Dive Brief:
- IHG Hotels & Resorts is opening two Even hotels in Texas: Even Hotel Austin Uptown Near The Domain in the state capital and Even Hotel Waco - University Area near Baylor University.
- The openings are part of an ongoing expansion for the Even brand, which plans to increase its national footprint by 35% by the end of 2024, according to IHG. The brand has 33 properties in the development pipeline.
- IHG debuted a new prototype for its Even brand in late 2022 to center health and fitness amenities, part of a growing trend of hotels baking wellness offerings into overall design.
Dive Insight:
While luxe wellness amenities have long been available at high-end hotels, companies are increasingly incorporating wellness offerings into overall hotel design — and not only at the luxury level.
“Adding these two hotels in prime Texas locations is huge for the brand,” said Raul Ortiz, VP of global marketing and brand management for Even Hotels, in a statement. Ortiz describes Even as “a brand on the move in its quest to put wellness within reach for more and more travelers.”
At both the 126-room Austin hotel and the 132-room Waco hotel, guests will have access to a 24/7 athletic studio and a “refreshed” restaurant concept that offers nutritious foods. Rooms are designed to provide a “signature sleep experience” and spa-like showers to help travelers “recharge and restore,” and guests can help themselves at a nightly tea service in the lobby.
Utilizing the new, fitness-forward Even prototype, both properties will offer three different room types with different exercise amenities, including yoga mats and spin bikes. Guests can also access instructional fitness videos in their rooms, ranging from yoga to strength training to HIIT.
With the Texas openings, the Even brand will have three properties in the Lone Star State, following Hotel Shenandoah - The Woodlands, which opened in 2021. The brand currently has 26 properties open; Even hotels in Miami and Bozeman, Montana, will open later this year.
Other hotel companies are also courting wellness-minded travelers. The rooms at Hilton’s lifestyle brand Tempo by Hilton, for instance, were designed around “the prioritization of the sleep experience,” the company’s vice president of wellness, retail and leisure operations for the Americas, Jessica Shea, previously told Hotel Dive.
And Emlyn Brown, Accor’s global SVP of well-being strategy, told Hotel Dive that the French hotel company is moving wellness amenities “beyond the walls of hotel spas and gyms,” using a more “holistic” approach.
Marriott International, meanwhile, debuted a wellness-focused Westin in October boasting the largest hotel fitness studio in Washington, D.C.
