Frank Rösgen is worried about the coming winter, which should actually be the main season for the wellness entrepreneur. Rösgen's Siebengebirge sauna park in Königswinter near Bonn covers around 20,000 square meters of pools, saunas and spa area. But Rösgen is currently a long way from relaxation.
“The energy provider has already prepared us for a quadrupling of gas prices. If that really happens, it will become existential for our company," says Rösgen. Passing on the costs to his customers is not an option for the entrepreneur. “If we pass on the costs, demand will collapse. And that will go down in winter anyway, when the higher energy costs hit households,” says Rösgen.
The massively increased costs of heating with gas are not only affecting private households. The cost explosion plunges swimming pools, saunas and wellness facilities into crisis mode. In response, many private and municipal pools have already lowered pool temperatures. But that will hardly be enough in view of the further increase in gas prices. An autumn with dramatic developments threatens private companies in particular.
The German Wellness Association is already warning of insolvencies in the industry. Association chairman Lutz Hertel expects “some wellness providers” to go bankrupt “if not already this year, then by 2023 at the latest”. The German Sauna Association even fears that every fourth sauna operator in Germany will go bankrupt. Private companies, which have already suffered significant losses as a result of the pandemic, are particularly affected.
Customers should also soon feel the problems of the wellness facilities. Rising prices and a reduced range of pools and saunas could become a reality for those seeking relaxation in Germany from autumn. This development threatens providers with a devastating dynamic: Higher admission prices could also further reduce demand and increase the risk of insolvency for many companies.
An open letter sent by the German Sauna Association to Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) in July shows how dramatic the situation is for the industry. According to the letter, after the failures in the pandemic, the industry would now be hit for the second time by the energy bottlenecks “threatening its existence”. The energy crisis is threatening the existence of “hundreds of companies” in the 2,100 private and municipal public sauna facilities nationwide.
In fact, the sauna and wellness facilities were already among the big losers during the pandemic. Long closing times due to the corona measures, increased costs for infection protection and sometimes drastic restrictions on the number of visitors have characterized the sauna landscape since the outbreak of the pandemic.
The result: higher costs and lower income. In addition, many workers have fled due to the unfortunate situation of the sauna and wellness facilities. According to the Sauna Association, these could only be “recovered at great financial expense”.
Due to this situation, the sauna association sees it as “inevitable that state economic aid for the companies – as during the pandemic – is provided again”. The association appeals to Minister of Economics Habeck to "compensate for the economic losses in full". In addition, the association calls for “short-time work benefits with a full increase in wages and salaries” in order not to further aggravate the problematic personnel situation. The association has not yet received a response from Habeck.
The extent to which the energy price shock affects wellness facilities also depends on their size. “Wellness hotels, spa facilities and thermal baths with pools and saunas are more concerned about energy costs than smaller businesses that only specialize in wellness treatments such as massages, skin and body care,” says Lutz Hertel from the German Wellness Association.
Hertel sees two different solutions that its association members would pursue. On the one hand, wellness facilities would reduce energy-intensive offers. The operators would already lower room and water temperatures and close some saunas or pools completely or partially. The second solution is to maintain the usual service, which, however, would also mean higher admission prices. "Some companies also combine both ways," says Hertel.
In the case of hotels with a spa and wellness offer, the second route is likely to be taken. "The wellness hotels have to pass on the costs," says Michael Altewischer, managing partner of the wellness hotels and resorts. A restriction of services in the spa area is only possible to a very limited extent in view of the expectations of the guests. "Customers in wellness hotels have to be prepared for price increases of 15 to 40 euros per night," says Altewischer.
Sauna guests must also be prepared for price increases. According to a survey by the Sauna Association among its members, more than 40 percent of the saunas increased their admission prices in the first half of 2022, by an average of ten percent. Overall, around 80 percent of the sauna operators surveyed are planning to raise their prices by an average of 13 percent over the next 12 months.
For Lutz Hertel from the Wellness Association, the solution to the industry's problems could also lie in a paradigm shift, namely a return to the real meaning of the wellness movement. According to Hertel, this does not consist in bathing in warm water, but in the art of enjoying healthy living in everyday life, as best the living conditions allow. "But in our affluent society, this requires a completely different spirit, one that is based on less rather than more," says Hertel.
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