Spa Week?

Has anyone ever participated in Spa Week? I can't seem to find any info on their website that gives the cost to the spa, etc. Was it worth it in your opinion? Is it a glorified Groupon? Wondering if I would be better off advertising my own special that week as opposed to the cost associated with being part of Spa Week.

Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by coldsalineplexus on August 14, 2013 at 5:07pm

Not worth it. We had like one taker, and then it took YEARS to get our name off SpaFinder's website. The redemption amounts are ridiculous, and people were upset that we were listed on the site without actually accepting them.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy on August 14, 2013 at 9:39pm

Thanks for the feedback Christine. Good to know it didn't work well for you.

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Permalink Reply by Relax & Rejuvenate on August 15, 2013 at 10:30am

I would rather remove my own spleen with a rusty butter knife than have ANYTHING to do with SpaFinder and its various attempts to destroy the spa industry.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy on August 15, 2013 at 11:00am

Tell us how you really feel?

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Permalink Reply by Relax & Rejuvenate on August 15, 2013 at 11:55am

here is my experience with the folks at Spa Finder and their various programs.

When we opened our New York City hotel spas we look into getting listed on Spa Finder to accept their gift certificates. some clueless person at Spa Finder decided that hotel spas -- even three treatment room spas in the heart of the business district -- should be lumped in and treated as resort spas, since after all they are part of a hotel. This means a monthly fee of something in the neighborhood of $1000, plus a 20% redemption fee. With these kind of economics, we would have to get a SpaFinder redemption every day of the month, just to break even.

Maybe monster resorts like Doral or the Phoenician with their 20+ treatment rooms, and a hotel full of people on vacation looking for spa treatments might get one a day, but no way in hell a three treatment room spa in a 250 room hotel -- that is not called the XYZ Hotel and Spa -- is going to get more than one or two a week.

I tried to point this distinction out to them, and even pointed to hotel spas listed on their website as day spas, not resort spas, but they were adamant at the proper categorization for our operations.

Next came the unending barrage of pitches to list our spas as participants in Spa Week. Since I did not have a rusty spoon handy, I considered it for all of a nano second. Why on earth, in an economy cluttered with deal sites, would I believe that spa finders clients were somehow more loyal, valuable, upscale than the crowd I was getting from the deal sites, who happened to actually give me profitable customers, not money losers like spa Finder was proposing during their Spa Week. that did not stop them from listing our spas on their register, not as participating spas as part of Spa Week, nor even as a spa accepting spa Finder gift certificates, just as a spa in NYC, so I'm not sure why they listed us.

But that did not stop their brilliant, loyal, upscale customers from calling us trying to book spa week specials, and then berating us when we told them we were not participating in spa week. They insisted we were, because we were listed on the website, but everytime I looked at our listing, it did not have the "Participant in Spa Week" emblem next to us. Maybe my eyes are bad.

Maybe they do this to have spa see just how popular spa week is among the public, but when you want me to pay thousands of dollars to be listed to offer money-losing treatments, the last thing I would want is for such a program to be popular!

A couple of years ago, some enterprising fellows in New York City came up with a great idea -- spas could list specific services at specific times on specific days that they were willing to discount, in order to fill their appointment books at off times, for less popular services, etc. We love this concept, so much better than an open-ended voucher and became the inaugural customers of a website called B – treated

for nearly 2 years we were able to keep our employees busy in a down economy, filling midday appointments and selling some product here and there while still making money on each and every discounted service even after paying B treated their fee

nine months ago, I got a call from the owner of B treated informing me that they had been purchased by spa Finder. I told them I was glad that he was able to make his idea pay off, but warned him that we probably would not be a customer for much long since I had an aversion to all things Spa Finder

sure enough, within a month of spa Finder taking over, our last-minute bookings plummeted next to nothing. We even stop listing most days because it wasn't worth the time -- only five or 10 minutes a day -- to load the open appointments offered if they weren't being booked. Spa Finder blame this on their transition period, but kept promising things would get better as the word spread to their legions of wonderful customers. What really happened, was they were spreading the last-minute model to legions of spas.

Where once upon a time, we were one of 15 spas in New York offering customers last-minute deals, we were now one of 200. No surprise are bookings vanished, as people could now find a last-minute half-price service on every street corner. So much for the value proposition to the spas.

When we did get a booking or two , their vaunted software system failed and we never got the email notification of a booking, and the clients just showed up at the spa. Or, we would get clients calling complaining that they were trying to book a service, but when they tried to pay with the spa Finder gift certificate the system crashed, and they did not want to book a half-price service, unless they could pay with their spa Finder gift certificate . so very typical of their upscale, loyal, wonderful spa Finder customers

Then I tried to contact spa Finder to find out why they were having so many problems, and disrupting our operations instead of helping us fill low demand appointments. I emailed our contact, the former B treated owner who was kept on my spa Finder, but never got a response. When the issue recurred, I tried calling him, but the name directory put me in someone else's voicemail. I left a message, but never got a response

It happened again the next day, so I called again and could not reach the person I had been transferred to previously. I tried reaching the receptionist, but pressing zero just landed me in a generic voicemail box over and over again. I tried reaching Susie Ellis, CEO of spa Finder, but no one answered at her line not even an assistant. I let Susie a message, and got no response.

A week later, when we were emailed the statement with our payment for those botched appointments, I emailed back asking to be taken out of their system as we no longer wanted to have anything to do with an organization with this kind of customer service.

Two days later, I got a voicemail from the new segment director. I called him back and left a voicemail and that call was returned by his assistant. She asked how she could help me. I asked her if she had any idea why she was calling me. She said no she was just asked to return my call.

I told her to go back and ask her boss why was he was having her call me so that she would be prepared to deal with an unsatisfied customer, instead of annoying them further by being clueless.

Her manager called me back, apologized for turning his assistant into cannon fodder, and asked what he could do for me. I told him the same thing I put my email take me off your system is I'm no longer interested in working with any aspect of spa Finder.

He had the gall to say " I don't understand why you feel that way", at which point I felt the next 10 minutes of my life would be very well spent illuminating this moron. I ran down the litany of issues listed above, at which point he just said "is there anything we can do to keep your business"? he also gave me the usual, the transition is still underway so that's why you don't have full exposure. Seems like the company line there.

So after reading this, if any of you feel like signing up for spa Finder in any way shape or form, be sure to have a rusty butter knife handy. Eventually you are going to need it

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Permalink Reply by Tracy on August 15, 2013 at 12:36pm

Thanks for sharing such a frustrating experience. I have to say your writing style made me chuckle:) I don't own any rusty butter knives so I guess I will be avoiding SpaFinder at all costs.

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Permalink Reply by Magdalen on October 12, 2013 at 3:44am

Spa finder is not worth it , but wasn't the question about Spa week? Spa finder and Spa week are not affiliated I could be wrong.