Better Sleep for All: How Hilton is Going All-In On Helping Travelers Rest and Recharge - Amanda Al-Masri, Hilton

Josiah: I would love it if you could tell our audience about yourself and your role. I think it's a really interesting job that you have. What does that role entail?

Amanda: Absolutely. So I'm so lucky to be working with Hilton and it's a newly created role. Our vice president of wellness role is brand new to me. I've been with the organization for about a year and a half. And really my background has been, you know, has grown with the industry. So we started as a fitness industry, and then we were a spa and fitness industry, and then we expanded into wellness, and In many ways, my peers and I, you know, our careers have been the canary in the coal mine of sort of wellness's point of integration within hospitality environments. So at Hilton, I'm the brand strategist for our enterprise-level wellness programming. Hilton has made a commitment to our guests to find ways into accessible, democratized wellness across all 23 of our brands. And that's a really big commitment. Making sure that wellness finds its way into every guest's journey, regardless of stay, right? Not just in our full-service lifestyle and luxury brands, but it finds its way from a Hampton Inn to a Waldorf Astoria is possibly something that I'm a little biased about, but feels really new and innovative, right? And it's something that's personally very important to me. So when Hilton asked me to join, I couldn't wait, right? Because we're doing something really great here.

Josiah: So I'm going to come back to that because I'm fascinated by making this not just something for the top tier of hospitality businesses open to more people. But I have a follow-up to this. You mentioned being excited to work in this role. Why apply your talents to hospitality in this industry? Because there's so many industries I feel like want to think about wellness and offer wellness offerings.

Amanda: Yeah, it's really an incredible time to be part of the wellness industry. Right. I think that post-pandemic, things certainly precipitated in terms of the growth of the industry. We're looking at about $1.8 trillion spent on, or $1.8 trillion is sort of how they're defining the wellness economy by, I believe it's 2028. And that's not just in hospitality. In fact, hospitality is a portion of it, but it's really, it's personal care, right? There's been a lot of differentiation in the space, and as it's gotten bigger, necessarily, there's fragmentation and segmentation. I actually did leave hospitality after I worked at Starwood Hotels. After the acquisition, I went and worked for Equinox Holdings as part of the Equinox Fitness Clubs. They were making a change in terms of how they positioned their spa products. They were also opening their first hotels. the first of which opened in Hudson Yards. So it was a really interesting peek behind the curtains at adjacent industry, but not the same. And look, I think there's a lot of incredible things happening. And I think the work that's happening outside of hospitality, right, is showing us other industries, tech, right? They're seeing the white space in wellness and moving in. And some of the legacy partners haven't been as quick as them. So, right, it's given us a little bit of a push to think fast, work fast, and get things done inside and outside the hospitality organizations that we all think about because so many people are moving so quickly. But it's also created a lot of really wonderful opportunities for partnerships, right? So that's sort of the mashup. We've got a great one with Peloton, right? An incredible company that's playing differently in the wellness space, right? That's talked about making fitness for everyone, we've made Peloton for everyone. Every single one of our brands, every hotel in the United States, the UK, Germany, and Canada, you walk into one of our hotels in these markets, and there's a Peloton bike. And it could be in a tertiary market or a primary market, doesn't matter, right? There's always going to be at least one bike in our fitness centers. And also, we have Peloton rooms in our guest rooms for those that either want to mimic an experience they have at home or prefer to ride in the comfort of their own room for whatever reason they have. So these are ways that we're finding to engage with brands that people care about, that are doing things differently, thinking about things differently. And it allows us to expand our reach a little bit and move a bit faster than maybe traditionally we've been able to in hospitality.

Josiah: Well, it's great. And it's to your point of making this available to more people. I love that where you're investing. There are real dollars behind, you know, these investments and putting these programs together. I wonder if we could talk about a specific wellness element, which is sleep. And I'd love to hear that. I mean, there's so much research around this. Maybe I can link in the show notes to some of the stuff that you and others have done, but I want to hear your words. Why is sleep important?

