Why luxury hotels are all about mental health in 2022: forget five-star spas and Michelin-starred restaurants, guests now demand therapy sessions and on-site counsellors from a wellness retreat
- As post-pandemic travel resumes, luxury hotels are turning their attention to the timely issue of guests’ mental health
- Thailand’s RAKxa’s has a trained therapist on-hand, while Rosewood Hong Kong offers meditation, hypnosis, cognitive behavioural therapy and positive psychology
When most people think of luxury hotels, they conjure up images of decadence: five-star fine dining, Egyptian cotton sheets and candlelit spas. An appointment with a mental health counsellor doesn’t immediately spring to mind.
That could be changing though, as luxury hotels put more of a focus on mental health in their wellness offerings. As the world emerges from the pandemic, conversations about our mental well-being have become more prominent, with the World Health Organization revealing the pandemic triggered a 25 per cent increase in anxiety and depression globally.
While many wellness programmes typically swing between tailored sessions at the gym and pampering at the spa, hotels are increasingly making space for more mental health-centric offerings as guests begin to reassess what it is to be really – honestly – well.
“Mental health is an area of concern for billions of people,” says Dusadee Tancharoen, managing director of Bangkok’s RAKxa Wellness and Medical Retreat, which includes mental health among its core tenets. “We cannot claim to help people become truly well without adding this essential element into our programmes.”
Tancharoen also talks about the symbiotic nature of physical and mental health, explaining how stress and anxiety “are often the symptoms of hormonal and digestive systems imbalance” – areas which wellness programmes have in the past addressed with on-site nutritionists, rather than with mental health experts.
Other groups have started creating programmes in conjunction with trained counsellors and mental health organisations. Kimpton Hotels announced this February it was providing up to 1,000 free therapy sessions to its guests, thanks to a collaboration with Talkspace, a digital platform that connects licensed therapists with those seeking help for online sessions. Kimpton CEO Mike DeFrino said the company was aiming to provide “more mental health support for our people and guests” moving forwards.
In 2021, Miraval, the Hyatt’s luxury wellness brand, announced a partnership with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in response to the pandemic’s “unpredictable, unprecedented events”.