Lemongrass flags 2027’s “anti-optimised” holiday shift—what it signals for luxury spas

Lemongrass Marketing has published its annual travel trends report for 2027, forecasting what it describes as the “year of the anti-optimised holiday.” The report identifies 15 interconnected travel trends expected to influence hospitality demand and guest behavior globally.

For luxury spa operators, the value of this kind of forward-looking travel research is less about any single “trend name” and more about the operational implications: when travel motivations change, spa menus, scheduling models, facility utilization, and guest communication often have to change with them. Even without property-specific forecasting, the overarching framing—anti-optimised—is a notable signal for how premium guests may want to use hotel time and wellness amenities in 2027.

A global travel-trend forecast with direct relevance to spa planning cycles

Lemongrass’ report is positioned as a travel trends outlook for 2027, and European Spa Magazine reported on its release. While travel trend reports are not operating manuals, they tend to arrive at a useful moment for owners and GMs: many luxury hospitality teams are already mapping capital refreshes, treatment programming updates, and technology replacements that can take multiple budget cycles to execute.

In practical terms, any “travel trends for 2027” document becomes part of the industry’s early-warning system. Spa leaders can use it to pressure-test assumptions—what the guest is willing to book in advance, what they want to discover on property, and what they consider “too packaged”—before those assumptions are embedded in design briefs, retail plans, or labor models.

Why “anti-optimised” language matters to luxury spa operations

The report’s headline concept—an anti-optimised holiday—lands in a sector that has spent years refining optimization: frictionless booking paths, tightly timed treatment blocks, prebuilt journeys, and standardized upsell flows. If the cultural mood swings toward less pre-engineered travel, spas may be asked to deliver a different kind of luxury: not necessarily more services, but more latitude in how guests move through them.

In a high-end spa environment, that shift can show up in subtle ways:

• Demand for spontaneity within structure: Guests may still expect a premium standard, but with options that don’t feel like a pre-scripted itinerary.
• Preference for “unbundled” wellness: Some travelers may resist buying a rigid day package if it feels over-programmed, even when the value is strong.
• Greater sensitivity to pacing: The more “anti-optimised” the holiday, the more pacing becomes part of the product—arrival rituals, transitions, and recovery time become as meaningful as the treatment itself.

None of this removes the need for revenue discipline or scheduling efficiency. But it does suggest that the spa’s presentation of choice—and the experience of time—may become a stronger differentiator than the sheer number of modalities on the menu.

Fifteen interconnected trends: what “interconnected” implies for spa leaders

Lemongrass’ report is described as mapping 15 interconnected travel trends. For hotel spa operators, the word “interconnected” is the important part. In practice, guest behavior rarely changes in a single lane; it tends to cascade across multiple touchpoints at once—how they discover the property, how they decide to book, what they consider authentic, how they share experiences, and how they think about value.

That has two operational implications for luxury spas:

• Menu and facility decisions can’t be made in isolation. The treatment list, the thermal suite flow, and the way the spa interacts with rooms, pools, fitness, and F&B are increasingly judged as one connected experience.
• Small frictions become more visible. When guests pursue less “optimized” travel, they often become less tolerant of anything that feels engineered for the operator rather than designed for the guest—such as confusing wayfinding, inflexible sequencing, or spaces that force congestion at predictable times.

This is where trend forecasting can be useful even without granular detail: it can prompt leadership teams to evaluate the spa as a system—arrival, consultation, treatment, recovery, retail, and post-treatment dwell—rather than as a set of bookable units.

What to watch next as 2027 approaches

Between now and 2027, most luxury spa teams will make a series of decisions that are difficult to reverse quickly: equipment replacement timing, wet-area maintenance planning, treatment room conversions, software and booking flows, and staff training investments. The Lemongrass “anti-optimised holiday” framing suggests the guest may increasingly reward properties that can deliver ease without feeling overly curated.

For operators, the near-term takeaway is to treat 2027 trend language as a planning input—not a mandate. The strongest response typically isn’t a complete rebrand. It’s a careful review of where the spa experience may feel over-packaged versus where the guest genuinely wants guidance, and then aligning space planning and operating rhythm accordingly.

For support with feasibility, space planning, equipment strategy, or phased renovation scheduling aligned to emerging travel preferences, use the contact form on this page to reach Spa Team International.