Ah. the spa
Guests are taking advantage of resorts’ relaxing, pampering, soothing services
The soft sounds of synthesized music soothe inside Spa Kalahari, just a short walk down the hall from the nation’s largest, and perhaps loudest, indoor water park.
This is where parents come to escape the noise, the surf - and yes, sometimes, even the kids.
It’s a familiar scene at resorts across the country.
The resort spa, once the purview of the pampered and well-off, is becoming as common as coffee makers in hotel rooms, catering to everyone from overstressed parents to overworked business travelers.
The hotel spa has become a must-have for romantic getaways, family weekend trips, even conventioneers, who crave an early evening pedicure after a long day of meetings.
“Every resort hotel being built has to have a spa as part of it,” said Bruce Baltin, a senior vice president with PKF Hospitality Research, who recently released the report, “Trends in the Hotel Spa Industry.”
“It’s kind of shocked me that it’s become so important,” he said.
All categories of spas have grown rapidly in recent years, according to the International Spa Association in Lexington, Ky. In 2007, there were 14,615 in the United States (the vast majority of them day spas catering to local traffic), nearly double the number from six years earlier.
But hotel spas generate the biggest per-guest revenue and are growing faster than almost every other category, including destination spas, according to the association.
The main draw at destination spas is the spa itself, with its emphasis on healthy lifestyle. Hotel spas generally attract guests for other reasons. Kalahari owner Todd Nelson said the spa fits in with his goal to offer something for every type of visitor, from overactive kids to overstressed parents to overworked business travelers. “We’re trying to put in something for absolutely everyone,” he said. “We’re giving people more and more things to do.”
The spa was an afterthought at Nelson’s first water park resort in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., added a year after the park opened (and expanded three times since).
In Sandusky, the spa was part of the plan from the beginning and includes 10 treatment rooms over 5,000 square feet.
At Nelson’s third park, scheduled to open next year in Virginia, the spa-fitness area will be bigger still, with steam rooms, saunas, cold pools and a larger fitness center with personal trainers.
“People are more health conscious,” he said. “They’re taking better care of themselves.”
The trend has caused historic resort properties, including the recently reopened Bedford Springs Resort in Pennsylvania and the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, Calif., to spend millions updating their offerings.
Spas have become mandatory at casino resorts, in Las Vegas and beyond, including at the new MGM Grand Detroit, which offers 20,000 square feet of pampering and relaxation. The resort’s Immerse Spa, spread out over two floors, features a gorgeous adults-only infinity pool, separate male and female lounges (”transition zones”) and dozens of spa and salon treatments.
Urban hotels are joining the movement, adding spas to boost their weekend traffic, according to Baltin.
Small regional inns, too, are picking up on the trend, hiring massage therapists and aestheticians to their employee rolls.
The Inn at Cedar Falls, a popular bed-and-breakfast in Ohio’s Hocking Hills region, opened a small spa two years ago and is already considering expanding.
Housed in a restored 1840s cabin, the 1,400-square-foot spa has three treatment rooms that are often booked on weekends, said innkeeper Ellen Grinsfelder. Couples massages and girlfriend getaways are especially popular.
The importance of spa services to guests is evident in the increasing number of spa reservations that are made before the guests arrive, according to hotel consultant Baltin. “It’s something they think about when they choose their hotels.”
At Kalahari, spa director Theresa Gillette estimated about half the customers book ahead and half call during their stay.
Last-minute callers are frequently mothers, eager for a respite, however brief, from the cacophony of the cavernous water park.
A 50-minute Swedish massage ought to do it.
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