Wish upon a spa

The spa. The very words evoke an image of towel-clad women with mud on their faces, cucumber slices on their eyes, and an immaculately dressed beautician manicuring their nails.

"Spas are a growth market with respect to the rest of the world, although the market is still in its infancy here in the UK," says Andrew Buchanan, general manager of 136-bedroom St David's Hotel & Spa in Cardiff, which opened in January.

While the likes of Champneys (see panel on page 18) have specialised in offering purely spa resorts, the spa is becoming the marketing tool for hotels for the millennium.

At the Royal Crescent hotel in Bath, which opened The Bath House in September 1998, general manager Laurence Beere says: "I can market the hotel to the corporate market and say I have a spa facility, but I can also market the Bath House and use it to fill the hotel's bedrooms."

Both St David's and the Royal Crescent are aware that hurtling towards the 21st century are lots of very stressed, very tired people who want nothing more than to take some time out and relax.

"The current tide in spas is looking at lifestyle," says Debi Winlow, St David's Spa manager. "In the 1980s it was superficial, electric treatments. Now it is about looking after your body as a whole and taking a holistic approach. People do not realise how much stress they are under."

St David's Hotel & Spa is the first new-build hotel in Sir Rocco Forte's RF Hotels, and the choice of name ensures that potential guests are aware of its dual purpose.

"It was absolutely essential to name it the Hotel & Spa," says Buchanan. "We were concerned that there are so many who talk about having a spa, but really have a few treatment rooms and a pool. We offer so much more."

Indeed, the £3.5m spa investment offers a hydrotherapy pool with salt water, two hydrotherapy baths, a jet blitz treatment, 10 treatment rooms, and separate male and female relaxation rooms. There is a 15m swimming pool, a gym with the latest equipment, and a sanarium that combines the benefits of sauna and steam, with colour therapy lights in the ceiling to aid relaxation.

The spa uses E'Spa products, which are 98% natural, with aromatherapy oils targeting the stressed individual. Treatments such as E'Spa detoxifying algae wrap (£45) includes an Indian scalp massage, and there is a holistic total body massage, including body brushing, exfoliation and deep body and scalp massage (£55).

The spa theme is carried on throughout the hotel - the bathrooms have Molton Brown sea salts and Science et Mer exfoliating soap - to remind guests that there is a spa downstairs. The therapists offer consultations with guests on arrival, and come to collect them from their rooms for appointments.

"We must create the desire by talking about balance and the benefits, and talk about having consultations on arrival," says Buchanan. "This is not a two-day package where the guest goes for a swim or to the gym and that's it."

Privacy is the other key word for stressed guests of the late 1990s, says Buchanan, and the hotel has installed a separate lift to take guests straight to the spa in their bathrobes without traipsing through the lobby.

The key question is, of course, does it pay? St David's was a £25m investment, of which £3.5m was spent on the spa. Buchanan says the cost of running the spa, such as electricity and heat, is 32% of revenue, the product costs are 18% and wages 30%, leaving 15% profit. That's 15% net profit on a first-year turnover of £1.4m - about £210,000.

In year one, the hotel's turnover is budgeted at £9.5m and Buchanan estimates average achieved room rate will be £100, with 70% occupancy. In the spa, Winlow estimates guests will spend about £100 a day.

"We are spending more money on ourselves - even when it gets tight, we still want to treat ourselves," he says.

There are half-day spa programmes offering a session of treatments, or two-, three- or five-night breaks. Two-night single dinner, bed and breakfast rates start at £410 and five nights' single occupancy will cost from £1,001. The idea of spa breaks encourages corporate business people to bring their partners, and it will also boost trade at weekends.

But is Cardiff the sort of place people associate with going to a spa? The spa was part-funded with a £300,000-plus grant from the Wales Tourist Board because it is a destination spa - in other words, it encourages people to come to Cardiff.

Buchanan estimates that 80% of business will come from the UK, and most of that within a two-hour radius of Cardiff on the train, which includes London. He acknowledges that Cardiff may have seemed an unlikely choice for a spa, but because of all the development currently going on around Cardiff Bay, it was a gamble worth taking.

"We did not have to have a spa, but when you are developing a new product in a new destination, it is high-risk strategy," he says. "Where you have the Welsh Assembly opening, the Millennium Stadium opening in time for the Rugby World Cup in October, plans for the relocation of the Welsh National Opera to Cardiff Bay, and £4.9b of North American inward investment in Wales over the past 15 years, it all becomes less risky."

As well as being available to guests at the hotel, the spa will be open to 150 members for £1,200 a year with a £300 joining fee. Included is a juice bar, use of the gym and laundering of gym kit.

The Bath House at the Royal Crescent

The Royal Crescent's Bath House, which cost £1m to build, offers a 37ºC pool, two plunge pools, and a hot and dry karahafu - Japanese steam and sauna rooms. Upstairs are four massage rooms, a wet treatment room, a hair dressing/manicure room and an entire range of holistic healing methods and treatments.

At the Bath House, privacy and relaxation are again key words. There is a garden, accessible only to Bath House users via the pool. There are separate times for male and female treatments and no more than six people will be circulating through the hydro treatment areas at any one time.

Those wanting to try the Bath House have a choice: they can either be guests at the 45-bedroom Royal Crescent, where the top suites sell for £695 a night; or become members of the Royal Crescent Club (RCC). The RCC gives members access to the dining room and a special members' lounge, reduced rates on bedrooms, and now access to the spa - £1,000 a year for a single membership.

Beere explains the philosophy behind what is on offer: "This is pure escapism designed to bring body and spirit together in a relaxing environment."

For the novice, there is the Bath House Treatment at £65. This takes the guest "through a sequence of bathing and cleansing", according to the brochure. A dip in the pool, a plunge in the teak-lined tubs and an exfoliating scrub is followed by a 50-minute full body massage.

For the more adventurous, there are 10 types of massage and therapy, mostly £45 for 50 minutes, ranging from shiatsu, reflexology, reiki, Alexander technique and watsu, which is based on shiatsu but is performed in the pool.

More traditional treatments include facials (£55-£65), wraps (£55-£65), manicure (£23), pedicure (£32) or hair treatments (from £30).

But Beere is realistic about the financial performance of the Bath House. "It is not profitable in the sense that if you built it and ran it the way we did, it would not work," he says. "The running costs of plant and maintenance are quite high - the pool is heated to 37ºC. But it is a service and a facility of the hotel and must make a profit."

And Beere is pleased that, six months after opening, average spend at the Bath House is £50 per person.

The average achieved room rate at the Royal Crescent is £185 and occupancy in 1998 was 50% and is forecast to be 65% in 1999.

To help boost this occupancy, as well as adding to the Bath House's clientele, Beere is marketing Bath House retreats. Guests can stay in one of the three bedrooms built over the Bath House and spend three days undergoing a variety of treatments, depending on their needs and wishes. n