MARRAKECH RESORT SPA
buy a pass, which permits access to the spa, the indoor and outdoor pool areas and the fitness centre. There are day, weekend, week and month- long spa passes on offer which range from MAD500 (us$62, €44, £39) to MAD8,000 (us$989, €710, £626). She can monitor spa bookings via the TAC Reservation soſtware and, if hotel occu- pancy is 70 per cent or more, passes are restricted to ensure that those staying on-site have priority use of the spa.
Hand-picked therapists So what does Nielsen think is the key to the spa’s success? “As a spa director I am dependent on my team,” she explains. “I know there’s nothing special about what I’m saying, but it’s so true.” Having been at the spa a year before
opening, Nielsen hand-picked the its 21 full-time therapists. “Te pool of quali- fied therapists in Morocco is incredibly small, so in the beginning I had to go to different spas to look for therapists,” she recalls. “But even then we were really strict with our interviews – I think we only hired one out of every 10 applicants because we wanted the best in the market. “We wanted therapists who were techni-
cally competent, but we also looked closely at why they were in the industry. Did the therapist want the job as a means to an end, or was it because they had a giſt and were just naturally ‘giving’ people?” As the majority of therapists – and indeed most other staff – were not used to working
LA MAMOUNIA HOTEL AND SPA BY NUMBERS
n Te hotel has 209 rooms n Tirty-five per cent of hotel guests are
French, 20 per cent are American and Canadian and 10 per cent are British
n Te average length of stay is three days n Average hotel occupancy is 60 per cent n Spa facilities consist of: two single and
one couples hammam; a spa suite; a diag- nostic room and nine treatment rooms; a hair salon by Jean-Michel Faretra Paris; a relaxation room; six outdoor massage cab- ins; a whirlpool; an indoor and outdoor pool; a fitness studio with Life Fitness equipment and Kinesis exercise room; two manicure and one pedicure cabin
n Te five signature products include a black soap, ghassoul (a local clay), orange flower water, rose water and argan oil
n A 60-minute hammam ritual costs MAD900 (us$111, €80, £71)
in high-end hotels, however, La Mamounia invested significantly in their training. “One of the main challenges I’m going to
face is losing staff to other spas – there are 19 five-star hotels due to open here in the next five years,” says Nielsen. “And you should always be respectful of your competition.” To keep therapists, Nielsen says that the
hotel’s general manager made a “very astute decision” early on to pay 20 per cent above
42 Read Spa Business online
spabusiness.com / digital
Te indoor pool (above) is ozone-treated while other water facilities include an outdoor swimming pool and a whirlpool
the market rate, plus offer high-level training and healthcare packages which aren’t always given in Marrakech. “It’s worked well so far because not a single person of has leſt,” she says. In addition, Nielsen believes strongly
in employee wellness: “I schedule one hour treatments, but always leave 20 minutes in-between. I want to make sure customers get the best service but also that my therapists don’t get exhausted. I control how many massages they have in a row, so if they have more than three I put a break in. It may mean that I lose clients, but the ones that I have been able to fit in will always come back.”
Te next generation Tis loyalty to staff, is what Nielsen says keeps her driven. “I have a duty to teach the next generation and form other spa directors. Many of my past assistants have gone on to have hugely successful
careers – Steven O’Neal [now spa director at Te Setai Wall Street, US], Pedro Lopez [spa director at Grand Hyatt Santiago, Chile] and Jane O’Brien [spa director at La Quinta Melia in Spain]. Tese people are like my kids – they call me ‘spa mummy’ and I’m very proud of them. I want to do what I’ve done for them in Morocco.” l For more on other spas in Marrakech and upcoming hotel developments, turn to p42
SPA BUSINESS 4 2010 ©Cybertrek 2010
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84