Wellness in Hospitality - Interview with Christian Scholtka

“Everybody can travel anytime they want now, and they want to make it more of a qualitative and personal experience, connected with wellness and sustainability.” - Christian Scholtka

What makes life worth living? Since 2020, conversations have centred on the survival of the human race. But we haven’t stopped to ask about what will happen beyond the survival stage. We were rightly concerned about staying alive and ‘weathering the storm’, and now in ‘milking’ the good times as much as we can, but with so many measures setting us back on sustainability, one cannot resist asking if we may be destroying the things that enrich our lives.

My interview with Christian Scholtka expands on this sentiment. Christian is a rooms division manager with over a decade of experience working with some of hospitality’s most innovative brands. Here he shares his experience as a hospitality professional in Thailand, and urges hoteliers to take note of the measures they implement so as to protect the environment.

Interview Highlights:

1. Forced innovation

Stringent pandemic regulations have forced hoteliers to innovate. Some processes have moved online to allow for contactless service delivery. For example, guests can now check in online and receive mobile keys when their rooms are ready. Instead of physical menus, guests can simply scan a QR code and all the information they need is right at their fingertips. This forced innovation comes with major disadvantages for hospitality. Our industry relies on human interaction, without which we cannot thrive. The emphasis on reducing contact has somewhat ‘sterilised’ the guest experience - that warm greeting and hospitality one is so used to receiving in a ‘home outside their home’. Hoteliers recognise that this type of service delivery is not sustainable and are looking for better solutions.

2. High-value tourism

Hospitality heavily relies on tourism - beit international or national. Because of this, some markets have chosen to focus on attracting high-value tourists to their destinations. Some areas have placed a minimum requirement of how much money travellers should have as well as the duration of their stay in the country. Hotels that can attract this type of business will continue to have a clear advantage as they get to enjoy a steady revenue stream. Also, this model relies a little less on volumes, allowing the hotels to remain operational during these crises-ridden times.

3. Environmental sustainability

One silver lining in all this is that nature is flourishing once more. In some areas, beach water is returning to its turquoise blue colour from the gray tinge it had adopted due to pollution. Nature is a huge part of the attraction for any location, particularly those in exotic destinations. It plays an important role in the wellness offering of these resorts, allowing guests to rejuvenate themselves through the environment. This might be a short-lived phenomenon, however. As things pick up quite strongly, people have started travelling in droves once more and there is the risk that all this progress may be reversed. Our leaders have the difficult task of ensuring that we operate during this “revenge travel” period in a way that allows the environment to continue to prosper.?

Sustainability is a hot-button issue right now as single-use plastics have once again become commonplace. Social interactions are cut short and cultural activities have taken a backseat all in the name of saving lives. Of course, human life is worth every effort we can put into it. And yet, our lives are made richer and healthier by the very things we are inadvertently destroying right now. Hopefully, we can come up with better, more sustainable solutions for the future.

Thanks to Christian for participating in the important conversation on wellness in hospitality.

Thank you to everyone who has been following this series and engaging in the constructive discussions in the comments section. If you are a hotel general manager, hotel owner or investor and you are interested in being part of my Wellness in Hospitality interview series, direct message me here on LinkedIn. Please note responses may take a couple of days due to increased interest in putting wellness at the core of hospitality.