21-May-2020 By Jeffrey Cooper

The Virtualized Club: Travel Workouts- Part 4

The first three parts of this series examined the behavior of the Universal Club Application Framework at the Gym, at Home and Outdoors. This fourth part of the original planned series examines how the app works when you are traveling. If you have been reading these, you’ll notice I have been referring to a 4-part series. I have added a fifth part, to cover workouts at work. After thinking about it, that’s another case that needs to be considered, and I will update the previous articles soon to reflect the change to 5 parts.

You might also notice a change in terminology. Virtualized Club Application is a more technical term. I used it to show that the same app can operate in at least five different modes and change personas. The simpler reality is that Universal Club Application is a better term. The app is universal, because it works everywhere in the most optimum way for that location. It’s an easier term to understand and drops the technical part of the name. It is a virtualized application framework, but implemented, it is a Universal Club Application.

As show in the diagram above, this is the fourth mode of operation. You can see modules from other modes at play here. On the go, you have multiple types of options, which are defined in manifests. When you travel, you have a number of options that are quite different from home. And once the app has been used, it becomes apparent what the user’s preferences are.

This can change, of course. In colder climates the user may prefer to use a treadmill or indoor cycle. Or they may decide to go to a nearby club they wouldn’t go to in warmer months. The entire point of this adaptive app is not to restrict options, but to re-sort them to the most likely, and later, most-used, to simplify the user experience and allow them to get down to working out more quickly.

At the Hotel

When the user travels, on business or vacation, they have options to work out:

• Workout in the room- bodyweight, yoga, streaming workouts
• Workout in the hotel gym- these are frequently limited affairs with some cardio and selectorized equipment and sometimes dumbbells.
• Run- cycling is less likely, at least on a business trip
• Workout at a nearby branch of their club, partner club, or other club if they have a second membership.
• On vacation, hiking, biking, walking, swimming, etc… are more frequently an option

The universal club application should likewise adapt to show those options front and center. With proper data, it can adapt to the hotel you are staying in, at least ones with better facilities.

As you’ve probably noticed, most hotel gyms are so-so endeavors. Maybe the high end hotels have better gyms- the Le Méridien in Seoul has a stellar gym and pool. Frequently drab affairs, most are OK at best. But they get you moving at least. And while they are certainly worth the effort to make use of them, they leave a little to be desired in terms of motivating you to use it.

Another option, which mirrors options you have at home, is to workout in the room. Ten years ago, Sheraton offered a Workout in a Bag, delivered to your room upon request. I haven’t found any recent references to that program, so I am not sure this is still an option. Yoga, bodyweight and calisthenics-oriented workouts are great for this environment.

My personal favorite is to go running, rain or shine. I love to go on a sightseeing run when I travel. I have done much running in New York City, and especially in Central Park. But I’ve also run in San Diego, Austin, Columbus, London and other places. It can make it an adventure. One run even involved an Uber to get there, and a water taxi to get back, in San Diego- it’s the only way you can run on Coronado Island if you are not staying on it.

Finally there are a few other options- find a local branch of your club, a club with guest capabilities, or ClassPass, or GymPass through your employer. Or a partner gym, which I think is a great way for regional clubs to cooperate across the country and the world.

Using location to find the nearest club is obviously easy. A Universal App could also adapt to partner clubs that aren’t part of your chain. Even if they visit some non-affiliated guest club, a slicker, up front “Record Workout” UI should make it fairly easy to track no matter where you are.

Hotels as Partners

When I searched for information for this article, I found there are some good options for hotels with great gyms. However, they appear to be sporadic. Most of them are in the upper echelon of brands (= expensive), and below that, hit or miss, there are some good ones across the country.

Aside from Sheraton’s collaboration with Core Performance in 2010, I’ve only found that some Marriott Fairfield Inn locations allow free access to Life Time Fitness. This was in 2017 and may still be available.

I think that this can work two different ways. One way is that clubs can partner locally with hotels to provide guest privileges for for nearby hotels. The other way is if there are some chains that take fitness more seriously, clubs can partner with them as a service to their members to direct fitness-minded members to stay in those hotels when traveling. It may, for now, be the higher priced hotels, but I think this is a good option to explore.

Having a particular chain as a partner for when your members travel can also be reflected in the Universal Club Application. Armed with a Location Manifest, the app can know what hotels participate and sort their options to the user when they detect the user is staying in those hotels.

Vacation

Finally there is vacation. For working out- all bets are off as to any form of normalcy. I do run, still, typically getting up before my wife. But there are many other choices for working out that you may not normally be able to do. Hiking, swimming, kayaking, snorkeling, etc… There are so many different options.

While the application cannot be expected to tell the difference between a business trip and vacation, at least without some form of invasive analytics, it can still operate in travel mode, melding in vacation types of workouts. It can also sort options by activities that are common to a certain area. Swimming, snorkeling and surfing are common in Hawaii, while Hiking is common in Alaska.

All in all, there’s a lot you can do while traveling. As long as you have some time to spare for working out- working off the restaurant meals and social drinks, there isn’t really much excuse for not working out. Your club application should support you.

The Need for Databases

One of the things a contextual app needs is data. Lots of it. The more data it has the more refined its suggestions. Finding hotels that have good gyms is not easy, which is why in the early days partnering with the more expensive ones that have good gyms is the easiest place to start. There is, however, a site called HotelGyms, who let you find hotels with good gyms or good gym partners that are nearby. Sadly, I checked, and San Jose has mostly 1.5 star gym rated hotels, with two 2-star and one 2.5 star (a Fairmont). The only well-rated one partnered with a full-service gym across the street.

Part 5 in the series will cover Working out at Work.