A touch of the Orient reaches Paris

The health club finally opens its doors on Monday, if only partly. Our unique selling point, the Oriental Spa, will only open on 27 April.

On Friday, we had our management team meeting, at which Mr Solal of Healthform, the company that will manage the spa for us, made an excellent presentation. He explained Healthform's positioning in the market and gave an overview of all the treatments available.

Following that, we all went to the spa through the street entrance, which is very impressive, and had a full tour, followed by gifts for everyone and some Champagne.

The official opening hours (when the club is staffed) are 7am until 9pm. Hotel guests, however, can access the cardiovascular training area from 6am until 11pm, or even at night by prior arrangement.

The Oriental Spa is very modern, in contrast with the rest of the hotel. As well as the cardiovascular area, we have saunas, beauty treatment rooms, a whirlpool and the "Oriental" bit - a magnificent Haman area, complete with cold baths, hot marble tops and a beautiful lady who administers Oriental health products.

We have signed an agreement with Healthform whereby it will manage the club for four years. Hotel guests have free entrance to the cardiovascular training area and saunas. Outside memberships will be sold, and it looks as if they could be very successful since, other than the Ritz, there is little competition.

We have greatly improved the overall service rating of the hotel over the past few years but a few subjects have always dragged our average down, no healthclub being one of them. The other major stumbling blocks are "noise" and "in-room entertainment". Both can only be fixed by money.

Noise problems are quite frequent, as dinner dances will result in noise travelling through walls and ceilings, and we have many connecting doors that are not soundproof.

We also have complaints from neighbours, so this summer we will have to change the windows in the ballroom - all 5m high with round tops.

This weekend, we have a huge US incentive group in-house. It's extremely good business - 250 rooms, six nights, all taken care of by the company (the bar has never been so busy). I'm so happy it's Easter week and holiday time.

DAGMARWOODWARD is general manager of the Hotel Inter-Continental Paris

Next diary from Dagmar Woodward: 24 May