EDITOR’S LETTER It’s like Uber, but for massage
Hold onto your hats, the spa market is about to be turned upside down by the most disruptive business model yet. Spa on demand is targeting consumers and offering competitively priced, home-based treatments. It’s like Uber, but for massage
I
n 2013, I wrote an editor’s letter entitled Competition is Everywhere, which highlighted the likelihood of competitive threats emerging from
non-spa businesses to challenge the place of spas as deliverers of treatments. The premise was that spa businesses
are burdened with overheads and that new operations which reduce costs by adopting nimble practices could enter the market and thrive, to the potential detriment of spas. This year, our Spa Foresight™
If spas don’t want the last minute bookings and massage-on-demand businesses do, then perhaps they can co-exist?
There would be matters to be arranged – training, report has confirmed one
such model – spa-on-demand – as a future force to be reckoned with, and in this issue (page 70), we examine what this means tactically for spa and wellness operators. Anything that’s easier and cheaper and offers great
quality and value is bound to thrive. New arrivals such as the US-based Zeel, Soothe and Unwind Me, are growing their businesses through web and app bookings and the aggregation of self-employed people. Essentially they’re Uber businesses for spa, offering consumers the chance to book an immediate massage or treatment to be delivered in their home. Not even the original spa disruptor – Massage Envy – will be immune from the impact. There have been home spa businesses before, but none
have gained much traction. This next generation, with their tech infrastructure, look far more likely to succeed. So what can spas do to co-exist? One option is to take
the view that if you can’t beat them, join them. Many spas have low off-peak occupancy and gearing up to do home visits would be a great way to engage with more customers, optimise therapists’ time and increase turnover and yield during these quieter periods.
contracts and insurance, for example, but there’s no reason spas can’t compete successfully in the spa-on-demand market – indeed there are few better placed to do so. The second opportunity lies in becoming more
responsive to last minute bookings. People want treatments when they want them and spas have been slow to catch on to this and do something about it. I regularly try to book spa treatments at short notice
and I have never once been successful, so I’m a prime candidate for spa-on-demand – but I’d far rather spas said yes to my booking requests. This last point is important because the turnaway
levels spas operate at are eye wateringly high. As Samer Hamadeh, founder and CEO of Zeel says on page 71 –
“there are millions of missing massages in the industry”. Time is the ultimate perishable commodity, and if spas
don’t want the customers and the massage-on-demand businesses do, then perhaps they can co-exist, with spas picking up the longer-term bookings and the massage- on-demand businesses dealing with the now.
Liz Terry, editor @elizterry
CONTACT US: Spa Business magazine,
spabusiness.com TEL: +44 1462 431385 EMAIL:
theteam@spabusiness.com WEB:
www.spabusiness.com TWITTER: @spabusinessmag FACEBOOK:
Facebook.com/spabusiness
©CYBERTREK 2015
spabusiness.com issue 3 2015 7
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 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126