Amanda: Let's start with why sleep is important at a higher level. And then I want to talk about why it's important to hospitality. So, first and foremost, sleep is foundational to health. And I think there's a growing understanding and acceptance across all demographics. Even my six-year-old knows that when she doesn't get a great night's sleep, she doesn't feel good in the morning. That correlation has been made so many times over. And we know that it's attached. Poor sleep habits are attached to greater propensity towards disease. When we think about hospitality and how we quantify what we sell as a room night, so we're talking about being sleep companies in an almost foundational way. So we're worried about sleep. We've been worried about sleep since hospitality was first hospitality. But what we know about consumer preferences, we did a really incredible, the last two trends reports we've done actually have turned out data that tells us guests care about wellness, and guests care about sleep. Those two things overlap an immense amount for us. In last year's Trends Report, we uncovered that the number one reason that people want to travel is to relax and refresh. And that's regardless of their reason for travel. So that's when we're listening to that type of data, we think, OK, well, yes, there's a lot of ways that we can interpret that. And that does mean continuing to do the things we're excellent at, such as great fitness programming and great spa programming. But it means that we really need to be thoughtful about how we engage around sleep. And we always have been, right? There are a lot of wonderful programs, but it's finding ways to surface some of those incredible programs we have so that guests know and can understand what we're already doing. It also means thinking about the future state: what more can we be doing to improve sleep? So it's the basics, right? We know that rooms need to be quiet. They need to be dark. They need to be temperature controlled in the ways that you would like to feel comfortable. And the bedding experience needs to be amazing. All easy foundational things, as hoteliers, but they take a lot of thought and execution to deliver with the type of consistency that we have over our enterprise. And so that's something we've been hyper-focused on coming out of the pandemic. And where my team comes in is we start thinking about, OK, we have an incredible supply chain team. We have incredible bedding, top of bed, mattresses. Is there anything else we should be thinking about for future state? And we've got some incredible, the canopy mattress, for example, that we have. So thoughtfully done, just as all of ours are, but really focused. We've got a gel memory foam, really incredible bedding. All of this creates sort of a cool bedding experience that helps people sleep better, right? So things like that, being able to tell the stories that guests care about so that they know when they come stay at it, for example, canopy, they're going to have a great night's sleep because we've told them that this is something that they can expect from us, right? We're always going to deliver that night's sleep, but if they're making a decision about where to stay, we want to make sure that that's something we can surface to help them to be a decision driver for them.

Josiah: I appreciate you touching on that because I wanted to ask you, what are you doing to improve the sleep experience? And what does innovation look like? I'm hearing a return, not a return necessarily, but a real focus on the fundamentals. And sometimes I've talked to some folks where innovation in sleep, it feels like it's some wearable tech or some tech that feels like maybe there's a real- We're looking at everything, right?

Amanda: It's a spectrum. So, you know, I think the fundamentals, you know, we did this huge panel of experts, we tried to understand, right? So, seeking to understand before we do more or differently. And what we heard consistently is, yes, there's a lot of really cool stuff out there, but the basics are what are most important. and we'll get the most done. So those things I mentioned, temperature, noise, darkness, those are huge. And the comfortability of the bed, right? Those are things that we can control and should be controlling. But making sure that every single guest room, right, making sure that that is something that we can say, you can expect this and this is going to have the highest correlation to the best night's sleep possible. And a lot of people recognize and understand that. However, there's a lot more we can do, right? And some of it will be brand or category-driven, and some of it will even be property-driven, right? There's some incredible programming out in our properties. The Biltmore has incredible spa offerings that are tied to a great night rest. A lot of jet lag-related services that exist where we have a lot of long haul travelers coming in. And certainly within our resort experiences, we're highly focused on creating, you know, sort of a cocooning bed experience to make sure that, you know, you're feeling like the moment you land, you're immediately taking a deep breath, finding your calm, and then sort of moving forward with whatever the reason it is that you're coming to our properties.

Josiah: I'd like to talk a little bit more about some of the offerings that you have, but just a quick follow up around kind of this notion of offering good sleep. I'm curious, you've done a lot of research and talked to a lot of people around this. What are maybe some common misconceptions about sleep, either just sleep as humans or providing sleep that you've encountered in your work, in your research?

