INTERVIEW KATIE BARNES » MANAGING EDITOR » SPA BUSINESS
Starwood Hotels & Resorts has over 300 spas in its portfolio, with 150
more in development. We talk to the woman
shaping the brands and the man charged with overseeing the global growth of the spas
Mia Kyricos & Jeremy McCarthy C
onsidering she has three existing global spa brands to look aſt er, plus another two in development – oh, and a wedding to plan – Mia
Kyricos, the director of global spa brands and programming at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc, is remarkably calm. In fact, she talks about creating a world-
wide spa concept in such a matter of fact way that it’s hard to imagine the work involved.
“We call it a ‘spa in a box’,” she explains. “I come up with everything from the initial idea and the design and development tools, to creating a menu and signature treatments and the marketing collateral. “It does get easier. T is year we’re going
to launch our fi ſt h in-house concept and we’ve perfected our formula on how to cre- ate a brand. Now it’s less about the stress and more about enjoying the process.” Starwood Hotels & Resorts, one of the
world’s largest hotel and leisure companies (see p28), has offered spas at its various venues for many years. However, it only
PERSONAL FILES MIA KYRICOS & JEREMY McCARTHY
What’s your favourite book? mk T e Alchemist by Paulo Coelho jm Nonzero by Robert Wright
What’s your favourite film? mk Dan In Real Life jm T e Shawshank Redemption
Where is your favourite spa? mk Kirana Spa in Bali jm Rancho La Puerta in Mexico
What’s your favourite spa treatment? mk refl exology jm a shiatsu massage
What do you do for fun? mk cook, entertain and workout (in that order) jm surfi ng and beach volleyball
What’s your favourite food? mk Mediterranean or Asian, but a good dark chocolate trumps everything jm Sushi
24 Read Spa Business online
spabusiness.com / digital
Who do you most admire? mk My twin sister, Gina, whose daily work makes the lives of adolescents so much better jm T ere are many people, it wouldn’t be fair to single someone out
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? mk You regret the things you don’t do, far more than those you do… so do them jm Focus on what is important, not what is urgent
SPA BUSINESS 3 2010 ©Cybertrek 2010
introduced its own in-house spa brands rela- tively recently. T e fi rst two, arriving in 2004, were Heavenly Spa by Westin and AWAY Spa by W. T en, in May 2010, the Shine Spa for Sheraton rollout was revealed; and by the end of this year, there will be another two: Explore Spa by Le Méridien and an in-house brand (still unnamed) for St Regis hotels. Today, Starwood has 56 existing branded spa solutions, with a staggering 78 more facili- ties on the way (see p26).
SPOTLIGHT ON SPA T e driving force behind getting these spa brands to market is Kyricos, who says she’s always had a passion for integrative health and wellness. “I come from a Greek/Ameri- can family and my grandmother always had some sort of spa remedy for any ailment,” she recalls. “Massage was something she administered to us when we were younger, plus I grew up in York Habor, Maine, where tourism was the main industry.” Aſt er graduating with a Masters of Man- agement in Hospitality Administration from
Cornell (see SB09/4 p52) in 2003, Kyricos worked for Canyon Ranch and Exhale. She then joined Starwood in 2004 at a time when spas were becoming increasingly signifi cant to the company. “Starwood had become focused on positioning its hotels as lifestyle brands and saw spas as a channel to do this,” she says. “At that time, spas were also evolv- ing from amenities to profi t centres and the goal was give them more of a business focus. T ere was a bigger spotlight on spa” In 2006, Kyricos was promoted from sen-
ior manager to director of spa development, operations and marketing. But as in-house spas grew in importance, she was joined by Jeremy McCarthy, who helped develop the Heavenly Spa concept. He now oversees development and operations of the spas, while Kyricos manages the branding. Growing up in California, McCarthy
always had a strong interest in fi tness – he’s been a cyclist, triathlete, personal trainer and martial arts instructor – and for 14 years at Four Seasons, worked his way up from supervising pools to opening and operat-
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