Here I am back to my blogging to continue creating awareness and waves of spa & wellness education.
A Spa cannot be properly evaluated without understanding the hotel and the ecosystem in which it operates.
In the hospitality industry, when a Spa does not achieve the expected results, the first intention and automatic reflex is often to analyse the Spa itself: the team, the Spa Manager (what is she doing wrong or not enough), therapists, treatment menu, pricing, sales, protocols, and so on.
But in many cases, these are only the symptoms, the overall effects. The real causes may lie elsewhere — particularly within the wider hotel operation. A Spa is part of a hotel ecosystem, and its performance is influenced by almost every component of the property: positioning, strategy, marketing, sales, Front Office, HR, Finance, F&B, operations and, above all, organisational culture. Nothing new under the sun so far…But this is precisely why it matters. When conducting a Spa audit, the question should not only be: “What is not working in the Spa? ”It should be: “What within the hotel is preventing the Spa from reaching its full potential?”
10 QUESTIONS A GENERAL MANAGER SHOULD ASK and CHECK BEFORE SAYING THAT THE SPA IS UNDERPERFORMING
1. Does the Spa have a strategy — or it has simply a treatment menu? A successful Spa needs a clear concept, identity, positioning and target audience. We cannot sell to everyone, everything. Honestely, it is like having a shawarma with everything on it. It may be tasty (for a while), but how suitable is it for someone who is on a diet, for instance? More importantly, different types of Spa businesses require completely different strategies. An urban Spa, a medical resort, a wellness retreat and a luxury hotel Spa have different clients, different objectives, different operational models and different commercial strategies. In Romania, currently, it seems we still copy and paste same recipe for all types of spas, no matter its concept, size, DNA, location. Dear all, one size does not fit all.
2. Is the Spa integrated into the hotel's commercial strategy?Or even better when the yearly budget was done was it any promotional strategy incorporating the spa? Is the Spa promoted during the booking process? Is it presented at check-in? Is it included in hotel packages? Is it actively sold to corporate and MICE clients? Is there collaboration with Revenue Management and Sales? If the answer is “no”, by all means, we cannot reasonably hold the Spa solely responsible for its lack of revenue or ultimate success.The Spa needs to be part of the hotel's commercial ecosystem — not treated as a separate island.
3. Does Front Office know how to sell the Spa? A receptionist, concierge or even a bellboy saying: “We also have a Spa on the ground floor.”…is not really upselling. In fact, it may have the opposite effect. Compare that with a receptionist who identifies a guest's needs and says: “If you would like to relax after your journey, we have a 50-minute spa signature ritual that I would highly recommend.” That creates a sales opportunity. This is why cross-departmental training is essential. Everyone who interacts with the guest can influence the Spa guest experiences.
4. Does Marketing communicate the Spa — or simply display it? Beautiful photographs are not enough. The guest needs to understand:
• Why this Spa?
• Who is it for?
• What need does it address?
• What experience will they have?
• What result or feeling can they expect?
• Why should they come back? I have said this on many occasions: A Spa should sell an experience, an emotion and a result — not simply a treatment.
5. Is the pricing strategy correct? Pricing should not be determined simply by looking at competitors and copying their rates. We need to consider:
• Hotel positioning
• Target clientele
• Operating costs
• Treatment duration
• Therapist productivity
• Therapist availability
• Demand
• Peak and off-peak periods
• Perceived value
• Product mix
The old copy-and-paste approach from the competitor next door is simply not enough anymore.Your price should reflect your value proposition — not just your neighbour's price list.
6. Are therapists busy — or simply just present in the spa? A Spa can have a large team and still have very low productivity.
Some of the KPIs that should be analysed constantly include:
• Treatment Room Utilisation
• Therapist Productivity
• Revenue per Treatment Room
• Average Treatment Value
• Peak vs. Off-Peak Demand
Sometimes the problem is not the number of therapists. It is capacity management, scheduling and yield management. Having people on the payroll does not automatically mean having a productive Spa, as simple as it sounds.
