Dollars and Cents
The Brando’s Lagoon School costs about $81 per child per half-day session, pocket change for guests spending upward of $2,200 per night for a private pool villa. According to Danziger, guests can typically expect to pay $30 to $60 for half a day, or rarely more than $100 for full days, at kid’s clubs with daily rates. (Most cater to children aged 4 through 12.)
“It’s not a revenue play,” says Rosenbloum. “Hotels are doing this to compete. Otherwise, they’re not going to get business from the parents.”
Every Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton property now includes entry-level access to the kids’ club in the room rate, as does the Andaman in Langkawi. “If the kids are in the club, chances are the adults are spending money at the spa,” points out Danziger, who routinely books her clients at properties with complimentary kids clubs such as Nizuc Resort & Spa in Cancun, Mexico; Acqualina Resort, just north of Miami Beach, Fla.; and Banyan Tree Mayakoba in Mayakoba, Mexico.
Best Brands for Families
For companies with brand-wide initiatives, kids’ clubs don’t just drive demand. They also cement loyalty.
Hyatt was the earliest adopter. It introduced Camp Hyatt in the 1980s and revamped the program in 2009 in partnership with National Geographic Kids. Among the best examples of Camp Hyatt’s educational programming are the offerings at the new Park Hyatt St. Kitts, where children can take Zumba classes set to Caribbean soca music, learn about the St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network, or create their own petroglyph drawings on volcanic rocks.
At Andaz Mayakoba Resort Riviera Maya—a Hyatt property in Mexico—kids can learn to make piñatas and Huichol crafts, go on eco-themed boat tours, and even take Spanish lessons.
Four Seasons once shunted its Kids For All Seasons clubs into under-utilized hotel spaces, but Scott Taber, global senior vice president of rooms, says that this amenity has lately “become a very important part of the design and construction process.” The Mansion at the Four Seasons Orlando—effectively a kids-only castle—has a volcano that can be climbed and “erupts” with the touch of a button. Not every property has something so elaborate, but every Four Seasons is on board with the program in some fashion.
Newest on the scene is Ritz-Carlton’s Ritz Kids, which rolled out in December 2014. Its programming was developed in partnership with Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society. Sessions can include a class with a Bedouin falconry master at the Ritz-Carlton Ras Al Khaimah in the Al Wadi Desert outside Dubai, or coconut leaf weaving and educational walks through rice fields near Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
“By learning from nature and taking influences from local culture, kids learn how to take care of themselves—eating healthy and where their food comes from—as well as the stars, insects, and nature,” says Mandapa General Manager Ana Henriques, who helped develop Mandapa Camp.
What Comes Next
Ultimately, says Danziger, millennial and Gen Z travelers are more willing than their parents to put kids’ needs and desires ahead of their own: “They think: ‘This is my kids’ trip, and if we make it amazing for them, we make it amazing for us.’” Even Aman, one the most exclusive hotels in the world, will be getting on board. Amangiri, the brand’s remote hideaway in Canyon Point, is starting to offer paleontology-themed fossil hunts for guests aged 5 and up.