A spa-tacular performance

Leisure Manager spoke with the director of CHI, The Spa at Shangri-La, Qaryat Al Beri, Abu Dhabi, Becky Wyton, to find out how she manages to keep breaking revenue records

Is there currently a lot of competition among spas in Abu Dhabi?
Becky Wyton: In recent months competition has increased drastically. Seven new spas have opened over the past year alone. Fortunately, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts has many new spas that are award-winning and globally recognised — we remain to be the preferred choice given our reputation.

We constantly create new treatments to market to both our new and existing customer, and work closely with our marketing and communications team to develop innovative ways to market them. Our intuitive therapists satisfy our guests’ needs and at the same time engage with them, which has led to building relationships to develop guest loyalty.

What is your split between in-house users and external users, and who do you believe are more profitable?
BW: We have approximately 25% in-house guests and approximately 75% external guests at CHI, The Spa. External guests are our regular guests and they are always looking for something new to try.

They are more flexible with their time and are therefore able to book longer treatments or half-day packages. In-house guests generally enjoy shorter treatments because their schedules are usually quite tight.

How do you try and attract more visitors to your spas and how does it differ between external and internal guests?
BW: We are quite creative with our marketing and PR efforts to attract more visitors to our spa.

To cater to our external guests, we frequently host media to come for spa reviews and obtain excellent coverage through the hotel’s radio sponsorship. Social media has been a powerful tool in creating awareness of our ongoing promotions in addition to enabling us to interact directly with our guests on the hotel’s Facebook page, which has over 9000 fans.

We attract in-house guests with innovative turn-down amenities that vary depending on the promotion or season. At times, we also invite them to sample treatments such as Cleansing Ritual, Jet Lag Refresher and Chi Refresher during off peak days.

We have two kinds of external guests, those searching for new treatments and those who like the traditional ones or the ‘favourites’. Therefore, variety is the key to cater to each one’s preference.

We work closely with the communications team to come up with themed or seasonal treatments depending on what is happening in the city such as the Chocolate Couples Delight treatment for Valentine’s Day as well as two exciting Madonna-themed packages in time for her Abu Dhabi concert in June.

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Is your spa turning a profit? If so how?
BW: Yes, our spa is turning a profit and this has actually increased over the last year despite the new competition in the market. This has been due to a combination of things. Having well trained and highly-skilled therapists, great leadership and teamwork, high quality product mix, treatment variety and frequent promotions ensures loyalty of our regular guests.

The word of mouth from their experience has translated to consistent referrals. Working closely with our communications team to develop new promotions, obtain positive media exposure and, in essence, constantly stay top of mind to the consumer has proved quite effective in obtaining new clientele. This combination has led to the massive success of CHI spa over the past year.

How do you generate revenue on treatments and on retail?
BW: Currently, approximately 90% of our revenue is derived from treatments. We have created packages where we link in retail with take-home gifts to remind the guest of their spa experience. After all, the strongest sense linked to memory is smell.

What percentages have you increased revenue by?
BW: From the period of April 2010 - March 2011 vs. April 2011 - March 2012, the number of treatments performed increased by 11.17%. Retail revenue increased by 4.03%; treatment revenue increased by 10.25%; and total revenue increased by 9.19%. Most recently, for the period of January to March 2012 vs.

January to March 2011, we increased our total revenue by 32%. We increased our revenue by 49.78% March 2012 vs. March 2011. During the past nine months we have broken our own record four times with the highest treatment revenue since the spa opened in 2007.

How have you managed to consistently grow revenue?  
BW: It is very important to continuously analyse our market segment to better understand our guests’ needs. I have also analysed therapist efficiency and treatment suite efficiency.

New promotions are constantly being offered, targeted for specific market segments and based on the time of day. We focus on providing a consistently excellent experience for our current guests to retain them, while having innovative marketing and promotions to attract new ones.

I have also recruited therapists with different skills sets. I believe a spa should be like a kitchen where you have chefs that specialise in different cuisines — we have therapists that specialise in different modalities and the end product they offer is truly an authentic treatment. We have a high rate of repeat guests due to advertising and word of mouth as they appreciate us constantly changing promotions and customised treatments.

What performance measurements are you currently working on?
BW: We have a few key strategies in place for this year such as continuing to increase the in-house guest capture ratio; increasing in-house bookings during off-peak times; increasing average spend per guest from previous year; and value engineering or maximising cost efficiency.

What is the breakdown of spend between hotel and external clients?
BW: In-house male guests equate to 20.7% of revenue generated from all male guests. In-house female guests equate to 19.8% of revenue generated from all female guests. The percentage of treatment hours and percentage of number of treatments for male vs. female is almost equal.

What gives you the most pleasure in running CHI?
BW: I take pleasure in leading a team of passionate therapists that are focused on delivering holistic and unique treatments for the guests. To be able to be innovative and creative in developing new treatments and promotions, while being culturally aware and environmentally-conscious gives me a sense of achievement as corporate social responsibility has always been important to me. It also makes me proud to be running the leading spa in Abu Dhabi.

Wyton’s top tips for spa success
• Train the team based on service and new treatments
• Career development and promotions within the spa, health club and recreation teams are all 100% internal appointments
• Training within the hotel, not only spa-related, but also for supervisory excellence and trainer skills
• Cross-training in other departments
• Word of mouth
• Analysing the market trends
• Transparent leadership with the entire team
• Sharing of goals daily
• Implementing action plans

Spa facts
• Number of treatment rooms: 11 (four male, four female, two couple rooms, one couple suite)
• Special rooms / signature treatments: Hammam facility, Arabian Date Ritual, CHI Healing Stone, Chocolate Indulgence, Hammam, Detoxifying Coffee Scrub
• Bestselling products: CHI, The Spa – Element Massage and Bath Oil; CHI, The Spa Oil Burner and Synergy Oil, Botanical Extracts Facial Travel Pack