Hyatt used to have branded Pure Spas – but now the group prefers a local, individual approach to spa concepts such as those in Bali (right) and the bathhouse-inspired group treatment suites in China (above)
on the role of spa director (see sb04/q3 p26). T e us$10m (€7.3m, £6.4m) launch at the glitzy Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong off ered a unique take on spa as its 80,000sq ſt (7,432sq m) encompassed 23 guestrooms alongside a signifi cant wellness off ering. “It was all about maintaining calmness for guests in a city location, they could check in at the spa and everything was on that one level,” she says. It was when O’Connell moved on to
become area spa director for Greater China at Hyatt, however, that she became involved in spa development. “It was really exciting because that was just when the spa scene was starting to take off in China,” she says. “Even back then we had a lot of spas open and in development and I was learning all about the culture, people and traditions and the importance of respecting these nuances.” Aſt er a brief spell at ESPA, as vice-pres-
ident for Asia-Pacific, O’Connell was tempted back to Hyatt last year to focus on the company’s international spa business at its headquarters in Chicago, US. “It was an amazing opportunity,” she says, “although aſt er living in Hong Kong, I’m struggling with the cold winters here!”
NEW MARKETS
Unlike other US hotel chains, such as Star- wood Hotels & Resorts (see sb10/3 p24) and Hilton (see sb11/3, p28), Hyatt has opted out of creating an in-house spa concept. Its once branded Hyatt Pure Spas are no longer and instead its “core philosophy is that each spa will have a unique concept and represent the location it’s in,” says O’Connell. “We’re sensi- tive to the fact that we’re coming into a new environment and we don’t want to say ‘this is what we do and you should spa our way’.”
SPA BUSINESS 4 2011 ©Cybertrek 2011
FAVOURITES
Book: Indian Wisdom 365 Days by Danielle & Olivier Follmi – “I read a quote from this book at the start of every day” Film: The Green Mile Season: summer – “I’m a warm weather person” Leisure activity: stand- up paddle boarding
T e strategy is a clever one given that inter-
national operators entering fast-emerging spa markets such as India and China oſt en quote cultural diff erences as one of the biggest hurdles to overcome. And with both of these countries being major development locations for Hyatt – it has more than 10 sites planned in India and over 20 in China – extensive research is carried out on local wellness prac- tices and care is given to pay homage to these when creating a spa’s identity. O’Connell says: “T e Hyatt Regency is
opening in Chennai by 2012 and we already had a couple of ayurvedic spas in India, so this time we dug deeper and found that sid- dah, a form of ayurvedic medicine is famous in Chennai. We’re now working with a siddah doctor to create a treatment menu and ensure that what we’re off ering is authentic.” In China, the Hyatt spa concepts are (in
part) a refl ection of the traditional bath- houses – places where families and friends socialise – albeit much more luxurious than the oſt en smoke-fi lled venues. “People are usually loud and boisterous but they’re enjoying themselves and that’s how they
Non-Hyatt spa: ESPA at the Metropole Monte-Carlo Treatment: ayurveda – “I especially love shirodhara and experienced the best I’ve ever had at the Hyatt Regency Mumbai” Best piece of advice: “A general manager once said to me ‘if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got’ – this taught me that change is the best way to get a different outcome”
relax,” explains O’Connell. “So we have dif- ferent design elements in our Chinese spas. T ere are individual suites, but we also have larger communal rooms – up to 180sq m (1,938sq ſt ) – for six to eight people who might want to play a game of mahjong together or have a foot massage [all local past times]. And we fi nd that international guests actually enjoy having a local experi- ence that they wouldn’t get anywhere else.” T ere are standard operating procedures
which are tweaked at each location, as well as a list of around 20 preferred vendors to match with any given concept. Product houses include June Jacobs, Kerstin Florian, Voya, Omorovicza (see p46), Carita, Obagi, Luzern, Hommage and Aromatherapy Associates (see p22) – favoured because of the integrity of the products, training programmes and business management that’s provided.
COUNCIL OF EXPERTS
Another new territory for Hyatt is South America – the group has four confirmed sites for hotel and spa development there, including Costa Rica. “T ere’s not an overly
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