Your Hotel Already Knows You're a Gemini
To lure in new guests, hotels are increasingly turning to astrology. Why not embrace the trend?
Last August, tarot reader and mindfulness coach Effie Kalaitzidis led a group of 20 clients out onto a Chicago hotel terrace to bask in the glow of the summer sunset. Each guest sat in a wooden chair and clutched a crystal they’d previously selected—pyrite, black onyx, peridot, etc. Kalaitzidis then taught them how to cleanse, charge, and meditate with their chosen stone.
When she was done, she turned her attention to the sun. They were there for the evening to greet the new moon in Leo, but the main character would be that glowing source of Vitamin D. Guests were instructed to absorb the sunlight, and pay attention to how it felt on their skin. They were taught to set their intentions, in journals they were gifted. They talked about the importance of unplugging, and taking in the external, warm energy. “Leo is ruled by the sun,” explained Kalatzidis. “The sun is very energizing, especially in the month of August.”
In the 1970s, they used to call this stuff New Age. Now, this new spirituality is practically the norm.
This kind of new moon ritual and the terminology surrounding it is nothing new if you’re familiar with astrology. Heck, even if you’re not. These days, stars and planets guide everything from new bar openings—like the recent Little Dipper in New York where you can order a drink inspired by your sign—to vacation planning, a.k.a., “astrocartography,” or using the stars to dictate where you should travel. Meanwhile, “aromastrology” pairs stars and scents. Zodiac signs are considered with food, fashion, dating, job selection, finances, sex positions, pets and anything else you can think of.
In the 1970s, they used to call this stuff New Age. Now, this new spirituality is practically the norm. A 2023 Harris Poll concluded that more people knew their astrology sign than their blood type. So a new moon ritual is not unusual—for most places.
But this terrace where Effie Kalaitzidis led her group wasn’t most places. While you may expect such transcendental offerings at the hotels in cities like Sedona, Arizona—where red rocks lure believers with the promise of reaching higher planes—or Ojai, California, where, nestled in mountain ranges (ojai means “nest,” named by the Chumash Indians), a belief in mysticism is practically a prerequisite, this was held at the very tony, very urban Waldorf Astoria Hotel Chicago. The same Waldorf Astoria with throwback Gilded Age design and rooms that cost upwards of $500 a night. The very one that was recently bestowed a “one key” designation (“a very special stay”) by the fancy new Michelin hotel rankings. The same one in a neighborhood so high end, so luxurious, so rooted in materialism, they call it the Gold Coast.
How would the aspirational luxury of new moon guidance fit into the concrete luxury of it all?
Throw a talisman these days and you’ll find hotels teeming with metaphysical offerings. Tarot is on the menu at the 1 Hotel West Hollywood. Aura cleansing is available at the Mining Exchange Hotel in Colorado Springs. The W Fort Lauderdale’s “It Was Written in the Stars” package includes zodiac-themed cocktails. Even the spa at the Waldorf Astoria Chicago was already lightly indoctrinated by the time Kalaitzidis waltzed in two years ago to apply for her job as a spa attendant. They offered gem-infused water for post-spa treatments, and sold jewelry from a designer named Kelly Cimber that incorporated crystals.
Mystic amenities have become so common that establishments are beginning to flex. Kilolani Spa at Hawaii’s Grand Wailea—another Waldorf Astoria property—provides an in-house astrologer and centers spa treatments around the Hawaiian moon calendar, while last year, the Algonquin Hotel—the same one with the round table and the highbrow literary pedigree—introduced a Hex and the City package, featuring resident tarot reader and wellness influencer Rebecca Szymczak, or Cardsy B, who has an affinity for wearing all black and designed her own deck inspired by (what else?) Sex and the City.
During a recent stay at the Kimpton Everly Hotel in Hollywood, in view of the Hollywood Sign and right around the corner from the Walk of Fame, I sat on the pool deck with Jodi Mannis, a former graphic designer who now creates large cookies that resemble crystals. I was instructed to choose a cakey dessert based on which “crystal” I was drawn to, and then she gave me a reading.
Afterwards, though, I was faced with a dilemma. Should I eat my cookie crystal? Or keep it for future guidance? I threw it in the freezer to decide later.
