Corp. Meetings Add Spa Time To Ease Executive Stress
Perhaps reflecting the demands of hectic lifestyles, executives in increasing numbers are on the look out for spa amenities as part of their hotel experience, and meeting planners are adding services such as discounted facials and head, shoulder, neck body rubs to their conference agenda.
Providing a discount package for a group during its business meeting is certainly becoming a more frequent occurrence, said Tammy Pahel, spa director at Nemacolin Woodlands Resorts in Farmington, Pa., just west of Pittsburgh.
The newly unfolding trend isn't confined to one region of the country. Nemacolin, for example, pulls in corporate-as well as leisure-business from Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Washington, D.C. and Maryland.
"It's not just the ladies that are interested, either," Pahel said. "The biggest trend I've noticed over the last few years is that men populate our spa-the ratio is closer to 50-50 now. They are becoming just as interested in taking care of the only body they will ever have."
As a result, they seek herbal and paraffin wraps, facials, aromatherapy scalp treatments, yoga and tai chi, and in general, look for a more "whole body" approach to getting pampered while on the road.
"These wraps have a psychological and physical effect; paraffin is actually excellent for joint pain," Pahel said.
Health Craze Fuels Profits
Of course, the fact that more female executives than ever before are in the corporate ranks tips the scales in favor of more frequent spa use, said Pahel.
It is health consciousness and a need for stress reduction that is the driving force behind Nemacolin's spectacular surge of business. Profits are up 15 percent in the past two years, making it one of the few truly profitable operations of its type in the country. About 10 percent of its spa business is generated from corporate groups, according to Pahel, who noted that this segment is making-pardon the pun-healthy gains.
"We pull in a lot of incentive business," said director of sales and marketing Patty Cantu-Leithead. "This is part of a movement toward designing free time. Everyone works so hard that they want a really special experience when they have that rare time off."
The hotel, which is finishing a 124-room addition of guest rooms and suites fashioned after the Ritz in Paris and called the Lafayette wing, also pulls in guests with its golf academy, equestrian center, cross-country and downhill skiing, and access to a $20 million art collection and virtual reality center.
One group, the Network Ohio Valley Women's organization, took 30 of its 60 members to Nemacolin last April for a two-night, three-day extended weekend. This was in lieu of the standard monthly seminar-style gathering and featured the resort's president, Maggie Hardy, as the motivational speaker. "As fabulous as the resort was, she was even better," recalled member Leslie Icuss, a salon owner located in Steubenville, Ohio.
Icuss discovered the resort a few years earlier, when her staff gave her a certificate for services there as a Christmas present. In 1994, she returned their generosity by sending each of her 38-person staff a group package that gave them a service of their choice and included a stay in the villas. "We were opening a day spa, so I wanted the employees to see what we were modeling our operation after," she said.
To support its service orientation, Nemacolin prides itself on increasing the learning curve of its staff: Currently, they are learning a prestigious European facial technique known as the Sedesko method.
At the Catalina, Ariz.-based Miraval Spa, the operative slogan is "life in balance," and the resort is seeking just that, having redoubled its marketing and sales efforts under director of group sales Peter Faroane to bring corporate accounts to the property.
Miraval opened in 1995 after extensive market research that found executives need stress relief and options for healthy living. The resort helps its client base achieve relaxation, harmony and stress reduction by providing a menu of activity options for a customized vacation or meeting package.
Hotels Focus On Spa Sector
Many properties in all regions are getting into the spa act.
Swissôtel's Drake in New York will soon unveil a full-service spa as part of a $40 million renovation: The lure will be a $15,000 hydrotherapy tub, imported from France and designed to de-stress with 72 water jets as well as a wet and dry herbal-wrap treatment room. Director of sales Evan Friedman pointed out that lost business opportunities prompted the spa installation.
Likewise, the threat of lost business motivated a major spa installation as part of a million-dollar renovation at a Spanish colonial-style West Coast property. The Ojai Valley Inn plans to open a new spa-a massive facility offering 28 treatment rooms and a uniquely designed 31,000-square-foot building with luxury suites-late in 1997 to strengthen its grip on the Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and foreign markets.
"We decided to build the facility because, clearly, it was time. We'd lost some group business because we lacked a spa," said Maureen Kerr, a concierge at the property.
To ensure its success, Ojai already has announced a special discount package for meeting attendees who book space between November 1997 and March 1998. The package includes $15 off any qualifying treatment per person, per stay, complimentary meeting space, discounted room rates, golf fees, food and beverage and selected A/V services.
The golf and sports-oriented Saddlebrook Resort in Tampa-which relies on the meetings market for 85 percent of its business-soon will roll out a full-service spa with 12 private treatment rooms.
Director of marketing Al Martinez said the installation of the spa is yet another step in the ongoing process to service the corporate market, which he sees as experiencing a radical shift in the past 10 years away from older men who "play golf and don't take care of their skin" toward a younger, more health-conscious and predominantly female audience. Of course, Martinez said, even men are finally starting to take care of themselves.