Whether your hotel is built for leisure stays, family holidays, business trips, or a combination of all three, one of the big ways that you can enhance the guest experience is by integrating health and wellness considerations into the design.
Now, this isn’t just about clean lines, fresh air, and lots of indoor plants. Health and wellness is as much about delivering a meaningful experience as it is about making guests feel calm and centred during their stay. It can be translated into the communal areas as well as individual bedrooms, and should reach everywhere from lights to facilities, accessibility requirements, and beyond.
In this blog post, we’re talking through the importance of health and wellness when it comes to hotel design, and how to put the wellbeing of your guests at the forefront of both communal and individual spaces.
How health and wellness connects with design
Health and wellness lies in both the structural features and the intricate details of a hotel.
It exists in the layout of the hotel and how accessible it is – for example, the journey that guests have from the bar to their room, and from their room to the in-house spa and other facilities. Considering this journey will help you to put health and wellness front of mind, both from a physical journey viewpoint and in terms of the experience and mindset of guests.
Health and wellness can also be found in the details – including the lighting, décor, colour schemes, and use of biophilic design throughout the hotel.
But why is it important?
The importance of health and wellness for different types of guest
Regardless of why someone is visiting your hotel, they still want to experience a sense of calm and the enriching enjoyment of having access to facilities and features that they don’t usually have at home.
Things like having a spa on site, offering room service, and enhancing the design of the bathroom and bedrooms can all leave a lasting impact on guests from a wellness perspective, helping them to feel relaxed during their stay.
What’s more, if you can deliver a positive experience to guests during their stay, not only will they go home in a good state of mind – hopefully leaving you a good review on the way – but they will be more likely to recommend your hotel and rebook themselves. Making health and wellness design features an investment for your hotel business.
The role of lighting as a health and wellness touch-point
Lighting is important at every stage of the hotel journey, from check in through to bedtime in each individual room.
Emphasising natural light is the best way of opening up your hotel and helping it feel lighter and brighter – but once the sun sets it’s important to have a mix of lights that cater to different preferences and moods.
As lighting is such a personal preference when it comes to design, our advice is to encompass larger overhead lights alongside small table lights and floor lamps, so that guests can control the intensity of the light in their space.
Health and wellness facilities
From a swimming pool for families to adult-only spas and workout / gym facilities, the more you can offer to guests from an experiential and recreational point of view, the better.
Offering a gym to hotel guests is a very literal take on health and wellness, but it’s one which delivers an easy way for guests to stay on top of their movement – while staying on site. It’s not for everyone, but those who appreciate access to gym equipment will thank you!
Accessibility for health and wellbeing
Whenever you add a new feature to your hotel, it’s important to consider accessibility and whether that feature is accessible for all guests. This should apply to both communal and private guests spaces, including bathrooms and spas, lifts, hallways, and more.
Fostering a sense of community for mental wellbeing
Finally, to the communal areas of your hotel and the spaces which lend themselves to a sense of community and socialisation.
Mental wellbeing is enhanced by social interactions – and the more you can do to support these kinds of interactions between travel groups and service staff in your hotel, the better. Consider creating different areas for guests to enjoy, in your bar, restaurant, and reception space. Add sofas, booths, and cosy corners for friends to catch up – as well as outside spaces for guests to enjoy.
You could also consider offering a workspace that doubles up as a quiet space for guests, and offering additional events and entertainment to bring guests who want to socialise together.
All of these suggestions can help to put health and wellbeing at the forefront of your hotel’s design.