# Proper Hotel tests membership model beyond room bookings, reports Glossy

*The hospitality group layers subscription access and wellness partnerships to monetize guests who never check in.*

By **Jenny Huang Goodman MPA MSc MHSA, Principal** — The Stash Edge, Hako Shikin LLC.
Published 2026-09-23.

Canonical: https://www.pops4.com/stash/articles/proper-hotel-2026-09-23t15-7
Subject: Proper Hotel
Tags: membership, wellness, hospitality, partnerships, community, subscription

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Proper Hotel is running a membership play that treats the hotel lobby like a product category, not just a place to sleep. According to Glossy's Wellness Briefing, the hospitality group now offers tiered membership access to fitness programming, spa services, and co-working amenities across its properties, selling ongoing relationships rather than one-off room nights. Brian De Lowe, president and co-founder of Proper Hospitality, and Jamie Mark, senior vice president of memberships and partnerships, detailed the structure: members pay recurring fees for priority booking, discounted wellness treatments, and physical space access during daytime hours. The model turns hotel infrastructure—pools, gyms, treatment rooms, lobbies—into subscription real estate.

The mechanics are straightforward. Proper sells local memberships at each property, granting neighborhood access to facilities typically reserved for overnight guests. Members book fitness classes, use co-working lounges, and reserve spa slots at preferential rates. The hotel simultaneously partners with wellness brands to program the spaces, embedding third-party instructors, product trials, and branded experiences into the membership offer. Glossy reports that these partnerships generate both co-marketing lift and incremental revenue from retail sold on-site. The membership tier becomes the distribution channel: a captive, pre-qualified audience that the wellness brand cannot easily reach through standard retail.

The mechanism works because hotels operate with substantial underutilized daytime capacity. A **200**-room property with a spa, gym, and lobby lounge typically sees those amenities sit near-empty between checkout and late afternoon. By monetizing that slack through membership, the hotel converts fixed cost into recurring revenue without adding inventory. The wellness partnership layer amplifies the model: the brand gains access to an affluent, locally rooted audience; the hotel gains programming credibility and retail margin. The member perceives elevated value because the space offers more than generic hotel fitness—it becomes a curated wellness destination that happens to include room booking as one option among many.

A small physical-product brand in wellness or lifestyle can steal this exact structure without owning a hotel. Partner with a co-working space, boutique gym, or private social club in your target city. Offer the venue a revenue-share membership tier where your product anchors the wellness programming: monthly workshops, product sampling events, or exclusive access to limited releases. The venue provides the captive audience and physical space; you provide the content and product margin. Structure it as a **$49**-per-month add-on membership that includes one product shipment, priority event access, and discounted purchases. The venue collects the recurring fee, you split the margin on incremental product sold through the space. Run it in one city for **90** days, document retention and purchase frequency, then replicate the playbook in other markets with similar venue types. The key is treating your product as the programming, not the transaction—the membership creates the moat.

The broader pattern is clear: hospitality assets are becoming platform plays. The physical space is distribution, the membership is the business model, and the product or service inside the membership is what drives retention. Proper is testing whether guests value access more than occupancy. The answer determines whether your product needs a storefront or just needs to be inside someone else's.

## The takeaway

Proper Hotel monetizes empty daytime capacity through wellness memberships, turning lobbies into subscription platforms.

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## Publisher

**Hako Shikin LLC** — Virginia Beach, Virginia. Founded 1997. ASI 217876 · DUNS 18-204-6339.
Principal and author: **Jenny Huang Goodman MPA MSc MHSA**.

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