Private In-Room Workouts Are Future for Hotel Guests
Hotels are providing all guests with the option of working out in their own rooms. As communal hotel gyms remain on lockdown, guests are giving freedom to use Peloton bikes, Hydrow rowing machines, or other exercise equipment and digital platforms to stay fit.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged an uptick of at-home workout routines. According to Beachbody’s “Future of Fitness” survey conducted in 2020, 87 percent of responders stated that they would continue getting fit at home, even while feeling at ease with going back to the gym post-quarantine. Now in mid-2021, with businesses opening up more and a travel surge, a number of hotels are offering in-room workouts for guests of all economic backgrounds. As the future of hotel gyms hang in the balance, options like “wellness suites” have become the new alternative.
According to FORTUNE, visitors of boutique The Ryder Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina can now request to have Peloton bikes sent to their room. The swanky Kimpton Sawyer Hotel in downtown Sacramento also provides guests the option of utilizing Peloton equipment or a Mirror in their own Sweat Suites. After workout treats such as a “spa amenity kit” complete with a “honey face mask, locally made lavender bath bomb, and yummy Champagne bubble gummies” are also a part of their post-in-room workout menu.
Rowing machine company Hydrow is also taking a page from Peloton and Mirror’s workbook. The corporation integrated their digital programs in four test locations, per FORTUNE, which was especially favorable for hotels that experienced a shutdown of their gyms during the pandemic.
In addition, other hotel chains, like Hilton, have successfully consolidated hospitality with in-room workout via their Hilton Wellness program. Guests can do yoga, weights, suspension cables, and even a meditation chair, among other apparatus and accessories, in the privacy of their rooms.
Though the future of communal hotel gyms is unknown, it appears that in-room fitness options are here to stay.
Langham New York’s Director of Sales and Marketing Victoria Batten foretold the advantages of this new wave of hotel fitness in 2020. She told Travel Weekly, “I think that pre-pandemic, the private, in-room gym was traditionally seen as something typically reserved for VIPs who might request to have equipment set up in the penthouse.
“But the pandemic has made a lot of people realize it’s nice to have your own personal gym equipment.”
