AWAY Spa at W London, Leicester Square
T
he UK’s first W hotel opened in February, following a post-BAFTAs celebrity party the night before. T e
10-storey W London – Leicester Square was designed by Amsterdam-based design team Concrete, consists of 192 rooms and is clad in translucent glass that changes colour according to the time of day. T e hotel also off ers an AWAY®Spa, two
bars and a SWEAT fi tness club. T ere are also three spa suites in the hotel, which boast a steamroom and treatment bed as well as a centrepiece bathtub. T e AWAY Spa is located on the sixth fl oor
and features fi ve treatment rooms. In keep- ing with the deliberately British feel of the hotel, signature product lines are by British brands REN and Aromatherapy Associates. T e design is funky and bright, featuring vivid colours, coloured mood lighting and
‘imaginative sounds’. “With the ‘work hard, play hard’ attitude of
Londoners and W London visitors, we have created bespoke treatments to liven up the city’s spa scene and introduce fun and mem- orable experiences which will leave spa-istas ready to face the world again,” says Arlette N Gobeh, director of AWAY Spa W London.
The signature product lines include British brands REN and Aromatherapy Associates
Guests enter through a glass door and are met face on with a tiny reception desk FIRST-PERSON EXPERIENCE: LIZ TERRY, EDITOR, SPA BUSINESS
T e small, but perfectly formed spa at the newly-opened W Hotel in London’s Leicester Square is buried among hotel rooms on the 6th fl oor. Security at the hotel is pretty
tight and the lift can only be activated with a room key, so the spa’s unlikely to attract much passing trade. On my fi rst scout- ing mission I was told it was reserved for hotel guests but that there were plans eventually to open it up to outside visitors. My appoint- ment for a treatment was made a week later by the concierge at another London hotel.
THE EXPERIENCE
Aſt er a warm welcome and completion of a standard questionnaire, I was led to a shower
LIZ TERRY
room facing a bank of lockers. Getting ready involved carry- ing my robe and slippers to the shower room, changing while balancing everything on a stool and then carrying clothes back to the locker. The AWAY Spa has two
shower/locker rooms and four treatment rooms. I wasn’t sure
about the disproportionate number of lock- ers, however, the adjacent gym links through the same corridor, so perhaps they’re also for storage while people are working out? I imagine the narrow corridor would get con- gested during a busy changeover. While I was there, one other spa guest and I were already managing to bump into each other. T e treatment rooms are spacious, well-
With a background in sports massage, he customised my
treatment carefully, thoughtfully and skillfully and I’d defi nitely go back to the spa for another treatment as a result
SPA BUSINESS 2 2011 ©Cybertrek 2011
equipped and comfortable and my therapist was excellent – well above the standard normally found in a hotel spa. With a back- ground in sports massage, he customised my treatment carefully, thoughtfully and skill- fully and I’d defi nitely go back to the spa for another treatment as a result. Aſt er the treatment I headed back to wres-
tle with the locker/shower room setup – this proved even less fun once the fl oor was wet and juggling clothes on the tiny stool got even more challenging. Emerging with wet hair and only half an
hour to get to my next meeting, I was told the spa didn’t have hair dryers or a vanity area, as the noise might upset customers having treatments, so I paid and leſt with dripping hair intending to go to the fi rst-fl oor ladies loo and dry it under the warm air dryer. I shared the liſt down with a man who
[rather fortuitously] revealed himself as the hotel’s room manager and very kindly insisted on taking me to an unoccupied bed- room and providing a hair dryer. So overall, I would say I had a good – if a little bemusing – experience.
Read Spa Business online
spabusiness.com / digital 59
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