Amanda: Yes, I think this is a great thing. So I should also mention, and I'm neglectful for not having done so, we're working with a woman named Dr. Rebecca Robbins, and she's us as sort of our sleep expert. She is a fantastic woman and is part of a lot of these strategic conversations we're having, right? All of what we want to do, this is a branch of, actually multiple branches of science, right? So we understand that there's a lot of scientific grounding in this work and we want to make sure that we're leveraging that. That's, you know, that's not our area of expertise. So we brought in a wonderful expert. So I'll start by saying that. You know, you mentioned technology, right? Sleep tech is a huge proliferation, right? Whether it's an Oura ring or a Vera ring or a Whoop or really even, you know, sort of the most basic biometric tools, everybody's measuring sleep. But often what's true is, you know, there's some hints, tricks, guidance, but ultimately it's an incredibly personal thing, right? So it's not just quantity, it's quality of sleep. And the reality of probably those that listen to this podcast or really just people out in the world that care about travel, We're constantly changing time zones. We're constantly working late hours or doing early meetings or late night meetings, right? We're disrupting our schedule. And I think the acceptance that there will be disruption is probably the most important thing. We can't be dogmatic about sleep, right? We understand that our world's are going to shift, that we're going to want to travel to places that are far away from our home. And that necessarily means that it's going to disrupt our routines. And often, sleep is a big part of that. It's finding ways to work through that. There are great apps that help with that, such as mindfulness practices and continuing with routines at home. But I think the biggest lesson that I've learned from listening to our experts is it's not just the act of sleeping. Laying your head on the pillow, and praying that you're going to get whatever, eight hours, six hours, whatever it is you set out to do. It's an ecosystem around that, right? It's how you power down. It's how you power up. It's how you work through. If you have routines, some people have travel routines that facilitate sleep, and some people like to replicate routines that they have at home. and making sure that you're following those routines and where you have to make modifications that you find ways to make that make sense. So for example, oftentimes, especially if you're traveling for business or leisure, you might have to meet colleagues for a drink or a nightcap before bed. I think probably everyone would agree that alcohol before bed is not a great thing, or eating late is not a good thing, but sometimes it's unavoidable. It's understanding that and planning for that, or it's increasingly thinking about different ways to engage with that. So it could be Free-Spirited - that's what we call our alcohol-free cocktails. We have an incredible Free-Spirited program in our Tempo brand. They are really lovely cocktails with the same mouthfeel, the same level of complexity as a traditional cocktail without the alcohol. with great partners that are doing unbelievable things in low or no alcohol content spirits. Wines, beers, all of that. Cocktails. Things like that are small swap outs. It's also how we're thinking about things and how we program our guest experiences. So turndown, in our luxury environments, maybe we're not putting a dessert or sugar-laden items on that turndown. Maybe we're not serving alcohol or putting that as a welcome amenity. These are all small shifts. And part of that is also knowing guest preferences. No judgment if that's something you still want to do, right? We're not going to turn into a brand or group of brands that says no to alcohol or lovely indulgent sweets. But if that's a thing you care about, that's something that we can modulate to support.

Josiah: So you're helping guests with what they want to achieve, right?

Amanda: I think that's exactly it, right? And I think that's fundamentally what you've just hit on there is exactly our approach, right? We want to meet you where you are in your wellness journey. You're not coming to a Hilton for us to tell you how we think you should be well. We want to react to the needs that you have as part of being a guest in our hotels, which increasingly means whatever your wellness needs are. And I think as the industry has expanded, right, and its reach, the demographics have expanded in terms of those who care about wellness, increasingly what that means to guests has changed. And many people, particularly in older generations, may not qualify the things that they care about as sort of bucketed as we would bucket it as wellness, right? So, sleep may not be something that they think about as wellness, but of course, they want to get that great night's sleep. And we're thinking about it as wellness because that's our remit. That's what we're working on. Those are the programs and partnerships that we're focused on, and we have to bucket it necessarily. But we want to make sure it's a red thread through the whole experience. It doesn't need to live siloed in our hotel environments, that it doesn't need to exist only in the demise of fitness areas or spas. that really incredible food and beverage that meets your dietary needs can sit on the same menu as something really fun and indulgent that maybe you're having on another day, right? It's meeting those needs whenever you have them in whatever they look like.

