Hyatt Hotels Corp. has deployed a new leadership structure
for the recently acquired Miraval Group. Hyatt SVP of operations for the
Americas Marc Ellin will take on increasing responsibilities for Miraval,
including supervising operations, sales and marketing in a transition that will
see current Miraval president and CEO Steven Rudnitsky step down on Sept. 30.
Additionally, three other Miraval executives—chief marketing
officer Tom Botts, SVP of operations Paul McCormick and corporate director of
finance Meredith Nicklas—will leave their positions once the integration of
Miraval into the Hyatt portfolio is complete.
Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian called the leadership changes "natural,
evolutionary and appropriate at this time."
Despite appointing a new leader from within the Hyatt
organization, the company said it's committed to maintaining a separate brand
identity for Miraval. Speaking to BTN in
early June, Hoplamazian said: "We took great pains to ensure that after we
purchased the company that we didn't 'Hyatt-ize' it. I'm proud of Hyatt. I love
Hyatt. But I think Miraval is very special and it has its own unique ethos and
personality and we have to do what we can to make sure it's alive and well and
supported through the merger over time."
The Wellness Strategy
When Hyatt acquired Miraval in January, it gained the
Miraval Resort & Spa in Tucson, Ariz., two properties slated for development
in Massachusetts and Texas and the Miraval Life & Balance spa brand. Hyatt
not only is looking to grow the number of Miraval destination resorts and spas,
but it's also using Miraval as an opportunity to extend the company beyond
traditional hotel stays and strengthen Hyatt's wellness programming for
high-end travelers.
"What we are doing is looking at elements that they
actually are practicing currently and the programming that they've got and
seeing if we can actually apply that in a corporate context," Hoplamazian
told BTN.
Hyatt's strategy is just one of a number of ways hoteliers
are trying to integrate wellness into their hotels and product offerings. "It's
still very exploratory at the moment," Deloitte Center for Industry
Insights manager Marcello Gasdia told BTN.
"The low-hanging fruit phase [of wellness] is over. The yoga classes, the
fitness centers open 24 hours, more workout equipment, that easy stuff—brands
attacked that really quickly. Now it's about the next step."
That next step has entailed some different strokes for
different hoteliers in recent years. For instance, some have rolled out
entirely wellness-focused brands, such as InterContinental Hotel Group's launch
of Even Hotels a couple years ago. Others have established wellness spaces
within their existing assets. The MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas
boasts an entire floor of Stay Well rooms where guests can take vitamin
C-infused showers and wake up with dawn-simulator alarm clocks.