Professor Gerard Bodeker has said that spas are the 'organizational face of Wellness'. What he means by this is that spas provide a safe and understandable entry point into the diverse and often confusing world of Wellness. Much like a hospital is the organizational face of illness. Patients rarely know which medical specialist is the most appropriate for their specific condition. They trust that the hospital will direct them to right doctor. Spas, according to Bodeker, offer the same for Wellness. READ MORE

In the past few years, there has been an ever-growing, very subtle feeling of insecurity, instability, craziness up to some point of panic, when it comes to people's daily life, personal growth and the overall economic growth. This feeling has forced humanity and societies to do things that have separated everyone and everything on a large scale with some very unpleasant outcomes. However, in the past 10 plus years this feeling has turned to the other side of the coin with an even deeper sense of urgency surfacing in each of us, to find out what this is all about, supported by a force that is seemingly coming from nowhere. This deep-seated feeling of unrest has been on the rise since the mid 40's, and pushed aside ever since to avoid confrontation of a possible ugly truth, the truth that the life lived up until today was an illusion. READ MORE

Looking back at the anecdotes from history books, spas were exceedingly popular in the Roman, Greek and Egyptian eras. Ancient philosophies preach the importance of cleansing the mind, body and spirit through connecting with Mother Earth and the world's energy, such as “Earthing,” which promotes direct contact with the earth's electron-rich surface. The premise of Earthing is that grounding the body to the earth's surface, most commonly done walking barefoot, stabilizes natural electrical rhythms and reduces disease-causing inflammation. The ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks not only practiced Earthing, but also enjoyed hot and cold water treatments, followed by aromatic massages with fragrant oils, and had herbalists and apothecaries. READ MORE

Spas and wellness are big business, but that doesn't mean they can't be even bigger. You can go about this through two general strategies: capturing more revenues from existing spa clientele or targeting new customers. While the latter is more challenging, it is nevertheless a worthwhile pursuit as the current spa users represent only a minority of the total traveling consumer base. Whether the spa is price prohibitive or consumers don't see the value, there are indeed many barriers to converting 'unenlightened' guests. Therefore, specific tactics must be undertaken to make them realize the benefits of a hotel's wellness program. READ MORE

Total hotel revenue management and guest centric revenue management are well-discussed topics, yet wide-spread progress towards actually implementing either program has been slow. One of the reasons for this could be that the industry as a whole does not really understand the full implications of these initiatives, and therefore, is having trouble executing. Actually, these two initiatives are closely related, and when properly implemented, total hotel revenue management actually IS guest-centric revenue management. In this article, I will describe how achieving the end goal of total hotel revenue management puts the guest in the center of revenue management initiatives. READ MORE