In-room fitness: a look back at a hotel trend — US edition

If you ever have clients that like working out but don't want to make the trek down to the hotel fitness center, (only 10-14% of hotel visitors ever use the gyms) you can now recommend hotels taking up the growing trend of in-room fitness amenities.

If your clients are conscious of their dad-bods or are embarrassed by their gym outfit that hasn't been in style for a couple of years, they can now fit in their workout routine in complete privacy.

Travelers now have access to interactive gym systems like 'Mirror' (a digital personal trainer that instructs on different fitness routines, from yoga and Pilates to boxing and cardio), exercise bikes and even yoga mats, exercise balls and other workout equipment that allows them to break a sweat privately.

With health and wellness considerations increasing in popularity, designating specific rooms and floors to cater to wellness-minded guests is an obvious development. It not only provides the experiences travelers are looking for but also provides the hotel with an opportunity to drive a higher room rate and overall revenue.

As far back as 2017 (who knew?), Hilton incorporated in-room fitness suites to a selection of their properties. Called Five Feet to Fitness, they assigned some guest rooms to include guided workout routines on a fitness kiosk, an indoor spin bike, suspension accessories, resistance bands, exercise balls, yoga mats and sports performance flooring. They plan to offer their Five Feet to Fitness in over 560 DoubleTree properties globally by next year. Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has also introduced the Mirror specialty suites across many of its properties.

It's not just the multi-nationals that are jumping on the exercise ball trend, boutique hotels are also adding the in-room fitness trend. We found many properties offering complimentary in-room fitness carts that include yoga mats, stability balls, fitness discs and foam rollers.

So, if you have clients that like starting their day by working up a sweat on an exercise bike, with resistance bands, or by streaming a HIIT class, they can now do it from the privacy of your room.

But we're not sure about fitness suites in the room...

At Room-Res, we weren't completely sold on this concept though. As now, if you book one of these rooms you're officially out of excuses not to fit in a session, and most concerning of all, we were worried that the build-up of sweaty smells, week after week could ultimately leave the room smelling really quite bad..!

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