People staying at a hotel travel for a variety of reasons, but every travel experience can be stressful, even if you’re on vacation. Having a day spa at your hotel can help guests relax and give them a better experience, encouraging them to come back for more on their next trip. Here’s how to set up a luxury day spa in your hotel to help you provide an amazing, relaxing, and regenerative spa experience for your guests.
Craft a Detailed Business Plan
Before you start buying any products or equipment, your first job is to come up with a solid business plan to help you map out your goals. Additionally, a business plan shows potential lenders that you have a solid and well-structured model and proves that their money will be well spent.
You’ll also want to come up with a complete list of potential services your day spa will offer. Not only will this help you narrow down the products, equipment, and staff you may need to hire, it will also give you a clearer idea of the overall cost. The International Spa Association considers spas legitimate if they offer services in at least two of these three categories: massages, body treatments, and skincare. Services can include cosmetic and eyelash applications, hair removal, wraps, tanning, and hydrotherapy.
Before you move on to the next step, make sure you know the answer to the following questions:
- What services will you offer?
- What equipment and products do you need?
- What is your overall target audience?
- What and how many employees do you need?
Your answers will help you build a solid business plan.
Have a Solid Marketing Strategy
Your business plan and marketing strategy should go hand-in-hand, and part of your business plan needs to identify your target audience. What sort of customers do you want to attract? You may already have an idea of the types of people that will be visiting, as your day spa resides within your hotel. If not, take a closer look at the sort of guests that visit your hotel, as they will be the same people visiting your day spa.
Are they there on business trips? Is it mostly bachelors and bachelorettes? Does your hotel attract mostly families and seniors? The answer to these questions doesn’t mean these groups of people will be the only people you market to, but it does make finding your niche and determining your marketing strategy easier. For example, if you’re looking to attract seniors to your day spa, you likely won’t want to use a marketing strategy focused on social media influencers.
Fortunately, there are many marketing strategies to choose from, such as:
- SEO blogs
- Email marketing
- Social media posts or ads
- Video tutorials, guides, or walkthroughs
This list of strategies certainly isn’t exhaustive, but it’s helpful. Having a mix of these strategies and aiming them toward your target audience will help you attract customers and keep you on the map.
Get the Financing You Need
The total cost of your day spa is going to affect the amount of money you’ll need to obtain. Hopefully, you already have some funds to begin the project. If not, there are plenty of lenders who specifically loan money to start-up day spas. However, as a part of your business plan, they’ll need an idea of the total cost. You’ll need to determine the total amounts of the following to calculate the total cost:
- Equipment
- Furniture
- Supplies
- Training
- Payroll
- Leasing
- Advertising
- Licensing
- Insurance
- Permits
Remember, the more detailed, thorough, and complete you are with your business plan, the more lenders, investors, and other supporters will be willing to back up your day spa financially.
Design a User-friendly Experience
As a functioning hotel, you likely have a website up and running to help you advertise and manage bookings. If not, setting up a user-friendly website will help you attract customers to your hotel and day spa. Because we live in the age of technology, people love convenience and appreciate being able to easily navigate your website and book appointments.
While you’ll want your website to look nice with themes, color palettes, and photos, the most important thing to focus on is the user interface or UI. The easier it is for a customer to navigate your web pages, the better—you don’t want them getting lost in a busy website template. There’s no shame in keeping it simple. At the end of the day, the quality of service and experience you create for your guests should speak for itself. It may be worth working with a marketing company that can write strong copy, craft website design, and take care of marketing strategies, so you can focus on your guests.
Hire Experienced Staff
Lastly, and most importantly, you need quality staff members to keep your business up and running. If you look back at the list of services you want to offer, you’ll get a better idea of who you need to hire. Additionally, your employees will need to have the appropriate credentials to provide services. These credentials depend on the type of service they provide, such as a massage therapist license, an esthetician license, a cosmetology license, and more.
However, you’ll need more than just spa personnel to run your business. You’ll need staff to help book appointments, buy supplies, take inventory, develop marketing strategies, and monitor expenses. You’ll also need employees for all the other hidden tasks that go into running a business. Once you’ve thought it all through, you’re ready to open the day spa of your dreams!
Now that you know what it takes to set up a luxury day spa in your hotel, what’s stopping you from giving your guests the experience of a lifetime? Every good day spa starts with the right tools, and here at Essential Wholesale & labs, we can provide you with wholesale professional spa products. And if you’re looking for something more personalized, we can add a customized scent or help you create a product from start to finish—from the formula all the way to labeling. We’re here to make your day spa dreams come true.
