By ABBY ELLIN
Published: October 31, 2011
Rochelle Jacobs has been working out at Exhale, the mind and body spa, two to three times a week for the last nine years. She says she is so dedicated to her gym that she picks her hotels based on their fitness offerings.
Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
Rochelle Jacobs working out at Exhale Gramercy Gym at the Gansevoort Park Avenue in Manhattan.
Hotels know that there are many travelers like Ms. Jacobs for whom the gym is often the deciding factor. That can be especially true in a big city, where there are multiple options.
Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean at the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University, estimated that about 8 percent of travelers picked a hotel based on its fitness offerings. While 8 percent may not sound like a lot, he said, “to a hotel brand, that’s a substantial potential market share.”
And though many hotels have perfectly good fitness centers, some hotels see a name-brand gym as a way to distinguish themselves. They have been pairing up with fitness brands like Core Performance, Exhale, DavidBartonGym and SoulCycle in the last few years to offer classes, workouts and nutritional consultations for guests. Other hotels have arrangements with sporting good companies like New Balance (Westin) and Adidas (Fairmont), which provide guests with gear to use during their stay.
“Hotels are looking for ways to differentiate themselves, and having a gym in a hotel that’s part of a chain is a way to do that,” said Taylor Hamilton, a senior researcher with IbisWorld, a market research firm. “It’s easy for partnerships, and it gives gyms the feel of a national gym in a national hotel.”
Both hotels and fitness companies say the relationship is a win-win. Gyms get the chance to increase their visibility and introduce themselves to potential consumers while saving money. “When you’re co-branding with a hotel company that already has the space, you’re not forking over tons of cash to be there,” said Brett Blumenthal, founder and editor of thehealthyroadwarrior.com, a Web site for health-conscious business travelers. “You’re getting the benefit of further exposure and higher brand recognition, but with less financial commitment.”
Hotels see the gyms as another source of revenue. Some hotels charge extra fees for gym use. The Gansevoort South Beach, for example, which is home to DavidBartonGym, charges guests $15 for a one-day pass. The Ritz-Carlton Boston Common charges $15 for its adjacent Sports Club/LA, which offers a basketball court, swimming pool and an array of fitness classes. That fee goes directly to the hotel and not the gym, said Smaiyra Million, chief executive of Millennium Partners Sports Club Management, which owns and operates the Sports Club/LA and Reebok Sports Club/NY.
Having a professional fitness organization operate the gym also eases any pressure on hotels to try to excel in an unfamiliar arena. As Ms. Million put it: “Some hotels try to operate the gym themselves, and they quickly realize that’s not their core competency. That’s when they say, ‘We need to go and get the experts.’ ”
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts turned to Core Performance, a fitness, nutrition and physical therapy company based in Phoenix, to design its gyms and workout routines. Core Performance also designed some menu items in the hotel’s restaurants. Hoyt Harper, global brand leader for Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, in White Plains, said Sheraton hoped to have the program in all 400 Sheraton hotels worldwide by the end of this year.
Exhale is also expanding its reach. So far, it operates in eight hotels in the United States, including the Fairmont Battery Wharf in Boston, which opened earlier this year, and the Gansevoort Park Avenue Hotel in New York, where opened last November. “Our database is very valuable to these hotel brands because we end up sharing the same customer,” said Julia Sutton, chief operating officer of Exhale Enterprises. All the hotels offer a full roster of Exhale-designed classes. And even with the $35 fee per class, “We have these Exhale brand loyalists who stay at the hotels because of the class,” she said.
Not everyone thinks these types of relationships are mutually beneficial. Scott Rosen, the chief operating officer of Equinox Fitness Clubs, in New York, said the company had no plans to join up with a hotel. “We have a membership model where residential and corporate members use our clubs frequently,” he said in an e-mail. “Being tethered to a hotel does not add anything to that experience.”
Tony Wells, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of 24 Hour Fitness, with about 420 clubs nationwide, said he has had discussions with hotel chains about licensing his brand or partnering with them on their gym. And Robert J. Giardina, the president and chief executive of Town Sports International Holdings, Inc., which operates New York, Washington, Boston and Philadelphia Sports Clubs, said he was open to building gyms in hotels in its current markets. “Hotels have to have a good gym as an amenity because guests are demanding it,” he said.
Kathryn Gordon, a freelance book marketer in New York, is typical of the guests the hotels are trying to attract. She chose to stay at the Mondrian South Beach last winter primarily because SoulCycle, the popular indoor cycling studio, had opened a temporary club there from December 2010 to June of this year.
“If there were two fabulous hotels next to each other — and if one had a regular gym and but the other had a SoulCycle — I’d choose the hotel that had a SoulCycle,” said Ms. Gordon, 44, who paid $32 a session. “I get a 45-minute workout, my heart rate goes where it needs to go, I’m in a puddle of sweat, and then I can go sit at the hotel bar.”
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