Going Long for Hotel Longevity Part VIII: Nature Knows Best
With all matters related to the longevity revolution – in particular how the graying of the population will result in the growth of verticals like hotel wellness and medical tourism – often it’s best to go back to our roots.
A significant part of the antiaging, wellbeing and healthy living narrative stems from comparisons of modern, urban, helter-skelter life to that of our ancestral past before the agricultural revolution when we were all hunter-gatherers spending our days in communal tribes of no more than 150 people. By applying this comparison to a hotel’s design, programming or branding, you can make a property far more welcoming and profitable in its wellness pursuits, and in fact many of these organic or nature-leaning suggestions can be done on a limited budget.
As evidence, we see this ancestral narrative reflected in the prominence of paleo or ketogenic dieting where the theory is that humans are ill-suited to digest most grains, cereals and pulses that were only domesticated within the past several millennia. We see it in cold plunges and ice baths, where the easy explanation – one that excludes biochemical discussions of heat shock proteins and mitochondrial activation – is centered around the fact that warm water is uncommon in nature. This philosophy is also a component of mindfulness and meditation, where neurologists have shown the health benefits of quieting the mind that is so often induced into an anxious state by our overstimulated environments.
The point herein is that as awareness for returning in part to the ways of our ancestors increases and people start to adjust their lifestyles to be more attuned to a more primal state, travelers will come to demand then expect their accommodations to likewise evolve in stride.
This particular aspect within the larger trend of hotel wellness should thus be on every brand’s agenda as they look to evolve their product offerings over the decade ahead. In fact, there’s a whole field of study (albeit some would deem it pseudoscience for the moment) emerging related to ‘nature therapy’ that looks at how specifically being amongst nature can rejuvenate the body, mind and spirit.
Nor is this a trend that only well-capitalized resorts can seize upon to guide their next big renovation. The notion that nature knows best has a multitude of wellness applications that any hotel in any category can incorporate without overwhelming capex.
Yes, some directions and programs are more expensive than others, and of course many will lean heavily into the luxury destination end of the spectrum. Still, this should not preclude economy, select-service or midscale properties appeasing primarily corporate and group guests from devising a plan with nature in mind. In fact, the opposite is true where incorporating more of these biomimetic elements can be just the ticket to revive a staid product.
Below is hardly an exhaustive list of what’s possible. Instead, it’s inspiration as to the breadth and flexibility of what can work for your brand, your target audience and your budget.
- As a rather direct interpretation of nature therapy, develop programming for your guests to get out in a natural setting, like a horticultural tutorial, a la carte picnics or outdoor exercise class
- Similarly, the idea of forest bathing is becoming popular where a guided hike or group meditation amongst the terpene-laden aerobiome of a forest offers substantial health benefits
- For urban properties, and especially after COVID-19 brought attention to this matter, high quality ventilation (like HEPA filters) that fill guestrooms with clean, purified air are becoming marketing points unto themselves and key booking drivers for urban hotels
- Urban hotels can also aim to bring nature inside with live plants, living walls in the lobby, biomimicry in selected artwork or art installations, themed wallpapers, green-spectrum décor (the color our brains most associate with nature), or types of biophilic design or tailored scents of pine, citrus and aromatic flowers that can be disbursed on demand through in-room devices
- Nature has long been incorporated into cultural design styles like Feng Shui (Chinese), Godai (Japanese) or Hygge (Scandinavian) that often emphasize exposed woods, stone, the presence of water, proper flow in furniture orientation, ample natural light and optimized bed spaces
- New science is also emerging around the concept of negative ionization therapy where the friction from recurrently running water (like that of waterfalls, heavy rainstorms or ocean waves) generates negatively charged ions in the air that calm our bodies, and this effect can be artificially recreated with small devices that can be hidden away in guestrooms
- On this notion of resetting a body’s natural charge, earthing or grounding – the simple act of touching your body to solid earth unencumbered by rubber-soled shoes or socks– is becoming a popular practice and ripe messaging fodder for any rural property
- All this talk of being amongst nature or next to running water, other more esoteric forms of wellness like halotherapy – the breathing of tiny, restorative salt particles – can also serve to differentiate your wellness program or as an in-room, on-demand offering
- With the awareness around the detrimental effects of artificial blue light from computer screens on sleep habits, smart lighting or night lighting is becoming a highly sought-after room feature so that travelers can program LEDs to shift into the amber-red hues to help set wind down or, alternatively, get a jolt of blue light in order to power through jetlag
- Building on this idea of smart room tech is the progression towards a connected room that incorporates IoT devices that can restore a guest’s sleep patterns to a natural state and offer a host of other wellness product integrations, namely the aforementioned smart lighting, aromatherapy devices, smart mattresses and temporally modulated thermostats
- Ancestral living also extends into your fitness programming through what some call primal workouts or high intensity interval training (HIIT) where the principle is that short bursts of varied, full-body heavy lifting help to maximize the metabolic benefits of exercise
- Finally, getting back to nature obviously includes a rethink of your F&B strategy, incorporating not only more organic ingredients and paleo-friendly dishes but also nose-to-tail cooking whereby organ meats (however unpalatable they may seem at first) have been shown to be jampacked with key minerals or vitamins far above many fruits and vegetables
Perhaps you may deem these dozen territories as mere bells and whistles; perhaps there’s a morsel here that can work for your brand. Regardless of your opinion on the growth of hotel wellness, it should be abundantly clear that there are many ways to get involved and creatively incorporate various schools of thought into your next big remodeling or product unveiling. Above all, when in doubt just look back at what our ancestors were accustomed to then proceed from there.
