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I
happily left the
hotel/resort spa business in Hawai'i, after
trying it out for almost a year. I concluded that it's not for
everyone, and certainly not for me.
Quote from a client: "You don't go there
for treatment, only for experience." Quote
from a colleague: "They keep
all the money."
Spa job is good as "the first
job" - for therapists who are fresh out of
school and inexperienced, or those who are
cannot do therapeutic massage enough to have
private practice or people like me, who just
moved to the area. In private practice, one has
to be able to produce results - if the client
has pain and is paying cash to be there, they
want to feel better when they leave. In the
spa business, there are basically no desired
outcomes but only relaxation, and thus spa
therapists can just be nice and not care about
honing their skills. Some spa customers come
in with certain aches and pains and want them
relieved, but those are minority and certainly
not a major determining factor. If they do not
get what they were looking for and never come
back, there is definitely no consequences,
even if they don't come back - there will be
always some new tourists looking for a plush
pampering for one hour. In a spa, you usually
never see your clients again. Maybe next year,
when they come back.
Going to a spa is typically a
"thing to do." It has nothing to do with making
one's body truly feeling better
permanently.
Some clients say that they go to a spa
while on vacation because "they don't
know where else to go." Maybe. When there
is a will, there is a way. What I do not like
is that a client like that will easily pay
$170 for a 50-min so-so massage to a spa, but
will not pay well to a private therapist for
an excellent massage, and will not even leave
a tip for a 65$ massage even if they get extra
time to get all the kinks out. Obviously, the
quality of massage is not the most important
thing, but the plush corporate environment. In
my practice, I avoid clients like that. I can
give an excellent massage, and I expect to be
rewarded for my time, knowledge, and
effort.
This is what I observed:
1. Most people who go to spas have no idea that what makes a treatment effective is not the spa or the type of massage,
but the THERAPIST. In other words, people don't understand anymore the value of personal expression as an art form. They think
everything is cookie cutter stuff that can be bought in a store.
This way of thinking goes through most things we do today.
It is plain dangerous for Earth and anything alive.
As if all spa therapists are equal. No,
they are not. Even though everyone is
wearing the same uniform and work for the
same corporate entity, massage is still an
art form as well as technical expertise.
Each therapists knows different stuff.
Healing is such a vast subject. Don't
expect your spa therapist to know as much
as someone in private practice. They
won't. If they did, they WOULD be in
private practice. A private practice
person knows more about injuries,
accidents, pain, emotional issues, and all
that stuff.
2. Most spas pay very little
to the therapists - yes! although they
charge an arm and a leg - so of course
they won't get any terrific therapists.
Most spas also do not provide benefits and
insurance.
The danger with (few) spas that pay
more is getting too comfortable and never
honing one's professional skills. If you
notice, a "good" spa therapist
is someone who is nice, well groomed, and
rather quiet. They ask no questions, they
give no comments, they just do a neutral
easy "rub the lotion in"
routine, and that's it. If the therapist
is not really burning to know more, they
won't challenge this cushy situation and
will always stay mediocre.
Even if the spa pays more, a therapist
might not get a lot, because: the spa
might not be busy (therapists get bulk of
their pay on commission), and/or the
therapist is not booked frequently. Some
spas book based on seniority, so if you
are person #5 in seniority, then persons
1,2,3 and 4 have to be busy before you get
a client. Needless to say, that can mean
waiting around a lot...
Also, in a spa setting, you can always
BS your way around the customer, most
people will not cause trouble and complain
to the management, even if they are not
happy, because they know they will never
come back anyways and who cares? In a spa,
you just have to make sure to kiss ass of
the spa director and/or the front desk.
Once you are "in" then you can
do no wrong. Also, read on
booking based on politics and how much
products the therapist sells.
3. I have not seen much healing in hotel spas, and from what I heard of my
friends all over the word, many spas fall
in this category. They are popular as
luxury consumption items but most likely
not effective therapeutically. Basically,
for one hour you get to play rich, walk
around in a robe and chat with other spa
guests. Something akin to golf.
Resort spas are typically corporate establishments
where a massage is 50 minutes, including
the time to get into the room. Most are
not about therapeutic massage, but
pampering.
Some spas
are putting some effort to train
therapists in therapeutic massage, but do
not count on that. Ask first if they have
someone who does therapeutic work. If you
are lucky, there will be someone competent
there, you never know. Sometimes good
therapists leave private practice because
for some reason they could not handle it -
for example, could not handle the
paperwork / clients of opposite gender /
advertising / etc., and/or had triplets
and needed insurance asap / lost office
space and needed a job asap/ etc. or
wanted to see what spas are all about, or
... whatever reason drove them to seek to
work for a corporate entity and a
paycheck. I myself went to work for a spa
because I needed to accumulate some cash
quickly for down payment on real estate,
and I just arrived to Hawai'i. If you are
lucky, one of those will be your
therapist. And not for long, though,
because they will leave as soon as they
can, unless the spa is one of the few that
pay well their therapists. Most spas pay
lousy and thus will not keep good people
for too long.
Also, many spas ask therapists to sell retail products - so
massage therapists work on someone and
establish the trust and this personable,
intimate report through touch, and keep on
sweetly mentioning "And now I am
using XYZ lotion..." in order
to walk the client back to front desk, sell them
$70+ bottle of some lotion, and walk back and put new sheets on the massage
table for the next client, all within 10
minutes. And, therapists
are booked based on how much they sell - so an awful therapist who sells a lot, is booked first. Those who don't sell much
do not get clients. Those who sell nothing
are typically required to come to work but
are not given any clients, as punishment.