7. What happens to the guest after they enter the hotel?
The entire Customer Journey needs to be analysed: Booking → Pre-arrival → Check-in → Spa Discovery → Booking → Arrival → Treatment → Retail → F&B → Departure → Follow-up → Repeat Visit
If there is a break somewhere along this journey, both revenue and guest satisfaction can suffer. Imagine a river flowing efortlessy, it is the same idea with the guest journey, nothing should feel fake, scripted or rushed or ungenuine. The Spa experience does not begin when the guest enters the treatment room. And it certainly does not end when the treatment is finished.
8. Is HR truly supporting the Spa? A Spa is, first and foremost, a people-driven business. If there is high staff turnover, inadequate training, poor recruitment, lack of career development or weak leadership, Spa performance will inevitably be affected. We cannot demand excellence from a team in which we are not willing to invest. People are not a cost to be minimised. They are a core part of the Spa world.
9. Is management measuring the right KPIs?
Revenue alone is not enough. We need to understand what generates that revenue and how healthy the business actually is.
A proper audit from hotel management should analyse, among other things:• Occupancy & utilisation• Therapist productivity• Average spend• Retail conversion• Memberships• Repeat guests• Local vs. hotel guests• No-shows & cancellations• Payroll• Cost of goods• Profitability• Guest satisfaction
What gets measured gets managed.
10. Has the entire hotel been analysed before judging the Spa? In my opinion, this is perhaps the most important question. If the Spa has very few bookings (insufficient), we need to look at marketing, distribution and visibility. If it has guests but low revenue, we need to analyse pricing and product mix. If it generates good revenue but low profitability, we need to examine costs and productivity. If there are guest complaints, we need to analyse the Customer Journey. If the team is demotivated, we need to look at leadership and HR. If the Spa is practically invisible to hotel guests, we need to examine internal communication and the hotel's guest engagement strategy. The apparent problem and the real cause can be two completely different things.
SPA AUDIT ≠ SPA INSPECTION
An inspection checks whether things are being done correctly. A real audit goes deeper, it tries to understand: WHY is this Spa not performing?
That is why I believe in a 360° approach to Spa evaluation. In my case I do not analyse only the treatment rooms, therapists and treatments. I analyse the entire ecosystem: HOTEL STRATEGY↓BRAND & POSITIONING↓SALES & MARKETING↓FRONT OFFICE & GUEST JOURNEY↓HR & TRAINING↓OPERATIONS↓FINANCE & KPI↓SPA PRODUCT & EXPERIENCE↓GUEST SATISFACTION & RETENTION
Because a Spa can be very good, with a nice design and still perform poorly. And, of course, a Spa that appears to have only minor operational issues may actually be reflecting much deeper problems originating outside the Spa.
THE CONCLUSION
A Spa does not operate in isolation. Spa is not an island. It is an extension of the hotel brand and an important part of the total guest experience. Therefore, before changing the Spa Manager (or simply balming it), replacing the team or redesigning the treatment menu, perhaps we should ask a more uncomfortable question: “If the Spa is the problem, what are we, as a hotel, doing that contributes to the problem?” Because a good consultant does not simply come in and tell you what is wrong. An experienced consultant looks for the root cause, the connections and the right solution. And sometimes, in order to fix the Spa, we need to start by auditing the hotel in correlationwith the Spa.
I remember while I used to be International Judge for Spa & Wellness Awards (London) as part our visits whether we were Official Judge or Mistery Judge the entire process was accurately evaluating major aspects of the hotel primarly, before we were diving deep the spa aspects, and it makes a whole lots of sense.
Treat the causes, and the symptoms will definitely improve. SPA IS NOT AN ISLAND. There is no doubt. It is part of the hotel ecosystem. Audit the whole picture. Find the real cause. Build the right solution.
Thank you for your time reading me.