'Hotel sector responds to growing health awareness'

Provider of high-quality fitness equipment on importance of moving more

You only have to open the newspaper: in the Netherlands, we are all getting heavier. As a result, the importance of sufficient exercise and a healthy lifestyle is increasingly coming to the fore. This growing health awareness is slowly but surely seeping through to the hotel sector, according to owner Franklin van der Zijde of WATERROWER | NOHRD Benelux, a provider of high-quality fitness equipment.

WATERROWER | NOHRD's fitness machines made of natural materials such as wood and leather are a feast for the eyes. According to Franklin van der Zijde, it is mainly this exclusive and aesthetic look that makes his rowing machines, exercise bikes, treadmills, dumbells, dumbbells, wall bars and swingbells so much to the liking of many a boutique hotel. The entrepreneur started in 1996 as the Benelux importer of the US rowing machine WATERROWER. Since two years, the products have been brought together under one name: WATERROWER |NOHRD. "Whereas in the past we mainly supplied private individuals, in recent years the expansion of our range has made us more interesting for the light business market, including, for example, physiotherapy practices, corporate fitness and the hotel industry," says Franklin.

Holistic experience

According to him, many of his private customers see fitness not purely as a workout, but as a holistic experience. "That is, they don't see the fitness machine only as a tool to lose weight, for example. No, because it looks so beautiful, the machine in itself makes them feel good. Thanks to its unique appearance, our fitness equipment adds value to any interior and does not even look out of place as a piece of furniture. And what applies to private customers naturally also applies to hotel guests. Because our fitness equipment leaves a lasting impression, thus it can be an important factor for hotels to distinguish themselves."

High healthcare costs

Today, the presence of a hotel gym - and increasingly, fitness machines in one's own hotel room - is still often seen as pure luxury. However, Van der Zijde expects that offering such facilities to hotel guests will increasingly become a bitter necessity. He is referring to the declining fitness of the average Dutchman: "We are all getting heavier. The Dutch health system is already almost impossible to afford, but that problem will only get worse. We are increasingly moving towards a situation where people with an unhealthy lifestyle face higher health costs. But the positive side of this development is that more and more people are becoming much more aware of their health. And therefore start paying more attention to sufficient exercise and a healthy lifestyle. In the long run, the hotel sector too cannot be left behind and will increasingly respond to this by offering fitness options and other health programmes."

Sustainability

Sustainability is often cited as one of the major challenges in the hotel industry. In fact, an umbrella term for anything to do with 'good for the environment' or 'long-lasting'. It is precisely in this respect that WATERROWER|NOHRD is leading the way with its fitness equipment, Van der Zijde stresses: "For example, the wood we use for our products comes exclusively from sustainably managed forests and regrowing trees from the American Appalachian Mountains and Germany. Moreover, our equipment is designed to last a lifetime. For example, we have designed a system for upgrading the fitness equipment; this preserves the wooden frame and only requires the parts that need replacing. That way, you have a good-as-new machine that never needs to be replaced completely. In doing so, we save the environment and offer a nice alternative to today's disposable society."

"In addition, the sustainability of our products is in the details. One example is the integration of self-powered mechanisms to minimise energy consumption while providing a more intuitive training experience. As a result, for example, our treadmill - apart from the LED display - hardly requires any electricity. In today's times, this energy saving is obviously also a major advantage for hotel companies."