Wellness and Longevity in Luxury Hospitality
How Luxury Hotels Are Turning Wellness Into a Driver of Rate, Occupancy, and Asset Value
In October 2026, the International Luxury Hotel Association brought together development, spa, and revenue leaders from SH Hotels & Resorts, The Resort at Pelican Hill, Regent Seven Seas and Oceania Cruises, Arch Amenities Group, and Eau Resort & Spa for the Wellness and Longevity in Luxury Hospitality Advisory Committee, sponsored by Body Balance Systems. The discussion centered on a question every owner and operator is now asking: when wellness moves beyond the spa, how does it show up in rate, occupancy, and asset value, and what does it take to get the investment approved?
Erik Eveleigh, Vice President of Development for the Americas at SH Hotels & Resorts, brought the numbers. At the company’s Honolua Bay property in Hawaii, ownership underwrote an $800 average daily rate for 2027. Driven largely by 7-to-14-day wellness and food-and-beverage programming, the property is running at $1,500. “You can literally point to rate benefit and occupancy benefit because of the wellness platforms,” he said. Nichole Hester, Spa Director at The Resort at Pelican Hill, described turning an unused barber room and salon corridor into recovery space tied to an ultra-luxury membership connected to the resort’s two golf courses. Liz Correa, Manager of Onboard Revenue for Spa and Fitness at Regent Seven Seas and Oceania Cruises, pointed to guests who sail back-to-back for months and expect their wellness routine to continue on board.
The committee aligned on what makes a wellness investment pay off:
- a 60% to 80% local market mix
- programming that connects across departments and delivers results within a three-to-five-day stay
- compliance credentials operators can verify on their own
- a business case with real utilization numbers that a spa director can take to the general manager and ownership
As Blake Feeney, Vice President of Spa Business Development at Arch Amenities Group, put it, “If we’re not helping hotels either make money or save money while delivering a better guest experience, we’re not solving the right problem.”
