It is possible for hotel brands and spa brands to achieve a win-win cooperation, just like the successful integration of high-tech and natural products. By Joy Tsang, Founder of AEVUM SPA and ORiNERGiE
According to my observation over many years’ of industry experience, today’s spa guests fall into two major groups. One group prefers manual treatments, they enjoy a slow-paced spa procedure and fully indulge in the pampering experience. They care for every detail of the whole process. The other group, on the other hand, demands a highly effective service with the precondition of safety. They have tight time schedule and want to try the most useful and best treatments within the shortest time possible. Immediate effects are what matter for them.
I believe that a spa operator who is dedicated to engaging in this career of beauty and health is surely a royal follower of a quality lifestyle themselves as well. I cherish every beautiful element of life, including spa. To me, spa is a platform for pursuing perfectness.
Today’s Chinese females place high demands on themselves in every aspect. They emphasize both the inward growth of wisdom and outward improvement of a beautiful appearance. This is an inevitable outcome of social developments. And high-tech is surely one of the things that can help them reach these goals. High-tech has obviously become a necessary part of women’s daily life in China, as well as a key component of modern spa treatments.
At AEVUM Spa, a day spa brand I established, manual treatments take up 65% and high-tech equipment treatments take up 35%. I am quite satisfied with this balance. Manual treatments fail to reach subcutaneous tissues and equipment can come to help. But the latter will never bring the same pampering and healing experience to the body and face as the former does. Moreover, in order to use the equipment properly, it requires as much repeated training and practice as manual treatments do. One of the challenges we face is that our staff don’t have a deep knowledge of the subcutaneous tissues, which is beyond their scope as a spa therapist, and they fail to give a clear assessment of the conditions. Therefore they are often unable to perfectly carry out the equipment treatment by applying the proper current suitable for individual needs. It means the effectiveness of equipment treatments remains a question.
Compared to the interest in high-tech and treatment innovation, 20 years’ operation experience makes me care more about spa standards. So I introduced European spa standards to China and hopes to create a safe, effective, comfortable and warm spa brand.
As today’s spa business is filled with high-tech programs more than ever before, I, on the contrary, form a deep obsessiveness about “Nature”. The more we are overwhelmed by “effectiveness”, the more we are attracted by the energy of Nature and simplicity. Anyway, they are not contradictory. Out of love for aromatherapy, myself as well as as required from the guests, I have launched the essential oil brand ORiNERGiE and introduced the essential oil products to AEVUM Spa. While high-tech treatments may help a lot, natural products are surely irreplaceable in the guests’ hearts.
Most formulas of ORiNERGiE are sourced from organic plantations. I particularly emphasize on three aspects: plantation area, extraction method and product formula. All the compound essential oils of ORiNERGiE are uniquely developed by French senior aromatherapists and our Doctor of Medicine. Plants appeared earlier than humans. So I believe in the wisdom, energy and healing power of plants and also hope that more people can learn to cherish plants in Nature. Unlike drugs, essential oil doesn’t demand specific knowledge from the customers. Once you smell and feel it, you can naturally tell its quality. I call such natural communication between plant oil and humans “the wisdom of plants”. It is something that will never happen with high-tech equipment.
The difference between day spas and hotel spas continues to blur. This is also an inevitable trend, just like the infusion of high-tech into the spa industry, because the hotels and spas can get mutual benefits during the cooperation. A well-run spa brand can bring hotels the following benefits: to bring more high quality guests to the hotels and increase the hotels’ F&B revenue and room occupancy; to serve hotel guests with quality spa treatments, establish a warmer bond with guests more than hotel rooms can do, and increase the hotel guests’ royalty indirectly; and to eventually increase the hotel’s revenue.
To invite day spa owners to operate their spas in the hotel independently is also possible. Now, many day spas have reached quite a high standard. AEVUM Spa, for instance, offers perfect solutions for the body and mental health of modern Chinese people. It also features an effective membership system which means it can bring more guests to the hotel and increase guests’ loyalty through member service management. Moreover, our treatment programs have been structured and designed effectively and properly, which gives us a strong capacity to attract more guests and keep them to stay with us for a longer time.
Of course, there will be challenges during the cooperation. Hotel brands may differ from spa brands in values, missions and some operating principles. However, as long as the two parties have reached agreement on the concept early on, they may carry out some flexible win-win methods in the actual operation. For example, in our cooperation with The MixC, we share a common value – that customer satisfaction is the core. Based on this shared value and through frank and sincere communication, there won’t be any problems.
