Recently, while reviewing new focused-service properties in our region, I came across something surprising:
multi-storey hotels with more than 200 rooms being built without a fitness center.

And this is not an accident. In several international brands, fitness is now treated as an optional element in certain regions and in some cases, properties can even receive a waiver to skip it entirely.

This is where the core mistake appears.

A fitness environment is not a “nice-to-have,” not a design accessory, and definitely not something to include only if a developer feels like it. It is part of a guest’s modern lifestyle,
especially for long stays in large focused-service hotels.

Removing fitness from the initial project means removing a part of the guest’s daily life: their rhythm, their routines, their health, their ability to maintain their form.
It directly breaks expectations that have already become a global norm.

Yes, I understand the developer logic:
make the entry to the market easier, reduce CAPEX, simplify the model.
But today, fitness is not an “amenity.”
It is an operational standard and the fact that in the brand’s core regions it has been mandatory for over 10 years says everything.

This is why fitness thinking must exist not only at the level of GMs and operational teams, but also at the level of those who make the first decisions: developers, investors, owners, and project planners.

Because eventually, the same story always repeats itself: when a property realizes the gap and decides to “finally build a gym,” the refitting becomes more expensive, more disruptive, and less efficient than simply including it from day one.

Proper fitness thinking starts not at check-in, but at the stage of sketches, layouts, and CAPEX models.

Waivers have their place, but they should never come at the cost of the guest’s lifestyle.