Shine Spa for Sheraton’s philosophy is to help guests ‘find their glow’ and bright interiors (above) reflect this; the global concept was inspired by an existing spa in the Maldives (right)


ing spas for the group in various locations worldwide. Prior to Starwood, he oversaw the opening of the 43,000sq ſt (4,000sq m) spa at La Costa Resort in California. McCarthy explains how the pair split their


responsibilities: “Mia and I work very closely together. She focuses on developing the tools, concepts and resources and works with the brand team; I work on implementing the concepts in the properties themselves. How- ever, there’s never a complete handover and we both assist each other when necessary.”


ACTING FAST Te latest brand to be revealed by Kyricos and McCarthy is Shine Spa, an upscale four- star concept that will be rolled out across the Sheraton hotel portfolio as part of a us$6bn (€4.6bn, £3.9bn) revitalisation campaign. McCarthy says: “Tis was an additional


step in our overall strategy, which is to have a spa concept for each of our hotel brands,” he says. “We want to show our hotel own- ers that we have really thought about spa and that we have created something that we feel is a good fit.” Yet coming up with a concept for Shera- ton has probably been the most complicated


SPA BUSINESS 3 2010 ©Cybertrek 2010


process so far. Given that Sheraton had so many sites in the pipeline (65 hotels and 44 spas), it was initially decided to bring in a partner: the Denver-based consultancy Spatality, which had already created a four- star spa concept called Nectar (see SB08/1 p22). Nectar was selected as the preferred spa brand for Sheraton, but in June 2009 changes in Spatality’s company structure – including the move of its headquarters from the US to Tailand – meant Starwood had to re-evaluate (see SB09/4 p14). Te agreement was eventually terminated in early 2010. Consequently, Kyricos had to come up with another solution – and fast. “It was the


fastest one we’ve ever done,” she says. “We started in November and released it in May – let’s just say I had a very busy holiday!” As time was of the essence, building a


relationship with another party was not an option. “I knew that no-one knew our brand better than us,” says Kyricos. “Our research [on Sheraton customers] was still current, as was the input from each of our divisions


– Asia, EAME (Europe, Africa, the Middle East), Latin America and North America


– on what their particular spa needs were. And, fortunately, as this was the third brand we had developed, I already had an arsenal of spa resources I could use.”


Read Spa Business online spabusiness.com / digital 25


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