Josiah: I love it. Amanda, if we could, I'd like to bring this back to Hilton. I'm bought in on a personal level. I want to improve my sleep. I'm bought in on a business level. I see travelers wanting this, as you pointed out, from regardless of their reason for travel, this is top of their list. The business makes sense. I'm curious for you. You've worked across all these businesses. Now you are leading this at Hilton. I'm curious for you, how is Hilton uniquely positioned to deliver on this demand? It could be a cultural thing, it could be infrastructure. What comes to mind for you and what makes Hilton a leader here?

Amanda: I think it's how we're thinking about it and how we're planning to deliver it. So when I think about and when I get asked about this, why will this be something that Hilton as a strategic priority is able to deliver versus perhaps others. The full force of the Hilton engine is behind this. So we've got everything from an incredible marketing communications team to a brand strategy team, a commercial team, all pushing towards the same goals and objectives. And we're doing it in ways that are measurable, and that matter to our owners and matter to our guests, and that we can show that there's clear impact, whether it's from a guest experience standpoint or from an owner standpoint, right? Something that creates revenue or creates opportunity for new business. It helps us, we know, drive our development story in a lot of our brands, right? There's so much embedded in some of our new brands. Signia, Tempo, these are two incredibly fast-growing brands for us that have a wellness DNA, right? So us having a credible wellness offering with scaled programming up and down the chain scale is a strategic imperative for us as we think even about development.

Josiah: Development actually makes a ton of sense. I'm curious on some of those other elements. What are some of the metrics you're tracking there? Because you talk about guest satisfaction, you talk about bookings maybe. What are some of the top metrics you're tracking?

Amanda: So very much depends on the program. You know, we can, from a verbatim standpoint, we can track, let's use Peloton as an example, right? We can see that there's so much positive guest sentiment, right? It's a partnership, it's a brand for whom there's a lot of loyalty. And our guests love that they can have those experiences with us and we can see that. But we can also see how many miles they've ridden and how many people log in, right? So there are some very tangible results for us. It's some pretty spectacular numbers in terms of ridership and number of miles ridden since last October. But, you know, in terms of how we perceive scale programming, it very much depends on the program itself. We want to make sure that we're creating revenue-generating opportunities. So things like thinking about how do we create new upsell opportunities, right? How do we create? We've got wellness rooms launching in a handful of our hotels, including Sydney, Atlanta. How do we differentiate those rooms? How do we make them marketable? How do we make them sufficiently distinct from our other room categories to make sure that people and guests understand why they're different and what they can do for them? And of course, then it's of course an opportunity for owners to have incremental revenue rate opportunities with these rooms and also have something marketable and differentiating.

Josiah: So you sold me on sleep, you sold me on how Hilton is able to deliver on this. I wonder if we, before we wrap, we could maybe just highlight all of this by talking about your new Hilton sleep retreats. It's actually the reason I reached out to you initially, because I was so fascinated by this. There's a partnership element to this. I wonder if you could talk first about the inspiration behind the program and then if you can maybe walk us through what a guest might expect during a sleep retreat.

