$1,780 to spend the night in a ‘cocoon’? Hotels now betting on sleep tourism
Ai-assisted beds, on-call hypnotherapists are taking sleep tourism to the next level
To sleep, perchance to dream. Or if not dream, at least to feel vaguely rested the next day, especially on vacation. Is that too much to ask?
In the hospitality world, that’s a business opportunity. Hilton’s 2024 trends report revealed that the main reason people currently travel is to rest and recharge.
“Hotels locked in a death match with Airbnb have begun to explore ways in which to compete by offering services and amenities around the primary purpose of a hotel stay: a restful night’s sleep,” said Chekitan Dev, a professor at the Cornell University Nolan School of Hotel Administration.
Now, he said, a good night’s rest isn’t just a selling point for hotels; it’s a “fastgrowing industry.”
From Ai-assisted beds to on-call hypnotherapists, today’s sleep tourism is, essentially, an old dog with new tricks. “This is around the seventh or eighth time this has come up as kind of a topic” since the mid-1980s, said Bjorn Hanson, a professor at the New York University Jonathan M Tisch Center of Hospitality.
These days hotels are going well beyond those basics to capture the business of sleep seekers. Here’s what some are doing.
Smart beds and Smart Goggles
Like the Westin Heavenly Bed, Bryte wants to be the next hotel-mattress disrupter. The $6,299 Ai-assisted, smartphone-pairable mattress is, according to Luke Kelly, the chief executive of Bryte, the only bed with an active pressure-relief system, which adjusts as you move to optimise sleep.
The Park Hyatt New York currently has five Bryte sleep suites (from $1,095), which were added after the hotel reopened following a 376-day Covid closure. The Park Hyatt Chicago has the similar Bryte-bed-equipped Mindfulness Suite ($645), as do a handful of rooms and suites at hotels
With the Sleep Wellness package at the Beatrice in Providence, (starting at $419 per night), you’ll have to settle for a Serta Perfect Sleeper, but will have access to Therabody Smartgoggles, an eye mask that uses heat, and vibration to lower your heart rate and ease facial tension. The package also includes a mocktail at the rooftop bar (alcohol is an enemy of good sleep) and herbal teas. Retreats and other programmes
At spa at the Carillon has a five-treatment sleep circuit ($99 per treatment), which employs, among other things, infrared light, electromagnetic frequencies, salt floats and vibration. The resort’s new four-night Sleep Well Retreat ($2,598) includes all of the above, plus a sleeppromoting massage.
‘Cocooning’
Relaxing the mind is common, but how each property tries to accomplish that varies. A visitor at the Park Hyatt said the bedrooms “cocoon” away from the living space, meaning you can close off the sleep area and make it dark and cozy; Britain’s Zedwell hotels feature small, dimly lit “cocoons” (from about $142, per person) with nary a distraction from the window to the wall: no TVS, no phones and, actually, no windows, which for a certain kind of bad sleeper could provoke more anxiety, not less.
Tempo by Hilton is offering rooms divided into three zones, including “an enveloping sleep environment” with a Sealy Accelerate temperature-controlled mattress and sound-absorbing acoustics; lights that dim at sunset; and, in some rooms, Peloton bikes, for people who consider exercise their Ambien.
This month, to coincide with the NSF’S Sleep Awareness Week (March 10 to 16), the Mandarin Oriental will begin a partnership with the hypnotherapist Malminder Gill, a.k.a. the Sleep Concierge, at the Hyde Park property in London. (After Hyde Park, the service will be available at the Mandarin Oriental in Mayfair, which opens this spring, followed by pop-ups across Europe, New York and other destinations later this year.) Starting at £500, guests can see Ms. Gill in the spa for a sleep consultation and session tailored to their particular sleep issues, with Ms. Gill even recommending optimal mealtimes and food-ingestion order. There will also be an option for a private bedside session, during which, if all goes well, guests drift off for the night. “I tiptoe out,” said Ms. Gill.
The Royal Sonesta Benjamin New York has a similar program, called Rest & Renew, run by Rebecca Robbins, coauthor of Sleep for Success! Everything You Must Know About Sleep but Are Too Tired to Ask.