A head scratcher

It was bound to happen. The myth had to catch up to reality. But when the New York Times writes a story about it in their Sunday Business section it’s clear that the spa-goers are taking a stand in favor of across-the-board higher standards.

The story, entitled “Beyond the Body Wrap: What Makes a Spa Stand Out?” focuses on how spas—all 15,500 of those in the U.S. to the tune of $9.7 billion dollars this year alone, not to mention exponential users and revenues worldwide—have arrived at a day of reckoning.

I don’t mean to sound ominous about it, but like all industry phenoms, the spa industry, due in large part to its spectacularly quick and astronomical ascent, is finally being given the magnifying-glass test by being asked to reconcile their consistently steep prices with not-so-consistent services.

The article quotes users who say they’re disappointed how treatments can vary wildly from spa to spa but the one thing that remains consistent is the large fees. The most egregious are the resort and fancy hotels who think nothing of charging several hundred dollars for some treatments and, though anyone rarely complains about the fancy amenities, they often complain about the middling services they receive.

Can some kind of standards be set up and upheld? That was the question, and it’s a tricky one, especially since not even all of the states in the U.S. require working therapists to have licensing of any sort.

Susie Ellis', the prez of Spa Finder, suggestion is that when calling the spa to make your appointment you should not do what most of us do and ask who is the best therapist—they will only vexingly respond that all the therapists are great! No, instead, she says, you should ask who the most popular therapist is. I’m still thinking about that as a viable solution; after all winning the popularity contest could mean a lot of things, not least of which is that your appointment will probably not be tomorrow—or anytime soon. I'd rather ask who has the most training, or the most experience.

On the other hand, the senior VP of the Four Season’s Asia-Pacific operations, Neil Jacobs, maintains that high cost vs. low cost does not dictate quality. He suggests that getting a $5 massage on a beach in Thailand will fetch you just as good quality as their $150 version. So why don’t they just go to Thailand, recruit the best and charge something closer to $5?

I’m needling ol' Neil, of course, and I have a mind to call him. But come on! In the article I found one response simplistic and the other kind of patronizing.

Since I’ve been using up lots of brain cells lately trying to suss out how to cope with East vs. West training and styles, and especially how to make each spa experience the best ever, this article has only created more questions for me. You?