Hotel jogging maps: pocket maps vs MapMyRun vs Strava vs RunGo

With interest in outdoor fitness growing quickly, hotels are rushing to add outdoor running, walking, hiking, and biking options into their guest amenities.

Here is a progressing comparison of the ways a hotel property can provide this:

Local knowledge

Concierge and front office staff can explain or point to where to head out of the lobby, what to look for, and how to find their way back to the hotel.

They may take an existing local, paper map and annotate more specifically.

Printed jogging maps

Now we're getting somewhere!

Some hotels, like Westin’s RunWestin program, have some real recommendations of where to run and have dedicated a specific resource for this.

These are usually small, pocket-sized maps, often placed at a morning jogging station or with the concierge.

The challenge for guests is that they're tiny, difficult to follow, and offer no context where the guest is at any moment.

For those reasons, the routes are always simplified, and they're usually out-and-backs.

Life is too short for out-and-back routes, especially when you're travelling!

Digital Google route

Some hotels create their routes using Google Maps.

The guest of today appreciates digital versions and saving paper when it's easy.

Hotel staff can share those routes through links to guests or on their website.

This offers an interactive map with which guests can play around.

However, the guest still needs to memorize the route in some way.

Digital running route with MapMyRun, Strava, or other running app

These apps are recognizable for the topic around running, and the routes can more easily come with you on your device, if you use the accompanying running app.

The form factor fits better with guest expectations.

However, MapMyRun is an ad-driven business, so the guest will interact with many ads during their experience.

And guests will have to refer to the route on a map on their phone frequently during their run to stay on course.

Routes on RunGo

The popular running app RunGo is the second largest platform for digital running routes, and the largest without ads or 3rd party tracking.

RunGo offers the only way to create routes and then edit all the turn messages, add custom messages, and include points of interest (POIs).

Beyond that, RunGo routes can be embedded onto a hotel website with the best looking route embed. Route embeds are interactive, with your hotel POI, elevation chart, and all the waypoints, so guests can play with the route in advance.

Routes are also embeddable in hotel mobile apps.

The guest run experience

We are then left with the remaining challenge, of how do guests follow these routes?

With RunGo, guests can put their iPhone, Android, or Apple Watch down, and be guided with turn-by-turn voice navigation.

This allows guests, even in new cities, even running solo, to follow complex loops effortlessly without ever getting lost.

Run with your guest, anytime

On top of the audio navigation, hotels can add the voices of the front office team, general manager, head of fitness, or local sports heroes to motivate, lead, and tell stories about the route and things the guests are passing.

These experiences are building personable relationships between guests and hotel teams.

As outdoor fitness is quickly on the rise, especially for hotel travellers, offering outdoor fitness options is a must for 2021.

Why wait? Build your running program for guests now.