Feel-Well Hotels Dangle a Carrot

Getting from here to there can disturb sleep, interfere with diet-and-exercise routines and increase stress. Beyond the rarefied world of spas, growing numbers of hotels are vending wellness as an amenity for both business and pleasure travelers. As usual, California is leading the pack in offering healthy alternatives.

“It’s stressful to travel,” said Chip Conley, president of the 20-room Nob Hill Lambourne in San Francisco. The Lambourne tries to make it less so by offering such features as the Jet Lag Recovery Program, which includes limo pickup at the airport, massage therapy and facial upon arriving at the hotel, herbal tea, a soothing bath and tablets of melatonin, a hormone that some say is useful for inducing sleep and thereby treating jet lag ($175).

Guests who book one of the Lambourne’s six suites ($199 per night) get their choice of in-room exercise equipment, including a treadmill, weights, rowing machine and other equipment. Having equipment in the room reduces the likelihood of forgetting about exercise, Conley said, adding that many women travelers have told him they are more comfortable exercising in their rooms.

At turndown time in the suites, as well as in the standard and deluxe rooms ($125-$145 per night), guests find a beta carotene capsule (an antioxidant believed by some to help prevent cancer and heart disease) on their pillows. Rooms may be spritzed with lavender essence, an “aroma therapy” to help guests relax. The bathroom honor bar is stocked with aroma therapy products, herbal bubble bath and Dead Sea mineral salts priced at $3 to $10 per product. The in-room bar stocks such items as rice cakes, ginger beer and organic black bean chili (all rooms have kitchenettes). There’s a spa treatment room and in-room spa services such as massage, facials and herbal wraps.

At the Claremont Resort in Oakland, guests find an apple by their bed at night and a new approach to business meetings. Private fitness classes are offered to groups of business travelers in an effort to encourage teamwork among colleagues. Other rapport-building activities include group excursions to a nearby indoor rock-climbing center and sailing lessons. Rooms ($145 and up) include bay views, two meals, stretching and breathing breaks and use of the pool and other workout facilities.

Meetings at the hotel are laced with “productivity boosters,” such as shoulder massage breaks, mini exercise sessions using a giant rubber band and refreshment breaks with mineral waters and fruit juices that are supposed to improve mental alertness.

Business travelers attending meetings at the Hyatt Newporter in Newport Beach ($119 and up) can take advantage of an aerobic health break, which includes an instructor offering exercise tips by the pool or leading a workout. Following a workout, it’s on to the smoothie bar, where there’s a choice of fruit smoothies and other healthful snacks.

Just this week, the Hyatt Newporter introduced a new form of workout for guests. Called the High Adventure Ropes Course, it includes a 50-foot climbing tower from which participants descend. Guests attending business meetings and participating in the rope course challenge, so the theory goes, will build team spirit with colleagues.

Some wellness programs are simple but effective. Last year, Residence Inns by Marriott launched a free wellness brochure called “Inn Shape: Heart at Work on the Road,” in cooperation with the American Heart Assn. It’s now offered at 192 properties.

The Healthy Traveler appears the second and fourth week of every month.