I wouldn't visit a spa to get a good massage

If want a technical massage, very complex soft tissue work or other specific bodywork, I have to confess, I’d be unlikely to visit a spa.

Most of the treatments I have which make a fundamental difference to my body are carried out in dingy treatment rooms with hard beds and strip lighting: one therapist I visit works in a space which is little more than a cupboard.

Yet these specialists – practising in the field of complementary medicine – are world-class and normally booked solid for weeks or even months ahead.

My spa experiences are generally the opposite – fabulous facilities, and service, but when it comes to therapeutic value or the level of advice on offer, they often fall short.

Occasionally it comes together in a beautiful spa with a great therapist to create an outstanding experience, but this is unusual – I’d say 15 per cent of the time. Of the rest, the best you can say is they’re satisfactory and (hopefully) don’t do any damage.

Unfortunately, the recession has created a situation where it’s increasingly difficult for spas to offer this compelling combination. This is partly because many operators have responded to falling revenues by hiring more part-time therapists who have less time for training and partly because training budgets have been cut back.

There’s also been an understandable drive to commercialise and streamline the experience, meaning treatments are often standardised, rather than personalised to the individual.

But the main reason is that we’re still failing to engage with therapists working at the more curative/medical end of the spectrum where these higher skill levels are often found.

The industry needs to drive volume to keep up with its own ambitious growth targets, because visits-per-spa have been falling steadily since the late 90s as the number of spas has grown. In the US, for example, visits per spa per year stood at over 16,000 in 1999, but are now below 7,000 (see p34).

Unless we can make a spa visit an essential part of people’s body maintenance rather than a discretionary extra, we won’t achieve the volumes necessary to fill the spas that are being built. People are prepared to pay regularly for great treatments which improve their quality of life, health and wellbeing, they’re not prepared to pay for fluff and at the moment, unfortunately, that’s often what you get when you visit a spa.

There’s a danger that the balance sheet is driving the industry – there’s just too much emphasis on the bricks and mortar and not enough on the treatments and quality of experience. We need to refocus on offering personalised, effective, therapeutic services if we’re going to build up the valuable regular custom which will really underpin enduring success.