A big news item from late March that got wellness nerds like us excited was Marriott’s acquisition of the Lefay Resorts & Residences brand, this is a luxury wellness resort company with two brain-meltingly gorgeous resorts in Northern Italy.
While the whale-eats-minnow story may perplex some, here’s an overall thought: Marriott is buying the spa-wellness brand more so than the resort brand. Yes, Marriott really wants that NUG (net unit growth), but let’s go through the numbers:
- Lefay has two open resorts in their portfolio: Lake Garda with 96 suites, Dolomites with 88 suites plus 22 residences: Subtotal of 206 keys
- Lefay has two more in the pipeline: Crans Montana with 106 plus 12 chalets, Montalcino, Tuscany with an unspecified number of suites (let’s estimate same size as Crans Montana): Subtotal of 236 keys
- And even if they have a bunch of hotel owners around the world chomping at the bit to build an exceptional wellness resort, that’s still another 3-5 years until opening so can’t be counted towards NUG
- Call it ~440 keys in total
- Marriott has 9,361 properties with 1.7M operating keys
That’s a NUG of 0.026%!
Instead, the real strategy here is:
- Great PR to give shareholders a near-term reason not to dump stock
- Giving wellness-minded HENRYs (high earners, not rich yet) an aspirational brand to work towards as they accrue Bonvoy points
- Opportunities in resort conversions, dual-branding and spa repositioning
Right now, everyone is talking about the second point. Yes, ‘health is the new wealth’ with more and more Marriott loyalists will be craving incredible wellness brands like Lefay.
But it’s not like spa directors and executives at Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis and other luxury brands are clueless to how lucrative wellness experiences are. These brands have been in the spa game for over 30 years! And the wellness programmes at these properties are already bar none some of the best in the world.
Rather, Marriott is really buying the Lefay SPA Method and all IP+SOPs associated with that. This is the wellness and longevity program playbook that inscribes everything from spa treatments, activities and nutrition through to team training, recruitment and any legal or medical administration that needs to be covered off. Owning the Lefay SPA Method becomes a powerful tool in Marriott’s arsenal to rapidly reinvigorate existing luxury resorts that are losing their identities amidst so many new competitors.
Some potential use cases:
- Lefay could be deployed as the new spa franchise at a Luxury Collection or Autograph property as part of a PIP
- Lefay could be offered to independent wellness resorts in EMEA that are entertaining a franchise agreement with
- Marriott but concerned about brand homogenization
Lefay Residences could be used as a green-fielding model for upfront recapture to fund a property expansion
It’s not like this is a revolutionary concept. As a present-day example, consider Zadun, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Los Cabos where they partnered with Sensei to run their wellness center which runs north of 40,000 square feet.
The overall lesson: stick to your lane! Co-branding and partnerships are the way forward for many wellness-oriented hotels. Luxury hotels already have so much on their plate when it comes to delivering consistently exceptional service within hotel operations; the last thing they need is to simultaneously worry about how they are going to deliver consistency for their wellness offerings, which are just as complex.
This could be a great move for Marriott and for Lefay to rapidly scale beyond the Italian peninsula and the Alps. For everyone else, the future portends many more cobranding ventures, where the lead partner handles the hotel while others with tried-and-true playbooks are recruited for spa, fitness, F&B, activities, events, golf or others.
Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. - Hotel Strategist, Industry Pundit, Veteran Marketer, and Public Speaker. Adam Mogelonsky, is the chief technologist of the company, Adam has a broad understanding of the complexities of the hotel tech stack as well as the vendors who are paving the way for increased labor efficiencies and new revenue growth opportunities.
Leveraging over 40 years working in hospitality, Hotel Mogel Consulting helps both hotel owners maximize property performance and technology vendors navigate the industry's entry barriers to realize financial success. Visit our contact page to start the conversation.
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