Hotels Expand Options To Keep Guests Healthy On The Road

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In this Jan. 24, 2016, photo, Paula Walker, center foreground, an instructor with Green Monkey... Read more

(AP) — Running concierges, a hotel mini bar stocked with produce from the local farmers market and a training wall that comes standard in every room. The hotel industry is moving beyond basement gyms and basic spa menus to accommodate guests' growing requests to stay healthy while on the road.

The trend has been a mainstay at spas and wellness resorts for years, but now hotels frequented by business travelers and families are showing that life on the go doesn't have to mean sacrificing spin class or a quinoa superfood bowl. Boutique and luxury hotels along with big name brands including Westin and Wyndham have vastly expanded fitness programs and dining options in recent years. The luxury gym Equinox is even opening its own hotel in New York.

The number of hotels with fitness facilities jumped from 63 percent in 2004 to 84 percent in 2014, according to a study by the American Hotel & Lodging Association. And hotels offering in-room exercise equipment has nearly doubled in the past 10 years, from seven to 13 percent, according to the study.

"It's what the marketplace is demanding," said Dena Roche, wellness travel expert and editor of The Travel Diet website. "People are trying to lead a healthier lifestyle in their daily life so when they go on the road they want to keep doing those things."

At the Even Hotels, every room has a training zone with a yoga mat, exercise ball, foam roller and a mounted fitness wall with resistance bands plus 19 videos and training guides to help you get your sweat on. Wyndham guests can request a room stocked with an exercise machine (like a stationary bike, elliptical machine or treadmill) and free workout wear, and the W hotel chain partnered with popular yogi Tara Stiles for free in-room yoga videos and a set of tip cards placed around the room to suggest poses to help you relax, wake up or get in the mood.

"It's pushing from a trend to a tipping point where there's mass adoption around wellness into every aspect of people's lives," Jason Moskal, a vice president at Intercontinental Hotels Group, which owns the Even brand. Even Hotels have three locations, including one in New York City, and are planning to open eight more including one in Miami.

"Everyone has a different aspect of what they're looking for ... the hotel was designed with this idea of wanting wellness on my own terms," he said.

Rooftop yoga classes are all the rage at hotels across the country including The James Hotel in New York and the Mondrian South Beach. Guests at The Standard in Miami Beach can also enjoy waterfront yoga or stand-up paddle board classes and grab a green drink from the hotel's juice bar. Their spa, which offers a variety of fitness classes for guests (some are for members only) is also a hub for sessions taught by some of the world's top yogis.

Spinning junkies only have to walk downstairs at the 1 Hotel South Beach for a Soul Cycle class.

Forgot to pack your workout clothes? No problem.  Fairmont  has partnered with Under Armour and Reebok respectively to style your workout. Westin's lending program with New Balance had a 16 percent increase in requests in 2015. At the hotel's Grand Central location in New York, more than 2,000 guests paid $5 to use a new pair of sneakers and clothes delivered to their room.

Kimpton's running kit includes a map of the Hudson River running path and pre-loaded iPod shuffle. Fairmont and several other hotels have running programs including "run concierges" at roughly 200 Westin locations and other options for runners.

The beefed-up offerings come as guests, particularly younger ones, say it's one of the deciding factors on where they will stay. Forty-five percent of millennials and 38 percent of Gen-Xers said spa and fitness centers were influential in where they booked a room, according to a 2015 survey from travel and hospitality marketing firm MMGY Global.

Several hotel chains are also targeting the tech-minded fitness buffs.  Westin is  partnering with Fitbit to deliver personalized video-based exercises that guests can download on their phones or on the Internet along with real-time feedback.

And there's no need to wonder whether there are gluten-free options at hotel restaurants. Most have even revamped the notoriously calorie-laden room service menus.

The Epiphany Hotel in Palo Alto, California, offers guests a fridge stocked with produce from a local farmers market, green juices and homemade power bars for $95. Kimpton hotels overhauled room-service menus, substituting quinoa and oats for white flour. Westin developed a SuperFoodsRx menu  less.

5 Healthy Travel Trends For The New Year

The New Year is a time when people announce resolutions and work to create new habits. However, out of the 45 percent of the population that is estimated to make them, only around 8 percent actually achieve them. Even within the business travel world, there are plenty of resolutions and trends that people will set, as they make their way around the country and world in the name of business. There are some emerging trends for the New Year that will help keep travelers healthy as well as happy.

“Anytime we can maintain healthy habits while traveling, we are doing great,” explains Jayne McAllister, of Jayne McAllister Travel Wellness. “Traveling can be demanding for anyone who is even remotely health conscious, but times are changing as indicated by exciting new trends that facilitate keeping a healthy mind and body on the road.”

