Spa resorts such as Vermont’s Stowe Mountain Lodge and the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs are using wall climbing, carpentry classes and yoga to lure corporate clients accustomed to little more than free breakfast as a hotel perk.
Stowe Mountain has boosted its corporate group bookings with such programs as the “Naked Table Project,” in which participants learn to build furniture from scratch.
At Miraval Arizona Resort & Spa in Tucson, guests can use meeting breaks to walk a tightrope or jump from a 25-foot pole, an activity known as the “Quantum Leap.”
Luxury hotels, hurt more than their cheaper competitors by the recent U.S. recession, are working to reverse a drop in demand from business travelers. Spa resorts, upscale properties with a focus on health treatments and other recreational activities, are among those that have had the toughest time booking corporations, which became thriftier during the slump.
“These have been challenging times, but during these last two years, our programs have helped to attract corporate groups,” said Morgan Fukumoto, a spokeswoman for Stowe Mountain in Stowe, Vt. “They look for more team-building activities and to get a great value for their money.”
AIG effect on demand
Hotel occupancies in the top 25 U.S. markets climbed to 65 percent this year through August from 61 percent a year earlier, according to Smith Travel Research Inc. of Hendersonville, Tenn. Luxury properties, which include spa resorts, showed the biggest increases, with occupancies rising to 67 percent from 62 percent.
“A lot of the hotels are cognizant of the idea to not lower rates but instead offer value,” said Christine Lai, executive strategy director for Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Elite Meetings International, which connects hotels with conference planners. “There was definitely the AIG effect.”
Companies have sought to avoid appearances of excess following the 2008 bailout of American International Group, she said. AIG was criticized by lawmakers for rewarding agents with a $440,000 trip to a California resort less than a week after the insurer got its first government bailout. The company canceled about 160 resort events costing a total of $80 million after congressional hearings in October 2008.
“There is still restraint in corporate spending, although it’s nowhere near where it was six months ago,” said Patrick Scholes, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets in New York. “The problem is corporate meetings are often planned far in advance, so even if the hesitation is lessening, it may still take a year or two until some of these will actually take place.”
The Sanderling Resort & Spa, in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, will begin offering butchering workshops to its corporate and leisure guests next month, said Laura Millett, a spokeswoman for the hotel. Guests will “meet their meat” as a German master butcher takes them through the process of selecting and cutting meat from steer, hogs, lambs and other animals at a nearby organic farm, the hotel said.
At Stowe Mountain, where groups can get maple-infused hand and foot massages during business meetings, corporate programs have been successful enough to help spur the 139-room hotel to open an additional 179 rooms in December, Fukumoto said.
At the Broadmoor, which promises corporate clients a full refund if they aren’t satisfied, groups can participate in fly-fishing and whitewater- rafting excursions.
Bookings for 2011 show a 15 percent increase in business- group demand from this year, said John Washko, vice president of sales and marketing.
About 65 percent of visitors at the closely held Broadmoor are corporate clients, he said.
“After what we’ve just come through, we’ve seen the C-level customer looking more and more for something outside of the set standard golf-and-spa event,” Washko said.