Amanda: Absolutely. So the nexus of, as you've pointed out, partnership elements, programming that people care about, and an incredible property-level product, that's the trifecta. So we've got an incredible partner in Dr. Robbins who's working with us day-to-day and understands what we're trying to do across the enterprise. But she's also an incredibly charismatic, incredibly thoughtful presenter of material that's very consumable to a very broad spectrum of our potential participants in this group. And we've got an incredible new spa at Grand Wailea. So we've just reopened that spa. And what that spa has done is, in many ways, created a destination spa within this resort. It's an incredible offering and it's opens up a lot of doors for us to find ways to pull in deeper, more robust programming for those that care and want to dig deeper. So yes, certainly you can come to Grand Wailea and enjoy the spa. Certainly you can come and have a great night's sleep. But what if we were to bring in an expert or what if we were to curate an experience around Dr. Robbins, around this spa offering put those two things together and create an incredible opportunity. That's what we were looking for. And this is replicable for us. So we can find a way to bring this into other environments. Certainly, they have to have large spa environments. Certainly, they need to meet a lot of other needs. But this is something that we know we can do across the globe with Dr. Robbins, with others potentially. And our next one...dates are still to be announced, but we plan to do this as well at Conrad Orlando, which is another spectacular property in our portfolio. Another really spectacular spa. I hope that people can start to count on us when they're interested for this deep programming with experts that they wouldn't otherwise have access to. So we think that this is a new way for us to engage with people that are sort of deeper wellness users and that we can bring in others from the outside that we've vetted, that we're working with in other contexts to make them available for guests because we know that they care and they trust us to curate an experience for that.

Josiah: Amazing. You have such a diverse portfolio. You mentioned a key priority for you is offering wellness offerings across the chain scale and your diverse offerings. I'm curious how you're thinking about that now, kind of where some of these themes might go. It obviously might not look exactly the same across every brand, but how do you think about where you go from here?

Amanda: Yeah. You know, when we have to think about our touch points with guests, right, and finding those moments of interaction. So it's everything from, you know, our allergen-free cookie at DoubleTree that we launched this year, right? It's finding ways to help people eat the food that they want whenever they want, right? It's also, well, let me zoom out, right? It's us thinking about wellness in perhaps a fundamentally different way. So yes, spa and fitness. And what I always sort of jokingly say when I get in front of a large group internally or owners, I'm not going to start proposing that we put spas into Hampton Inn. So what does that mean? It means we think more broadly about what wellness means. And so it's things like sleep, which we've just been talking about. And it's a really strong focus on what more can we be doing? How do we innovate? What does this look like as part of our design? What does this look like as part of our OS&E program, betting program in particular? And it's working hand in hand. with HSM, our health supply management team, which is an incredible resource partner for us on these types of things. Also working hand in hand with our food and beverage colleagues to make sure that we're thinking through the unique nutritional needs that people have and interpreting these in regionally relevant and reliable ways, right? What matters to a consumer in the U.S. may not be the same interpretation in other parts of the world, and we need to be cognizant of that. And then it's also movement, right? Not just our fitness centers. How do we help people move as they want to move? And it's everything from how we move around our physical spaces, right? Access to staircases, access to outdoor spaces and sunlight, right? It's things like that, that, you know, I've always cared about, but suddenly I have a voice in the Hilton organization to talk to all of these cross-functional partners. And it lives under this sort of broader umbrella of wellness. And finally, yes, we still have incredible spas, but we're also thinking about mindfulness, right? So how do we bring mindfulness into whether it's our guest rooms or into people's lives, right? In ways that feel consumable, approachable, something that they can pick up and examine and look at and try if they like. Otherwise, you know, no worries. Happy to happy to make it available to you. But if you're not interested, there's no need to feel that we're pressing you to engage. So I think availability of options, understanding that it's these small decisions that people are making through their day that add up to their overall wellness, and it's thinking through where are those wellness touch points? How do we interpret them? Where do they live? So we've got better for you options in our retail shops, right? Not significant changes. If you still want Pringles and a Diet Coke, cool, more power to you, go for it. But if you want to have a healthier option, it's also there for you, right? And we're going to do further evolution. We hope later in probably the next month, we'll have our proof of concept out in the world in our mega category where we're talking about some self-care spa beauty items that live in these retail environments as well. So there's moments, the moments that you can capture and travel, right? Whether it's a few minutes to put eye patches on, right? That you might not have when you're at home. capturing those few minutes for self-care or finding ways to evolve your guest experience in the guest room with some really neat wellness items that will integrate into some of those retail environments. So there's lots of cool stuff coming, lots of ways to think about wellness, but we've got to think about it differently. And that's OK. That's the exciting part.

Josiah: Amazing. I would love to have you back on the show at some point to talk about this as you roll it out. But thank you so much for taking some time to share what you're working on now.

Amanda: Wonderful. Thank you so much.