Letters
Do you have a strong opinion, or disagree with somebody else’s point of view on topics related to the spa industry? If so, Spa Business would love to hear from you. Email your letters, thoughts and suggestions to
theteam@spabusiness.com
Spas should shop around for deal sites
Gavin Brown, commercial director,
BlueKoko.com
Reading about deal sites and spas (see SB11/4 p24) brought home quite vividly the mass of different offers and platforms that now exist for businesses to sell their services at knock down rates. Yet one argument – that the offers will help to drive footfall – can be a hollow one as people become increasingly reliant on deal following and will go wherever the deal is next, no matter how great a treatment they had at the original spa. One point the Spa Business article made – that once a treatment is paid for but not used, the payment typically belongs to the spa – does not apply to most deal sites. It’s more typical that the deal site keeps the money from the consumer, even if the voucher is not redeemed.
The big players seem to have blitzed the beauty care world but a 35-50 per cent commission on top of a heavy discount is simply not sustainable. There are now a few new models emerging – including BlueKoko – that
are more about supporting businesses, giving them full control over their offers and making it a commercially viable marketing option for them. Spas need to shop around and really fi nd a deal site that works for them. Always read the small print and ask questions about the marketing and, if you can, fi nd other businesses locally who have run an offer and ask for their feedback and advice. Deals that enable spas to run offers at quiet times of the week and that give them the chance to up-sell to customers – following up an initial deal with a special price offer of a course for example – are a good way to build a more regular clientele and sell offers direct. And there are sites that will give operators all the tools they need to run deals themselves and at times when they need customers the most. Spas no longer need to rely on deal sites to tell them when they can run an offer. However, it all comes down to the service, quality of treatments and making clients feel special. This time customers might spend £10 (US$16, 12); the next time £100 (US$155, 121) if they’re impressed enough to come back.
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14 Read Spa Business online
spabusiness.com / digital Susan Stein (far right) led a class for 10 Bhutanese spa practitioners
A burgeoning spa industry in Bhutan
Susan Stein, technical advisor, Jari Menari, Bali, Indonesia
Travelling in Bhutan, as part of the APSWC Spa Study Tour (see SB11/4 p58), I noticed a defi nite familiarity with traditional herbal medicines, often used for minor ailments and occasionally in indulgent, fi re-warmed baths. Yet the concept of spas offering massages, facials, body exfoliations and yoga, is only just being introduced to the Bhutanese as enticements to satisfy foreign visitors. The spa practitioners I did meet are the fi rst within the country; young, dedicated, English-speaking, truly hospitable and confi dent in their skills they’ve learned from international teachers. Like sponges, they have absorbed the lessons and proudly offer a variety of sessions, in stunning settings, such as refl exology, relaxing or deep tissue massage, facials and packages that conclude with hot stone baths.
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During my time, I was honored and pleased to offer a class in ‘quality of touch’ to 10 practitioners. This was one of the fi rst gatherings of Bhutanese spa practitioners, which enabled them to network and to even put down roots for forming a potential spa association. For the spa industry to further blossom, the Bhutan Tourism Council will need to follow up with the creation of a good vocational spa training school, governed by the Department of Tourism, to ensure a respectable education is available. Intense training is mandatory to bring the interested Bhutanese practitioners up to
international standards, which I hope will happen, rather than importing foreign practitioners. As long as education for Bhutanese citizens remains a priority, the interested spa operators will fi nd a wealth of potential in the country – a country that is prime for development of retreat centres where mind, body and spirit are touched in natural settings by warm-hearted staff.
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