Andrew Gibson, vice president of spa & wellness for FRHI – parent company of Swissotel, Raffles and Fairmont – spoke yesterday at the London Health Show about trends in the spa industry.

He highlighted the fact that wellness is moving beyond the confines of spa, and affecting the entire hotel, in everything from air quality to lighting to building materials.

“This is a rapidly changing market,” said Gibson. “Wellness is no longer a basement operation – the whole hotel is about wellness...Wellness is not just treatments and services you provide to guests.”

Because of this, said Gibson, more and more of his work is helping design departments integrate wellness throughout the hotel through what he calls “imperceptible wellness.”

With Swissotel, Gibson said the focus is on wellness through fitness, while with Raffles, it’s the “overall feeling” of the hotel, and Fairmont stresses the socialisation aspect of wellness.

“You can walk out feeling more healthy than when you walked in,” he explained.

Not all hotel developers are willing to look at wellness holistically, said Gibson, as there’s a cost involved – but the ones that do, get it.

“The sensory feeling, the building materials – you have to look at the overall total experience,” he explained. “If you can deliver an experience that gives a positive effect on all five of the senses, then you get that sixth sense of harmony and balance, where everything feels right just walking in, and there’s a positive energy in the hotel.”