Spa Executive | Issue 11 | October 2019

everage, housekeeping, engineering, and
basically all elements and areas of the hotel.
But let’s fast forward 10-15 years: the new
hotel has been built to wellness standards,
the F&B team is living and breathing
Wellness Cuisine, the Concierge and Butler
teams are well-versed in where to find the
best wellness-related classes, services and
activities in the local area – and can even
offer you a range of in-room, self-led, virtual
wellness activities. In this future world, do
we still need the spa to do wellness?
You have said that the spa of the future
is 20% of what it is today and 80%
something else. What does that mean?
Hotel spas have not really evolved over the
past 25 years or so. Sure, there have been
some innovations in design, equipment,
furniture, and skincare – though not nearly
as much true innovation as the providers of
these elements would have us believe. But
the core offering is still much the same –
massage, facial, manicure, pedicure. Just
take a look at a spa menu from 15-20 years
ago. Admittedly, some spas have added
more ‘Mind & Soul’ elements, like
meditation, mindfulness, etc. But these
represent a small part of their spa menu
and tiny part of the overall spa industry
offering.
I see the Spa of Tomorrow as more of a
multi-functional, multi-disciplinary type of
facility. The 20% will be what we know
today (massage, facial, etc). The other 80%
could be anything. Maybe a business
center or coworking space in a corporate
city hotel. Maybe a live, organic restaurant,
kitchen, and cultural center in a remote
resort hotel. To me, the 80% is not only
different from what we have today, but can
also vary dramatically from one spa to
another.
If you’re 20% massages and manicures
and 80% business center, are you still a
spa?
Sure. Why not? Who decided what should
be included and offered at a spa anyway?
For many years, and in fact still to this day,
people argue over whether a spa needs to
have water elements to genuinely be
considered a spa. While that is still being
debated, why not throw in a few more
elements to the mix?
Is this specific to hotel spas?
My experience is in hotels and resorts. Day
spas is not an area I’m overly familiar with.
But I do believe that many of the dynamics
of hotel spas also hold true for day spas.
We certainly share many of the same
challenges.
How is marketing changing in this
industry and how should it be changing
to move into the future?
First of all, I think it’s important to
understand what marketing is.
Marketing is defined by the American
Marketing Association as “the activity, set of
institutions, and processes for creating,
communicating, delivering, and exchanging
offerings that have value for customers,
clients, partners, and society at large”.
Most people tend to think of marketing as
just the communication part. Over the
years, I think the industry has done a really
good job of that — maybe too good. But
we forget that marketing is also about
creating and delivering a product or service
that has value to the market.
17 | Spa Executive Spotlight