Hotel Gyms Around the World

I have been a loyal Marriott fan for years, but lately I have stayed at a few outstanding Hyatt's that are making me reconsider my loyalty program.  

Hyatt Regency Vancouver

Several months ago I started a board on Pinterest where I have been capturing the Fitness Facilities of the various gyms where I train.  My travels are mainly US based but now and then I have the good fortune to travel abroad.  I am NOT a photographer and all the photos are taken using my iPhone, so please excuse the graininess.

I developed a very basic scoring system to grade key aspects of the Fitness Facilities

Grading System

1. Unacceptable/Poor
2. Acceptable
3. Outstanding

Criteria

• Accessibility – is the facility open 24 x 7 is my major criteria. 
• Cleanliness – if there are no wipes to clean the equipment, this is an automatic score of 1.  Cleanliness needs to be observed in public fitness facilities.  Making it easy to do the right thing is evidence of good facility management
• Equipment – is the equipment functional, varied and maintained
• Nutrition – I am very basic here, if you can’t even get water, it’s a score of 1. 

Most recently, I was in British Columbia and stayed at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver.  I was impressed with the facility from the time I stepped out of the cab.  The rooms were wonderful, the bed was comfortable and the gym was great!

• Accessibility: 3 (Guests can access the fitness center 24 x 7)
• Cleanliness: 3 (Very clean and there were tools to clean up after yourself)
• Equipment: 3 (Wonderful variety of machines, free weights, bands, balls, etc.  A nice gym away from home)
• Nutrition: 2 (there was water available and some fruit but nothing special)

Why am I taking time to share this?  Hopefully, my effort will accomplish three goals:

1. It will offer other travelers a reliable reference for the quality of the fitness facilities at hotels across the US
2. It will motivate you to do the same and post them to my board so that the catalog grows
3. It will really motivate those hotel chains with poor scores to take a look at their facilities and make them more acceptable and traveler-friendly. 

We talk about the obesity crisis and how we need to make people more active, but now it’s time to make the investments to better engage the community.  Hotels are such a small piece of the pie that impacts a minute portion of the population, I recognize that.  However, as I have written in the past, frequent travelers tend to be overweight, less active and have poor nutritional habits.  While having a nice gym in the hotel won’t necessarily make us go to the gym, it will make the experience much more pleasant when we do.

Do you have any hotel gym photos to share?  Feel free to grade them and post.

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/daphnebascom/hotel-gyms-around-the-world/