness is the actions and activities taken which culminate in an overall sense of wellbeing. We are always looking at ways to create moments of pause for our guests, and we define those wellness activities into six pillars: nutrition, holistic design, movement, spa, mindfulness and digital presence.

At Accor, we use these pillars to create our wellness strategy and development for each of our different brands. Although they remain constant, we create a more defined wellness approach to each of our different brands.

How important should fitness be as part of a hotel’s wellness offering?

Fitness is the most important part of the wellness opportunity within a hotel context. Four out of five of our guests entering into any hotel within Accor are pursuing some form of daily practice for improving their wellbeing, and a large number of those guests will also pursue some form of physical activity.

We’re also seeing a high propensity for gym membership within the Gen Z and millennial demographic, representing 50%-55% penetration to health club membership. When younger generations enter the luxury and premium landscape, they are expecting a much more dynamic and boutique or specific tribe focused approach to exercise.

Within a hotel context, we can then create dynamic exercise spaces that appeal to that customer. It’s also an immediacy for our guests, leading to a broader capture rate to get guests coming in.

There’s nothing more communal than fitness, so it’s a dynamic way of touching the heart and spirit of our guests. We’re making that a primary part of our wellness delivery because it appeals to a much broader mass audience than traditional spa does.

What added benefits does this provide to hotels?

Wellbeing is highly aspirational – it’s an elemental part of our lifestyle and people aspire to that, so it’s highly attractive and influences people to come to the hotels, which is an important ROI factor.

Four out of five of our guests are making a step every day to improve their wellbeing, so we need to meet that demand. Additionally, guests who book wellness travel in our hotels spend more money. A wellness traveller on a property will typically spend between 55%-60% more than the standard leisure guest, and certainly more than a business guest.

Moreover, those who experienced wellness on our properties were the most delighted and the highest referrers, so you create a word of mouth and build repeat customers. That creates a unique proposition to wellness.

Do guests come to you specifically for Accor’s wellness offerings?

Yes. We have dedicated wellness and wellbeing locations across Europe for immersive wellbeing experiences – the Fairmont brand in particular has wellbeing as an integral part of its DNA. People are able to combine their leisure activity with their wellness activity very ably in those locations. We’re now elevating that so our guests can have easier access through distribution and through digital, so they can understand what they can and can’t do on those properties.

We are also seeing a different expectation for what hotels should be delivering, particularly through food and beverage and fitness and spa. Therefore, Accor is seeing the idea of wellness as being ubiquitous; a lot of people are talking about it, but the actual delivery is what’s going to be the differentiator. Accor is making significant progress to elevate our wellbeing, content delivery, execution and opportunity for our guests.

How do you focus on authenticity?

For us, it’s fundamentals over fads. Wellbeing has been around for thousands of years and these are all now just conversations happening within the western world. We stick to the fundamentals of movement, mindfulness, nutrition and of our spa experiences that are embedded in ancient practice, and the fundamental methods that have proof of concept that work, and that people want to have.

Accor focuses on longevity and the fundamentals that are historically wanted and maximise the wellbeing of our customers. For example, thermal bathing is a significant drive for us right now; we’re putting in larger thermal bathing areas, water areas, and communal areas for things like hamman and banyan. These are traditional practices that are really beloved by our consumers.

When offering wellbeing, it’s important to ensure it’s embedded in the local culture. Looking into the local modalities allows us to create authenticity, and working with local people also means they can bring their knowledge, passion and beliefs to consumers.

What role do you see brands like Peloton playing in these clubs for high-net-worth individuals?

Our partners, such as Peloton, offer us exciting opportunities to support and democratise wellness and, most importantly, take people out of the hotel by using their room to reach them in different ways.

Peloton has a fantastic resonance with our customers as people really know the brand, and many of our guests have a Peloton at home. This allows us to bridge the gap and allow guests to continue to exercise while they’re on the go, ultimately creating continuity.

What is next for Accor’s wellbeing offering?

Traditional spas have an important place within hotels and will remain to have a place within Accor. We will be developing and moving these into more future elements of wellness and spa within a hotel context.

There’s an opportunity for Accor to drastically improve how we deliver fitness, from boutique fitness to club based fitness, for example. There will be many things happening within the fitness space, such as bringing fitness into our eco-hotels like Ibis, and ensuring that our Fairmont brand is developing to create a high-quality club experience.

The other area we’re looking at is bathing, such as different varieties of bathing, from Chinese or Korean Jimbaran through to Nordic bathing experiences. We’re creating self-guided bathing journeys within our Fairmont brand, and introducing mountain basements or bathing resorts.

We’re also focusing on the diagnostic and recovery area, implementing infrared saunas, Normatec, and hypervisor recovery booths, as well as more physiology and physiotherapy treatments, such as IV therapy.

All this combined will create a club or a spa that is based on recovery, and we’re focusing on that to help boost immune systems and help people recover from sport and athletics injuries, or just general life.

Finally, another direction we’re going towards is building a high net worth, diagnostic-led club environment with personal training, treatments, and medical doctors to create a fully immersive wellness experience, where we can help improve lives, support longevity, and increase immunity.