Make your gym fit for purpose

By Kate Jackson, Industry Reporter

Humans have evolved the way they exercise, and gyms have evolved since COVID-19.

Personalisation, hygiene, the ability to social distance and the use of smart apps is now vital. Old gym favourites, such as bikes and treadmills are being reinvented to encompass a new thirst for personalisation.

Guests expect to be able to sync their wearable devices or phones with the piece of equipment they are using, so they can track their workouts and enjoy tailored video and audio. They want to save training data on a smartphone and connect with apps and training systems while they sweat.

Wellness underpins the modern approach to exercise, and there is now an added focus on weights, resistance exercise and mat work, particularly from baby boomers keen to extend their golden years.

Group sessions, whether they are offering spin, dance, yoga or high impact interval training, help motivate people to stick to wellness plans while travelling, and they provide a serotonin kick from the social interaction. With holidaying singles and particularly solo female travellers on the rise globally, such sessions can generate income for your business while building a sense of community, engaging guests on a regular basis and increasing endorphins through exercise to create a happy clientele.

Jennifer Findlay, founder of Core Essence, advises hotels to revisit the traditional concept of the fitness centre. She told HotelNewsNow: “Visualise this: an entire floor of your hotel devoted wholeheartedly to wellness.

“For a nominal fee, guests can upgrade their stay to a specialty wellness concept room and wander down the hallway to a boutique wellness lounge that offers a variety of progressive fitness, yoga and meditation programming, and perhaps hydrotherapy experiences and more.”

Okay, so a wellness concierge and superfood-focused vegan restaurant might not be within the realms of possibility for most accom operators.

But a hotel gym which offers regular personal trainer sessions and an array of smartphoneenabled equipment can be a lucrative proposition, particularly if it offers a limited membership allocation to the wider community - while reducing numbers making social distancing easier, retaining a degree of privacy and privilege for guests.

By opening up your hotel gym to a capped number of outsiders, you can still maintain hygiene but also ensure that there are generally always some people exercising, so creating more of an atmosphere for guests while keeping fitness staff gainfully employed.

Equipment

When it comes to equipment, managers need to be mindful not only of safety, but of practicality and balance of equipment. Some pieces are fine to be used singly, others work best as part of a group.

Providing enough equipment so guests are not queuing, and placing the right pieces to work in combination, is a tricky balance.

Bikes, treadmills, spinners, and steppers are all soughtafter cardio options and still among the most popular items in a gym environment. Strength equipment used to build muscle has also been in demand for some time now. Modern gyms should offer a choice of hand-held strengthening devices such as free weights, kettle bells and medicine balls alongside their multi-exercise weight and resistance machines.

Funding

The fundamental difference between purchase and a lease or serviced lease for gym equipment is that the purchase option requires an upfront capital outlay and ongoing assessment. Equipping a gym can cost anything from around $10,000 to well over $40,000 depending on size and complexity.

A lease is a financed version of the purchase option, while a serviced lease covers the cost of equipment hire, maintenance, repairs, parts, labour, electrical safety compliance and equipment upgrades under a monthly flat fee agreement.

Serviced leases are the most popular options for accom providers, but however you fund your gym equipment, having a service plan with a quality provider is important to ensure there are no maintenance issues that could damage equipment or cause a potential safety risks for guests.