I will not mention any spa names here, but
anyone on O'ahu knows which spas do this
kind of abusive treatment. Unfortunately,
it is most of them.
Also, there is politics,
since the front desk books the therapists, so they
can book their favorites first. And they
do, trust me on that one. I was never hot
with the front girls, and I saw how nasty
and vicious they can be. And, they make
mistakes (often - because they are very
underpaid) and then blame it on
therapists. There is nothing worse that
the front desk person getting the customer
irritated and handing them off to you....
To be fair, the front desk also takes the
brunt of customer bitching when it is time
to pay.
And, many spas charge 3$ per treatment TO THE THERAPIST for using the spa massage lotion and sheets.
Although a
50min treatment costs 105$ plus tax - so how come a spa cannot make any money off that? Their rent is cheap if they belong
to a hotel, they usually pay minimum wage to the cleaning people, and massage therapists
get paid minimal wage per hour and some
commission when they have
clients. Clients leave tips, sometimes only
5-10$, which is nothing. On O'ahu, spas pay so amazingly low
- about 30$ per treatment which costs the
client 150$. That is such bad karma and
definitely not a healing place where
workers are exploited. It's an amazing case of greed.
Other Hawai'ian islands pay more. Kauai
and Maui pay 60$ at the same hotel chains
that pay 35$ on Oahu.
What this means for people in private practice is that
we have to EDUCATE. Most people who walk
into a spa have never had a massage before
and they cannot tell what a good massage
is. Also, some cannot tell the quality of
the touch. That is unfortunate as good
massage is a fabulous way to keep oneself
healthy and kink-free, pain-free. It is a
wonderful way to maintain sense of ease
and comfort in one's body.
The worst is
when someone hears how little spas pay and then
wants to pay me that little per hour. I just
look at them as if they went insane. Precisely
such people is what drives this slave-driven
industry. People who think they can get
something for nothing.
The whole
hotel industry is like that. The hotels pay
very little to their employees. A hotel
director was boasting that the profit is 75%.
That is a lot. It is possible only because the
employees are quite underpaid. They are
underqualified, too, most likely, otherwise
they would go work somewhere else. On O'ahu, a
cleaning lady in private practice makes $25 per
hour and is super busy all the time, and
working for a hotel is about $8-10 per hour.
Maybe she will get benefits too, but hey,
medical insurance is only $300 per month here in Hawai'i, a busy
cleaning lady will make that in 2 days of work.
So - where do you think competent cleaning
ladies work?
In Hawai'i,
hotels employ a lot of workers from
Philippines,
who barely speak English and who think that
$8/hr is a good pay. Yes, it is - for Philippines, not for the USA. It is too bad,
hotels and resorts have the POTENTIAL to be
nice healing places, but unfortunately they
might resemble slave-like plantations.
Once upon a
time, I worked as a massage therapist for a spa that was paying quite
all right, comparable to private practice. I
knew I was heading towards private practice,
many of my spa clients called back for my
number, but I was too lazy, the pay was good
and I wanted to save a little more and
remodel... and travel... and take classes...
And I did, luckily, I didn't fall asleep but
stayed current and invested my money into my
business. I traveled to take some expensive
cranio-sacral therapy classes (4 days for $800)
and extremely expensive tracking classes. Then
the spa cut down the pay for everyone to 35$ per hour
take-home (and in a very nasty way, they got
turned into the National Labor Relations Board
multiple times), and I was
promptly out of there, to make more money, and
on my own terms in my own private practice. I told
this to some people, and some
asked me if they can pay me that low too.... Such is human
nature, some cannot help it but be greedy,
immature and short-sighted. I promptly got rid
of them.
Such simple
person doesn't understand, the therapist is the
person who is PUTTING THEIR HANDS ON THE
CLIENT. If the therapist is not happy, then the
client is not going to be happy. The only way
one is going to have a nice successful massage
is if the therapist is a happy, satisfied
person, and feels appreciated by the customer.
The way to show appreciation, in my book, in
money.
Also, if I am
paid well as a therapist, then I will be rested
enough, my hands and body will be in good
shape, I will be energetic, and then I can give
it all to you, the client.
If the
therapist gets paid lousy and feels overworked
and under appreciated, if the therapist is paid
lousy and never has money for classes and
continuing education, then - what??? This is a
not a good situation, isn't it.
The last thing
anyone would want is to have someone tired and
grumpy touch them, and/or someone who has no
experience and no good feeling in their hands.
If you are
paying money and investing your time, you would
want to have a massage that will have positive
and lasting effects. It is an investment into
your own health and well being, into your own
future. A good massage irons out all the kinks
and makes a person function better, stay
healthier, and feel happier. There is nothing
like feeling good inside one's body, no aches
and pains, just ease and comfort. IT DOES NOT
COME OUT OF BLUE SKY. THE THERAPIST HAS TO BE
WELL TRAINED AND COMPETENT, AS WELL AS RESTED
AND HAPPY. That is possible only if the
therapist is paid well and keeps up with
continuing education.
In a spa, you
are most likely to get someone well groomed, who
pretends to be nice, to rub lotion over you. Well,
if you don't mind being in such a fake
situation, go for it. Personally, I find it
very Wallmartish, no elegance, charm, and true
art form in it. One won't remember it on one's
deathbed, and that's my measure of how much
something is a success. A spa is a corporate
environment that provides a fake glazed look
without any real substance. And I want my
experiences to transform me and make me
grow. In
a nutshell :) |
