LA JOLLA – There’s a new question that today’s travelers are asking, said Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa General Manager Eric Jenkins.
“‘Do they have the wellness I am used to?’” Jenkins said. “Because everyone gets up and they have a workout routine, they have a juice routine or they’ve done their meal prep for the week, and they know they can eat what is right for their body… They want to know that I don’t have to pack a suitcase to bring my wellness experience with me.”
Wellness is making a name for itself in the tourism industry, and Estancia has decided to put the trend into practice to meet demand.
Last year was Estancia’s first full year of making its nonalcoholic wellness bar The Remedy Lounge a permanent fixture at the hotel.
In that time, The Remedy Lounge contributed 50% of mocktail sales for the property and approached $200,000 in sales, bolstered by wedding and group buyouts. The resort’s overall mocktail growth experienced a 1685% increase from 2024 to 2025.
“We’re really proud of the experience,” Jenkins said. “Midway through the seasonal pop-up bar that we thought this was going to be, we decided this is now a permanent part of who we are… We run a for-profit business, and we found that this was the best for-profit option for business.”
Closing a Market Gap
The Remedy Lounge started out as seasonal pop-up Bloom Bar in 2024, founded to address a gap in the regional hospitality market. After noting the success of the concept — and its made-from scratch menu of wellness elixirs and thoughtful mocktails — Jenkins knew that the lounge needed to stick around.
Now, the bar partners with brands like Native Poppy, J’enway Tea and Cymbiotika to bring a curated, immersive experience to guests.
“We recognized the wellness trend,” Jenkins said. “On this property, the spa has always been a big part of what we do, but the spa wasn’t a big part of the hotel operation. It was a thing that was a part of us, but it hadn’t reached out and touched the rest of the operation.
So, we were really trying to figure out ways to bring wellness into the property.”
The lounge is set up in spare bar space that Estancia already had on property. In total, the hotel invested about $10,000 in décor, menu development and new equipment including a centrifuge, carbonator and ultrasonic infuser used by Lead Mixologist Luis Tovar Zarate to craft unique elixirs.
Jenkins said that the wellness trend is an evolution of guests’ increased desire for convenience, which has previously manifested in technological improvements at hospitality sites.
“There was a probably a decade-long trend where everyone wanted to make sure that the technology in the hotel was up to par,” Jenkins said. “Because what people want is the comforts of their home with the experiences of being somewhere new and exciting.”
The Remedy Lounge has become the space where Estancia closes out their wedding events.
The property also offers creations from the lounge on menus throughout the hotel and spa and can cater events held on site.
Attention-to-detail is a central part of the lounge’s efficacy. Drink garnishes and ingredients are largely sourced from Estancia’s gardens. The highest number of garnishes made for the bar were 120 mini white chocolate ducks for its Crystal Clear Espresso Martini.
Trend Resonating in San Diego’s Tourism Market
Jenkins said he believes that The Remedy Lounge is the only nonalcoholic wellness bar of its kind on a hotel property.
“Usually the hotel answer to that is put some yoga classes on the menu,” Jenkins said. “If they want wellness, they can do yoga. But that’s tired.”
As Estancia enters the new year, the hotel plans to continue marketing the lounge as an amenity to travelers.
“They know that the lifestyle here is healthier than a lot of places that you can visit, and so that’s appealing to people,” Jenkins said. “One — it’s an extension of their own lifestyle.
Two — they want to go and experience something that’s different than other cities can offer… I think San Diego as a whole speaks to wellness tourism in the broader market.
We’re just trying to play our little part in that.”
Another hospitality trend driving innovation at Estancia is the focus on experiential offerings.
“The beauty of hospitality is that we aren’t a transaction business. We’re an experience business,” Jenkins said. “I think that’s what people are looking for now. They’re looking for a real connection. They’re looking for something that’s a little more personalized to them.”
While the concept has been successful at Estancia, Jenkins said that he foresees that it will be most lucrative, not as a standalone concept, but as an offering supported by other hotels and resorts that are able to make the financial investment.
“I think people are going to be demanding this,” Zarate said. “I think people it’s going to reflect in the sales. It’s going to reflect in the experience. I think that this is going to be something that eventually institutions will have to do.”
Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa
FOUNDED: 2004
GENERAL MANAGER: Eric Jenkins
HEADQUARTERS: La Jolla
BUSINESS: Hospitality
EMPLOYEES: 269
REVENUE: 2024 to 2025 – 10% increase YOY
WEBSITE: estancialajolla.com
CONTACT: (858) 412-0100
SOCIAL IMPACT: Estancia La Jolla’s on-site apiary and adjacent Chef’s Garden champion biodiversity and sustainable sourcing.
NOTABLE: Before it became a La Jolla hideaway, Estancia La Jolla was a premier equestrian estate known as Blackhorse Farm, home to championship thoroughbreds — including Cover Up, a Hollywood Gold Cup winner.
Born and raised in San Diego, Madison takes great pride in local storytelling. Her coverage at the San Diego Business Journal includes tourism, hospitality, nonprofits, education and retail. An alumna of San Diego State University’s journalism program, she has written for publications including The San Diego Union-Tribune and The San Diego Sun. At the 2024 San Diego Press Club awards, Madison was recognized for her exemplary profile writing. She was also a speaker for the 2023 TEDx Conference at Bonita Vista High School. When she’s not working on her next story, Madison can be found performing music at a local restaurant or on one of San Diego’s many hiking trails.
