In January 2025 a boutique hotel “Under the Beeches” (name changed at the owners’ request) — 20 rooms in the Lake District — ordered a Gym Box 9×3 Premium for £20,000 plus £1,600 of groundworks. Fourteen months after commissioning we have the data: room rate up 8%, Booking review score +0.3 points, the projected 2.5-year ROI hit in 22 months. Below the project broken down into its parts.
Starting point — “Under the Beeches”
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Location | Lake District, 5 miles from a popular fellwalking route |
| Rooms | 20 (including 4 apartments) |
| Average room rate (2024) | £92/night |
| Annual occupancy (2024) | 60% |
| Room-nights per year | 4,380 |
| Annual room revenue | £402,960 |
| Guest mix | 60% weekend tourists, 25% business (workation), 15% families |
| Existing wellness offer | Finnish sauna + hot tub (2022), no gym |
In the 2024 guest survey, 42% of guests in post-stay feedback identified “no gym” as the main minus of the offer. Of those, 18% said outright that “next time we’d book a property with a gym”.
Choosing the kit — why the Gym Box 9×3 Premium
The owners considered three options:
- Convert the main building basement — cost ~£28,000 (breaking out the slab, structural reinforcement, insulation, MVHR, flue through three floors). Time: 4 months of partial closure.
- Convert an unused orangery — cost ~£15,000, but winter temperature hard to hold, damp risk, no ventilation.
- Gym Box 9×3 Premium in the back garden — cost £20,000 + £1,600 for groundworks. Time: 3 working days from delivery to first session.
They picked option 3. The arguments:
- ✔ No invasive works in the main building (no rooms closed),
- ✔ Eligible to be filed as a permitted-development outbuilding,
- ✔ Garden location among mature trees → an extra aesthetic asset for the Booking.com photoset,
- ✔ If the concept fails — the Gym Box can be sold on the second-hand market keeping 60–65% of its value after three years.
Gym Box configuration
Inside the 27 m² unit:
- Power rack with pull-up bar,
- Olympic barbell 20 kg + 130 kg of plates,
- Adjustable dumbbells 2.5–32 kg (pairs),
- Concept2 RowErg,
- Technogym Skill Run (compact, folding),
- Mobility zone (mat, foam roller, kettlebells 8–24 kg),
- 200×120 cm mirror, Bluetooth audio, 3.5 kW inverter AC,
- 43” TV for on-demand workout streaming (Apple TV).
Total kit cost included in the Premium package at £20,000 — no add-ons.
Communication — how the hotel marketed the new offer
Step 1 (February 2025): updated the listing on Booking.com, hotels.com, Expedia. Added to the amenities list: “24/7 gym with key-card access”. The “property with gym” filter on Booking unlocked visibility to +27% of users searching the area.
Step 2 (March 2025): refreshed the photo set — 4 new shots of the Gym Box (exterior in the trees, interior, equipment, mobility zone). Booking automatically promoted the property by 2 places in the default sort.
Step 3 (April 2025): raised the room rate by 8% (from £92 to £99/night). Apartments by 12%.
Step 4 (May 2025): Instagram campaign and local Facebook groups around “workation in the Lakes” — pitching the gym + fast Wi-Fi + desk in every room. Captured a new segment (IT freelancers, 5–7 nights average).
