A Two-Day Programme at Three Houses
Kristina Snaith-Lense leads wellness across Swire Hotels and is the general manager of Upper House Shenzhen, which the brand states will open in 2027. The industry columnists Adam Mogelonsky and Larry Mogelonsky published an interview with her on 14 October 2026. She set out how the brand's House of Healing programme runs.
House of Healing is a two-day discovery offered at all three Upper House hotels in Hong Kong, Chengdu and Shanghai. It connects guests with resident practitioners through curated experiences that include Traditional Chinese Medicine acupuncture, Gyrotonic sessions, hair spa therapies, tea ceremonies and Gong sound journeys.
The column opens on the brand's operating principle, "Houses Not Hotels", and records that it has guided the three ultraluxury properties for longer than its use as a tagline. The columnists read the two-day frame as a response to how guests arrive in a metropolis, for short leisure stays, business trips, events or MICE, with healing low among the purposes of the trip. A two-day window, they write, keeps the programme workable inside a short stay.
Each House Curates Its Own Programme
Snaith-Lense described the programme as site-specific and said each House curates its own version. Upper House Hong Kong carries no dedicated spa inside its four walls, so its team delivers treatments into the guestroom. Those include in-room chakra and crystal rebalancing by Stone & Star, guided meditation and sound healing by May Nogoy, and red light and pulsed electromagnetic frequency therapy in partnership with Boncharge. She described the in-room work as recalibrating the nervous system, minimising travel anxiety, supporting sleep and reducing jet lag.
Upper House Shanghai blends social wellness, high-tech recovery and traditional practice inside its common spaces. Upper House Chengdu embraces a slower rhythm. "Each House curates its own program, so Hong Kong might lean into the pace of an urban sanctuary while Chengdu embraces something slower, closer to the rhythm of the city itself," she said. She added that wellness has to feel as considered and site-specific as the architecture does.
The reasoning runs through the city itself. "As Houses not Hotels, we lean into the uniqueness of each individual house and the beauty of the city in which they reside," she said.
Residencies Keep the Offer Moving
Snaith-Lense described the model as experience-led. The House of Healing staple sits alongside an always-on treatment menu, which the team refreshes with pop-ups, residencies, trials and events. "We love to bring in new practitioners and new offerings," she said.
The additions this year range from a Traditional Chinese Medicentre with Chain's and Hot Sculpt conditioning classes by And Sculpt in Hong Kong, to the first Hair & Scalp Spa by Zeva debuting at Upper House Chengdu, and a new reformer and Gyrotonic Pilates studio in Shanghai.
She gave testing as the operational purpose behind the rotation. Working this way lets the brand learn which offers hold demand in each market, and which do not, at lower investment risk. "A returning guest in September finds something they couldn't have had in May," she said.
Snaith-Lense traced the residency pipeline to a long-term friendship with Lindsay Jang, a consultant for Swire Hotels, and to bringing Family Form to Upper House Hong Kong. The brand's appetite for residencies grew from that step. She also credited the pandemic period with giving the team time and space to test and trial. She said a partnership has to show synergy on both sides.
What the Model Asks of the Property Team
House of Healing reaches guests through three routes. A guest can book a staycation with in-room treatments, buy a ticket to the two-day wellness discovery programme, or drop into a residency or group class during a regular stay. Snaith-Lense said the residencies are woven into the same unscripted, personalized hospitality that defines the rest of the Upper House experience.
"Social wellness resonates so strongly today with our audience because they revel in 'joining in' and sharing a collective experience," she said. The two days also include discussions over shared meals that cover gut health, posture and sleep. The programme was launched, she said, so guests and the wider community can sample practices without full commitment.
Technology and the Next Property
On high-tech wellness, Snaith-Lense said the tools in use include hyperbaric oxygen, red and near-infrared light therapy and full-spectrum infrared recovery. "Technology should disappear behind the experience of the treatment," she said. She named human touch as the test the team returns to. Any wearable or app, in her account, has to create ease and convenience for the guest.
"Shenzhen is an extraordinary, vibrant city shaped by the culmination of technology, art, culture, food, nature and remarkable forward momentum," she said. She noted the city's range of local boutique studios, gyms and day spas. In her account that range creates potential for distinctive wellness offerings that complement and add variety to the market.
On the direction of the brand's wellness work, she said future treatments at Upper House will take a personalised, data-driven approach designed to target specific needs and deliver measurable results, with local expertise paired alongside visiting international residencies.
What the Programming Model Relies On
The per-property structure rests on three things the interview sets out. Each House needs a working roster of practitioners in its own city, from resident experts to visiting names on a residency calendar. Each House needs the operational freedom to stage the two days in the space it holds, which for Hong Kong means guestrooms. The brand needs one owner of wellness who holds the format steady while local teams vary the content.