Here are 5 healthy travel trends for the New Year:

1.    Health Oriented Hotels. It used to be that you stayed in a hotel that boasted a mediocre workout room down the end of a dark corridor and a restaurant with one menu item highlighted as heart healthy. Business travelers now have true wellness options in the shape of hotels whose brand is geared toward the health-conscious traveler. IHG’s EVEN Hotels has been going strong in the mid-price range for a couple of years now. At the luxury end of the market, famed gym brand Equinox is entering the hospitality business and developing its first hotel in Manhattan which is due to open in 2018. The property will include a 60,000 square foot fitness center. The trend has filtered to mainstream properties, which have amped up their facilities for healthy travel. Westin has long led the way with its WestinWORKOUT rooms, followed by other hospitality groups. Since 2012, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas has offered dedicated Stay Well rooms, designed by Delos, which include – among other features – an air purification system, aromatherapy, long wave night lighting, and vitamin C-infused showers.

2.    Work out at the airport.  Passengers are taking advantage of airport down time to get moving to counter the effects of being sedentary and stationary. Many airports now boast walking paths and yoga rooms. In 2016, gyms are joining shops, restaurants and bars as airport concessions thanks to a startup company called AirFit. Facilities will include a state of the art workout room, showers, clothing purchase/rental, and luggage storage. First up is New York John F. Kennedy International Airport, followed by San Francisco International Airport and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

3.    Meditation is going mainstream. From Deepak Chopra’s website to the Harvard Business Review, meditation for corporate executives is becoming more common. Many companies are bringing in meditation specialists to teach their executives how to focus, think more clearly and make better, more profitable decisions. Meditation works especially well for business travelers, who are subject to more stress than non-traveling, as it can be practiced anywhere, including on airplanes and in hotel rooms. Apps are available to guide neophytes through the process of meditating (see www.anamya.co). With flight delays or other curveballs that are often thrown at the frequent traveler, the passenger can retreat into a meditation rather than an airport bar or their laptop. Per the Harvard report, the results of a sustained meditation practice are increased resilience, emotional intelligence, creativity, focus and improved relationships.

4.    Adding Personal Time to Trips. “Bleisure” is a fast growing trend of combining leisure time with business trips. Nearly half (46 percent) of business travelers add personal days to all or most of their business trips. The major reasons for this trend, as cited in the Bleisure Report 2014, include wanting to explore new cities, to gain cultural experience and knowledge, and to contribute to work/life balance. Three in five business travelers are more likely to take a bleisure trip than they were five years ago. For most companies, the practice of adding leisure time to a business trip is a win-win. Employees are less likely to burn out and are therefore more productive.

5.    Doing Less to Produce More. Doing more doesn’t make you more productive. Presenteeism is becoming the new absenteeism, especially for mobile workforces. For example, a traveling executive might be tired but feels compelled to work on a plane to make good use of time in the air. Or they might travel home on a Sunday and present themselves at the office on Monday, ready for business as usual. In both scenarios, they might have been exhausted but they have gone through the motions of working yet not performing to optimum capacity. Without the right amount of rest, the work completed on the plane may have to be redone, or the employee returning to the office may not be fully present and effective. The best companies are recognizing that traveling employees need time to recover from travel and allow time off or time working from home to do this.

“Business travel is always going to be a part of our world, but these trends are making it healthier and less stressful,” adds McAllister. “As employees become healthier and happier on the road, they are usually also more productive.”

McAllister has a new book titled “ Mile High & Healthy: The Frequent Traveler’s Roadmap to Eating, Energy, Exercise and a Balanced Life,” where she shares tips and tricks for staying healthy while traveling. The book offers information on eating healthily, exercising on the road, sustaining energy levels, eliminating jet lag, sleeping well, reducing stress, and more.

McAllister provides corporate wellness programs to those companies with business travelers who spend 30 percent of their time, or more, on the road. She specializes in such training issues as weight loss for travelers, healthy eating while traveling, ergonomics for the traveler, functional exercise, jet lag recovery and avoidance, sleep quality, and stress management. She has also created Dine Out Lose Weight, a 21-day guide for dropping weight without setting foot in the kitchen. McAllister’s book Mile High and Healthy: The Frequent Traveler’s Roadmap to Eating, Energy, Exercise and a Balanced Life” is available for purchase online. For more information on her services or to order the book, visit the site at: www.jaynemcallister.com.

About Jayne McAllister Travel Wellness

Based in Vero Beach, Fla., Jayne McAllister Travel Wellness is a company that provides corporate wellness training to businesses with mobile workforces. A Cambridge University graduate, Jayne is a certified integrative nutrition health coach, Pilates instructor, and transformational method coach. For more information visit the site at: www.jaynemcallister.com.

CEO: Starwood Hotels Could Be Sold By Year End

NEW YORK (AP) — Starwood Hotels is nearing a deal to sell the company or merge with another hotel chain, its CEO said on an earnings call Wednesday.

"This has the company's highest attention," interim CEO Adam Aron said. "Our clear goal is to optimize the value for our shareholders."

Back in April, Starwood announced its board was exploring strategic options for the hotel company. At the time, Starwood didn't mention a sale, but analysts considered it a possibility.

Speculation about a potential buyer heated up this week. First the Wall Street Journal reported that three Chinese companies were seeking government approval to place bids for Starwood. Then Wednesday CNBC reported that Hyatt Hotels Corp. was close to purchasing Starwood in a cash and stock deal that would leave Hyatt management in control of the combined company.