Results after 14 months (February 2026)
| Metric | Before (2024) | After (2025–2026) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average room rate | £92 | £99 | +8% |
| Annual occupancy | 60% | 64% | +4 pp |
| Room-nights/year | 4,380 | 4,672 | +292 |
| Annual room revenue | £402,960 | £462,528 | +£59,568 |
| Booking review score | 8.7 | 9.0 | +0.3 |
| Default-sort position | 14 | 6 | +8 places |
| Business / workation share | 25% | 38% | +13 pp |
ROI calculation
Conservative assumptions — we count only additional gross profit on room revenue (the price uplift and occupancy lift), with no secondary effects (F&B, wellness, guest retention):
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Gym Box 9×3 Premium investment | £20,000 |
| Groundworks + connections | £1,600 |
| Total gross investment | £21,600 |
| Room revenue lift (+8% × 4,380 nights) | +£32,170/year |
| Occupancy lift (+292 nights × £99) | +£28,908/year |
| Total additional gross revenue | +£61,078/year |
| Hotel room margin (after VAT, variable costs) | ~52% |
| Additional operating profit | ~£31,761/year |
| Gym Box running cost (electricity, service, cleaning) | ~£650/year |
| Net annual profit | ~£31,111/year |
| Projected ROI | £21,600 / £31,111 = 8.3 months |
| Actual ROI (allowing for ramp-up) | ~22 months |
Real ROI ran longer than the arithmetic because:
- The first quarter (February–April 2025) had no price uplift and partial marketing effect yet — additional revenue was ~30% of the target.
- The 2024/25 winter was weak (mild, little snow) — the year-on-year comparison understated the gym effect.
- The hotel spent ~£2,500 extra on the marketing campaign, which we didn’t load onto the kit cost.
➜ The hotel recovered 100% of the investment in 22 months. From month 23, the gym generates ~£2,600/month of clean operating profit.
Running costs — full list
| Item | Annual cost |
|---|---|
| Electricity (AC + lighting + screen) | ~£380 |
| Equipment service 2×/year | £170 |
| Cleaning (3×/week, 30 min) | absorbed in existing FTE |
| Cleaning supplies, towels | £80 |
| Apple TV / streaming subscription | £40 |
| Annual total | £670 |
No staff cost — the gym runs itself (RFID guest access, CCTV, smoke detection routed to reception). See also our unmanned gym investment guide.
Secondary effects we didn’t load into ROI
- Review score lift from 8.7 to 9.0 — according to Booking research, every +0.1 score point lifts booking probability by ~9%. The hotel moved from “Very Good” to “Wonderful”.
- OTA filters — Booking has a dedicated “property with gym” filter. Turning the filter on used to exclude “Under the Beeches” in 2024 — from 2025 it’s visible on +27% of searches.
- F&B and wellness halo — business/workation guests stay longer (5–7 nights vs 2.3 average for weekend tourists). Higher restaurant and spa spend per stay.
- PT sessions — the hotel invited a local PT once a week in season. £25/person added to the room rate, average 3 people/session = ~£900/year extra.
What didn’t go right — honest warnings
✗ National Park constraints — the hotel sits 200 m from a protected landscape boundary. The local planning officer asked for a darker exterior finish (anthracite over the standard black). Extra cost: £560, delay: 3 weeks.
✗ Wi-Fi — the first router didn’t reach the Gym Box (35 m from the main building, trees in the line of sight). They had to add a PoE access point and a duct cable — £300 and 2 days of downtime.
✗ First 2 months — guests who’d booked before the price uplift (4–6 months ahead) used the gym “for free”. Fine in principle, but it distorted Q1 2025 revenue numbers.
What to think through before copying the case
| Your hotel profile | Recommended Gym Box |
|---|---|
| B&B 8–15 rooms | 8×3 Standard from £23,500 gross |
| Boutique hotel 15–25 rooms | 9×3 Premium from £20,000 gross |
| Mid-size hotel 25–50 rooms | 7×5 studio-level from £21,000 net |
| Resort 50+ rooms | 2× 7×5 module or bespoke build |
Full hospitality offer: hotel gym and how a hotel justifies a Gym Box.
Summary
“Under the Beeches” recovered the investment in 22 months. From month 23, it generates +£31,000/year of profit from an asset that runs itself and carries a 10-year structural warranty. The full effect (reviews + OTA filters + business segment) was visible only in year 2 — the first 6 months are pure marketing ramp-up.
A 22-month ROI is typical for boutique hotels in the £75–£130/night segment. For budget properties (£40–£70/night) the ROI stretches to 36–48 months, but still sits comfortably inside the asset’s 10-year amortisation window with plenty of margin.
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