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Consumer research

There is a lack of understanding of what customers in the wellness and medical tourism industry actually want. Most guests at wellness hotels want to relax. But remember that relaxation is a means of achieving something else: energy. This energy is then used for various purposes. Alternatively, consider an older woman who starts swimming at public baths. What would she hope to achieve by doing so? On the surface, it seems to be a way of improving her physical fitness. However, she doesn't want to be a burden to her children and grandchildren because she might need assistance and care in her later life. That's a far cry from the ostensibly idea that water aerobics is all about endurance and flexibility.
 

 

 

The blue line indicates what the customer wants to achieve, and the red arrows show how they try to achieve it. Approaches like this require in-depth interviews that enable the interviewer to delve into hidden aspects. The scientific focus of Prof. Dr. Kai illing is consumer research in health and hospitality. Often, there is no clear understanding of what consumers are seeking to achieve and how they intend to fulfill their goals. Having a clear understanding of consumers' obvious and hidden needs helps improve business.

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Longevity in hospitality

Longevity is not about replacing wellness, but rather, improving it. It is a powerful tool that can elevate health-related hospitality. Currently in high demand, it seems to be the key to high-level health tourism in the future. Decades of microbiological research have helped us understand how certain interventions influence the human body's microbiology. The term longevity is closely associated with concepts such as life expectancy and health span. Furthermore, longevity encompasses the principles of prevention, personalized care, optimization, and diagnostics.
 

 

Health-related interventions are not a shot in the dark anymore. Instead, they are well-reviewed efforts to improve health at the cellular, mitochondrial, or genetic level. Therefore, medically trained staff are required. This knowledge even extends to seemingly non-medical interventions, such as eating healthy food and improving sleep quality. We call this "soft longevity." Conversely, this knowledge forms the basis of medical treatments such as pharmacological interventions and stem cell therapy. We call this "medical longevity."
 

 

The lessons you learned at the wellness level very are helpful. Together, we will add the longevity level. We will guide you through this tricky process, elevating your hotel from wellness to soft or even medical longevity. A modular process is an option for introducing longevity into your service portfolio. Our goal is to teach you how to cope with the complexities of longevity and integrate products seamlessly into your existing wellness services.
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Integrating longevity into an existing spa


There are a few ways to introduce longevity to a hotel:
 

First, we can leave the services as they are and increase staff knowledge of microbiology to develop a deep understanding of the cellular-level consequences of existing interventions.

Secondly, we can introduce interventions to promote longevity on a non-medical level, such as dietary supplements and various oxygen therapies.

Later, you can add medical longevity diagnostics and interventions, such as blood and genetic testing, infusions, blood purification, and pharmacological interventions or even stem cell therapy.

You can grow gradually and introduce Longevity step by step. You can also take bigger steps, which will help you be recognized as a Longevity hotel very soon.


Integrating longevity into a hotel is not easy. However, since many hotels already have spas, we can capitalize on that by transforming it into something new.
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Product development

 

So, we focus not only on medical issues, but also on planning regarding room layout, economy, and consumer satisfaction. That’s what we call holistic planning. Keep in mind that longevity is not only a medical concern. Often, it's simply a matter of improving one's lifestyle with a deeper understanding of what happens on the molecular level.
 

We always try to consider different aspects simultaneously: Our customers' welfare, our clients' economic success and the welfare of the natural environment are our priorities. Health tourism capitalizes on the natural cleanliness of the hotel's surroundings.
 

We take a holistic approach to human health. It is the food, treatments, staff, healing remedies derived from the natural outdoors, rooms that may help to heal our clients, and of course medical interventions taken from soft longevity or medical longevity. To put it more clearly, rooms (e.g., guest rooms) have a variety of effects on the healing process such as temperature, acoustics, smell, dimmers, cooling systems, light, building materials and the position of furniture.
 

We are developing other sources of revenue, such as a transfer from health-related data. Once hotel guests return home, they collect health-related data and send it back to the hotel. There, the data is processed alongside the data collected during their stay. It is analyzed according to the guest’s preferences and sent back to them via a subscription service. This kind of cooperation enables the hotel, as the process owner, to regularly inform and advise customers on matters relating to their longevity, health span, and many other biomarkers.

A modern medical hotel with a compelling longevity offering must move away from the notion that health is limited to a single location, such as a health center. Longevity takes place in many different places, and this must be considered in the overall concept.

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Economic and health-related metrics to measure success


What should we measure to gain the most comprehensive insight into our success?
 

Traditional metrics focus on total hotel revenue management, such as occupancy rate (OCC), revenue per available room (RevPAR), and average daily rate (ADR). These metrics, which use guest rooms as the main economic unit, are no longer sufficient. Other metrics use a broader approach, combining several revenue streams such as food and beverage sales, function space rentals, catering services, spa services, retail sales, and golf fees.

 

Another approach involves taking a closer look at holistic KPIs (key performance indicators), such as GOPPAR (gross operating profit per available room), TRevPAR (total revenue per available room), and GOP I and GOP II (gross operating profit). Yet another approach focuses on the return on invested capital using for example the IRR (Internal Rate of Return) or others. Typically, guests' subjective satisfaction with the hotel is measured using questionnaires, and in rare cases, interviews. It is not reliable to identify the top five or ten biomarkers for health-related outcomes or specialized longevity biomarkers and base a prognosis or treatment plan on them.

Nevertheless, a few will be mentioned here exemplarily, such as glucose level (HbA1c), inflammatory markers (CRP and possibly RF [Rheumatoid Factor]), cholesterol (lipoprotein(a)), hormones (DHEA and melatonin), and albumin. Other examples include bone density (DEXA scan), biological age, oxidative stress (ROS), VO2 max and many other results from medical imaging and other medical testing.

 

In healthcare management, hotels that excel in this field are distinguished by their commitment to meticulous process indicators, which encompass fiscal circumstances and medical concerns. While this makes medical hotels more complex, it's important to note that revenue from medical treatments can surpass that from renting out guest rooms.

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Quality, project, and risk management

 

Quality management:
You are going to expand your service portfolio. Would you like the change to be speedy? Would you like to expand the current offering slightly, or replace it entirely with something new? Does your management team meet the requirements for change and continuous improvement?
 

Quality management has both static and dynamic dimensions.

•Some quality management systems are static. This approach checks whether the company has achieved its set goals. Once these goals are achieved, no further development is planned.
•Dynamic approaches believe that improvement is an ongoing process for the hotel over a longer period of time. This requires specific instruments, continuous progress monitoring, and flexible management. If things permanently improve, management must adapt.
 

Risk management

Risks are any unexpected deviations from expected targets. Some risks are controllable, while others are not. Uncontrollable risks should be avoided. This applies primarily to operational and other risks, as well as unexpected deviations in financial risks. The risk management process encompasses all activities related to the systematic management of risks. This ongoing process aims to identify and mitigate potential risks at an early stage in order to create the necessary flexibility to help ensure that existing commitments to external partners, as well as the company’s own strategic and operational goals, are met in the long term.

We use various tools for this process, including BIA (Business Impact Analysis), FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis), FTA (Fault Tree Analysis), CED (Cause-and-Effect Diagram, also known as an Ishikawa Diagram), and CEL (Consequences, Exposure, and Likelihood).
 

Project management

In addition, our employees hold certifications and have several years of experience in the field of project management.