Spokeswomen for both hotel chains declined to comment about any possible deal.

Starwood shares have rallied on the reports, gaining 9.1 percent Tuesday and rising 6.6 percent to $79.74 in afternoon trading Wednesday.

"Our progress is active and nearing conclusion," Aron told investors Wednesday afternoon. He wouldn't comment on any specific deal, but said: "I would be surprised if we don't have answers to these questions by the end of this calendar year."

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., based in Stamford, Connecticut, has a market capitalization of $13.6 billion; Hyatt's is $7.1 billion. Starwood, which includes the Westin, Sheraton, W and St. Regis brands, has 1,271 hotels with a combined 362,623 rooms. Hyatt, has 618 hotels with a combined 160,205 rooms.

A merger of the two would help the new company better compete with hotel giants Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide and Intercontinental Hotels Group, all which have more than 4,000 properties and roughly 700,000 rooms each.

By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ 

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Starwood Hotels Expands Presence In Canada

TORONTO, Canada - Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc today announced the signings of two new build properties: The Westin Calgary Airport, owned by PAL Hospitality Ltd, and The Westin Edmonton Gateway, owned by Neelam Investments Ltd. With these new signings, Starwood will further strengthen its footprint across Canada, while significantly bolstering its upper-upscale presence in Alberta.

“We are very excited to continue growing our reach in Canada with this strategic expansion of the Westin brand in key Alberta markets,” said Alison Reid, Senior Vice President of North America Development for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. “We highly value our relationships with owners and franchisees, and continue to see strong interest from partners looking to leverage Starwood's powerful brands, network, global booking platforms and loyal customer base."

With 250 guestrooms, The Westin Calgary Airport will be located directly on Calgary International Airport property. The five-story hotel will feature a Westin Club Lounge, 30,000 square feet of meeting space, restaurant and lounge. The Westin Edmonton Gateway will offer 225 guestrooms, as well as a Westin Club Lounge, full restaurant, contemporary bar and more than 10,000 square feet of meeting space. The hotel will be located near The Anthony Henday Expressway, which encircles Edmonton, providing convenient access throughout the city and to downtown.

Both hotels will embrace the Westin brand positioning of For a better you™ by offering programs designed to inspire balance and enhance well-being, leaving guests feeling better than when they arrived. The properties will be fully equipped with the brand’s signature amenities, such as the world-renowned Westin Heavenly® Bed, the Heavenly® Bath experience, and an ergonomic work area for optimal productivity.

“These hotels are a great example of how Starwood is working proactively to increase our portfolio throughout Canada with the right partners, the right properties and in the right places,” said Scott T. Duff, Sr. Director Development - Canada & Alaska. “Our solid portfolio of 67 hotels in the country across seven of our brands positions us well for continued growth across the country across all segments.”

Starwood Hotels is also pleased to welcome The Gupta Group / Easton’s Group of Hotels, to the Starwood family. The Gupta Group recently acquired The Westin Bristol Place Toronto Airport Hotel, assuming the franchise licensing agreement for the hotel. The hotel is located adjacent to Toronto Pearson International Airport and just 25 minutes from downtown Toronto. With the purchase of the property, Easton’s Group, led by owner Steve Gupta will invest $9 Million in renovations to the hotel over the next year.

The momentum continues for Starwood Hotels in Canada, with opportunity for growth across all its brands, including the newly introduced Tribute Portfolio™. A robust pipeline of future openings is spurred by growth of Starwood’s Specialty Select brands. Boasting the largest portfolio among all of Starwood brands in Canada, Four Points by Sheraton will soon welcome new properties including Four Points by Sheraton Moncton, Four Points by Sheraton Surrey, Four Points by Sheraton Regina, Four Points by Sheraton Edmonton West, Four Points by Sheraton Sherwood Park, Four Points by Sheraton Grande Prairie, Four Points by Sheraton Lloydminster, Four Points by Sheraton Estevan and Four Points by Sheraton Saint John. After the recent opening of Element Vancouver Metrotown, momentum for Starwood’s trailblazing eco-wise Element brand continues in Canada with plans to open Element Calgary Airport and Element Edmonton West in the coming years.

Travelore Tips: An Easy Way To Get A Better Hotel Room

WENDY PERRIN

Often hotel general managers reply to reviews of their hotels on TripAdvisor. Once you've booked a room, read the replies, note the manager's e-mail address, and write to say that you admire how he or she is replying to reviews—and that you're looking forward to staying at the hotel on X date. The manager will appreciate your kind words, assume you may be a frequent reviewer, and hopefully do something extra for you during your stay.

How do I know this strategy works? Because I tested it myself the last time I went to Venice. I had a reservation at the Westin Europa & Regina and emailed the manager—from my personal email account, so my identity was not revealed—saying that it was a special wedding-anniversary trip for me and my husband. I also mentioned that we were there for only one night and so would love a view of the Grand Canal. We ended up in a second-floor room smack on the Grand Canal, with the view in the above photo.

Contributed by Wendy Perrin, www.cntraveler.com

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