A pioneer in the wellness movement, Neil Jacobs, CEO of Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, deftly delivers transformative experiences to guests around the world, fueled by the likes of expert sleep scientists. During a podcast with Hospitality Design editor-in-chief Stacy Shoemaker Rauen, the Singapore-based Jacobs, who has worked for such brands as Four Seasons and Starwood Capital Group, elaborated on the brand’s foray to New York and the necessity for melding love and hospitality.
On the fusion of wellness and sustainability:
It’s really one subject at the end of the day. Sustainability is about environment, it’s about a well environment. The convergence of the two just has become more and more evident. We grow our own food, we’ve never had plastic. We’ve been very mindful of all this stuff for years and years, but we don’t preach it at all. But we have the view that we ought to be more vocal about some of the stuff that we do and make it more evident to our guests when they are on property. Rather than something that we accept as part of our DNA, I think it’s incumbent upon us to create opportunities for people to have more engagement in the sustainable practices that we demonstrate and activate.
On the upcoming Six Senses New York:
One part is an extraordinary spa. We’ve effectively recreated a New York bathhouse into a very modern, beautiful type of environment. So apart from the treatment rooms, you have a whole wet circuit and different pools that will go on there under the High Line. But then on the corner of 17th and 11th Avenue is a five-story building, which will be the main club and a site called Six Senses Place. We have three floors and a rooftop there, and that’s where we’ll have a whole bunch of different food and beverage outlets and lounge space for lectures and get-togethers. We’ll have all our wellness practitioners up there, a biohacking lounge, consultation rooms, IV drips. I mean a whole array of wellness activities, but really around being a social club or a place for people to connect. Everything that is done there, everything that’s cooked, every cocktail that’s made, will have some connection to our overall wellness programming.
On bringing love into the mix:
How do we create content that is more around energy and the heart? I mean we’re having all these esoteric conversations around what does love mean, and how does that play into the new world. Hotel guys don’t sit around and generally talk about love, right? But it’s the kind of thing that we actually take quite seriously because it doesn’t have to mean romantic love. And it really ties into our mission, our stated mission that has been for years all about reconnection—reconnection to yourself and others’ worlds around you.
A version of this article was originally published by Hospitality Design.
