Globally, wellness has emerged as one of the most popular ways to spruce up hospitality offerings, but the new Mövenpick BDMS Wellness Resort Bangkok wants to go a step further – by tapping world-class physicians and latest molecular science in its lifestyle and wellness destination resort proposition.
An urban retreat tucked among greenery in Bangkok’s Ploenchit area, the new 293-key destination spa resort is clearly leveraging its connection, with owner Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (BDMS), Thailand’s largest private hospital group that bought the former Swissôtel Nai Lert Park Bangkok in 2016.
Speaking to TTG Asia ahead of the property’s soft opening on June 1, Mövenpick BDMS Wellness Resort Bangkok general manager, Bruno Huber, said that the resort’s access to doctors and medical experts, and its correspondingly body of knowledge and services in the field, are what distinguish it from other wellness properties in Thailand.
Mövenpick BDMS Wellness Resort Bangkok is conceived as a destination spa resort promoting long and healthy living, not unlike wellness resort titans such as Canyon Ranch in the US, Huber emphasised.
“We are not a hospital but a spa. It’s a hotel for healthy people, and we’re into prevention (of illnesses) and not fixing (them),” he stressed. “We have all the science behind it, as well as all the medical equipment.”
Next door, the BDMS Wellness Clinic – a purpose-designed wellness and illness prevention centre – offers a wide array of wellness treatments and illness prevention therapies, spanning health screening to chromosome/DNA testing to fertility programmes.
Furthermore, “explosive growth” in wellness tourism worldwide in the last decade makes it an opportune time to launch the Mövenpick wellness property in Bangkok, said Huber, especially as the Thai capital is already an established medical tourism hub in region and the Tourism Authority of Thailand is keen to develop the country’s wellness travel sector to the next level.
While retaining the structure of the former Swissôtel Nai Lert Park Hotel in which Mövenpick BDMS Wellness Resort Bangkok now resides, the rest of the low-rise modernist architecture has been given a major overhaul, featuring an airy lobby with plenty of natural light, tiered corridors and lush greenery surrounding the premises in its latest incarnation.
Guestrooms start from an expansive 42m2, with each room offering wellness amenities like mood lighting, yoga mats and bouncing balls, and there are plans to roll out vitamin C showers in the future.
Suites make up a significant ratio of the accommodation at 92 keys, of which 15 units feature Mövenpick’s “first in Asia” YouBed, a Swiss invention that allows adjustment of softness and hardness, according to Huber.
Established nutritionist Gabriela Kurz has been roped in as consultant to develop healthy, GMO-free menus for F&B offerings, as well as coffee breaks for corporate events.
Meanwhile, the resort has its eyes set on attracting health-conscious travellers seeking sanctuary-type accommodation in Bangkok, MICE market, corporates and embassies in the area, and long-stayers from the BDMS Wellness Clinic next door.
“We are also a convention hotel attached to such (wellness) facilities,” Huber pointed out.
The property boasts 2,000m2 of event spaces, including the Chamchuri Ballroom that can host up to 800 delegates, three meeting rooms that can be divisible into smaller rooms, and a host of function spaces across the property from private dining room in the all-day-dining Tamarind restaurant to outdoor receptions by the pool.
The hotel’s partnership with BDMS Wellness Clinic also gives it ready connections and access into the medical and pharmaceutical fields for MICE leads, although Huber stresses that the property is keen to court business events from all industries.
In the pipeline is a 780m2 spa, which will offer traditional Thai medicine using brand-new technology as well as non-invasive beauty treatments, and the signature restaurant – both of which are scheduled to launch with the resort’s grand opening this year-end.