Though astrology and spiritual mysticism feels ubiquitous in the world now, in the past few years the growth has been nothing short of exponential. Millennials have made astrology practically a second language, and Gen Z isn’t far behind. In 2021, the global astrology market was valued at $12.8 billion; by 2031 it’s projected to reach $22.8 billion. Of course hotels are going to latch on; while they pare down on amenities in some ways and boost resort fees in others, providing mindfulness and fortune-telling guidance for their guests is cheap, easy, aspirational luxury.
Those in the know point partially to the pandemic for the spurt of curiosity. “There was so much time for everyone to explore all sorts of things that were going to bring them peace, joy, and harmony while they were locked inside their houses,” says Kelly Gasspari-Fleming, spa director at the Waldorf Astoria Chicago. People simply had the time to research myriad witchy taboos. “I think it was only natural that everyone would migrate into a wellness world where they might explore more in terms of spa treatments and spiritual awakenings,” Gasspari-Fleming adds.
But mystic amenities in hotels can be attributed to the actual setting, too. Travel spaces are fleeting, and out of the daily norm, making them especially ripe for discovering new things. I don’t know any other time, for example, that I would go out of my way to try eating a cookie that was baked to look like a crystal, unless the opportunity was right in front of me.
“Travelers especially are searching for an opportunity to disconnect from whatever their realities are,” says Gary D’Andre, a queer Black mystic, healer, podcaster, and writer, who in May released Tarot for You and Me, an LGBTQ+ deck offering depictions and language of an underrepresented community. “Spiritual offerings give them the opportunity to reconnect to a different part of themselves outside of whatever they may be accustomed to seeing on a daily basis.
“If people are just like, ‘I want to have some fun, get some guidance, and don’t necessarily have access to this in my normal reality,’ why not do something a little different?”
It’s thus ironic—or maybe inevitable—that it was the pandemic that launched Kalaitzidis’s career at the Waldorf. Prior to March 2020 she worked in the beauty industry as a professional makeup artist for brands like MAC and Nars. When public-facing jobs dried up, she leaned into her love of tarot reading. “I was practicing tarot on friends and family. I was really tapping into my own spiritual gifts and having really big awakening moments, really feeling in touch with signs from the universe,” she explains.
A friend convinced her to put a reading up on TikTok, and the thing went viral. She started doing her own readings, and experimented with blogging and an astrology podcast. She took the spa-attendant job at the Waldorf initially so she could do something mindless for money so she could focus on her passion. “I didn’t want to be pouring from an empty cup. I didn’t want to be offering readings just from a place of, okay, I need to pay bills,” she says.
At the spa, though, she gave tarot readings to coworkers, to positive results. It didn’t take much convincing then for them to allow her to design a new moon ritual geared toward spa clientele, appealing to both the jaded regulars and those who save up to splurge on themselves, the two types of visitors she sees.
It also helped that her rituals are a creative way to make sales. That was the clincher to the pitch—the rituals would include products sold at the spa. At that first event in Leo last August, guests were introduced to the Balmain Sun Protection Spray for their hair. “So when you were going out and experiencing your sun ritual for the day, you were protecting your hair while you were enjoying the outdoors,” explains Kalaitzidis.
It’s mindfulness plus mysticism plus spa product sales.
This August marks a year since that first new moon in Leo, and another sun-focused ritual returns on August 4. Tickets are $111 and sold through Eventbrite.
Since last August, the Waldorf has also been exploring new metaphysical avenues. Kalaitzidis will soon start doing private tarot readings at the spa, and they’ll be adding things like sound baths to spa treatments as well. But as normalized as it becomes at the Waldorf, Kalaitzidis sometimes does catch herself in an absurd situation. Like when she was planning the ritual for the new moon in Gemini, a sign ruled by Mercury, the planet of communications, and needed letters and phrases for poetry prompts. She cut them out of copies of the Wall Street Journal left behind by a billionaire spa client, who comes in weekly for a nail service.
Similarly, there was the time a group of CEOs booked a private session. “One of them was hosting his business partners for a trip,” she says. “They had a lineup of meetings set up in the hotel that week, and he wanted to start the meetings with something a little bit out of the box.”
The men wore athleisure and sat “criss-cross applesauce,” on the Pilates floor while she led them in breathwork, had them select crystals to take home, and guided them in meditation down a path to open a box in their mind’s eye. When Kalaitzidis asked if they were willing to share what they found, one offered that a box held a photograph of his father. Another said it was a pair of his first Air Jordans.
Kalaitzidis was pleasantly surprised. “They were super receptive to it,” she tells me. “Just to see their willingness to try and to open themselves up to that experience—that was really amazing for me.”