My Grandma wanted to treat my mom and I to a day at the spa. We chose this place because of it's location and because of their website. The website looks professional and modern so we expected their spa to resemble a similar feeling. We booked a couples massage package with a facial and pedicure. We were planning on spending a lot of time and money and had high expectations for a day at a high quality spa. What we got was nothing like that. As soon as we stepped foot in the door my heart sank. Since we had already scheduled time off of work, and since the spa would have charged us for canceling the appointment, we proceeded. First of all, this place is a hair and nail salon with a few massage rooms. We have been to high-end spas and we know the difference. I quickly made some observations. There is no seating area to read magazines and everything is open (no half walls or partitions) so you can see so much clutter when you walk in. You can see all the old ladies getting their hair done, the kid's play area, the reception desk, the washer/dryer, the nail stations, the refreshment table, and the bounty paper towels stashed on top of a cabinet in the back of the room. They could remedy this by buying some nice quality wood partitions and by re-arranging so they can add some seating. The wood floor was really dirty and unkempt. Nothing about it is soothing on the eyes. They offered me coffee and none of their coffee mugs matched (I hate that from a spa). The one I received was really large and I think it had an American flag on it (??). I didn't see any nice lighting, nice furniture, or high end products. I think the best product line I saw was Matrix. I liked my pedicure but they didn't cut my grandma's toe nails. Don't they know that old ladies cannot cut their own toe nails? They were really long so there is no excuse. Next we moved into the massage room. Their beds are nice but they gave us one sheet and a very thin fleece blanket. The room was freezing cold! They don't have robes or a locker/shower room for changing. We were in the massage room for a little over two hours and we had to use the rest room two times between the services. Each time we had to "toga", as they called it, with our bed sheets and bare feet to the rest room. Luckily I never ran into any other guests, but what would it take for them to have a few robes for their guests? Then, each time I got back into the bed, I had to re-tuck myself in and my sheets were never on straight after that. Massage table sheets should be lush, thick, and tucked in. They should also offer you a pillow under your knees. During the facial they applied the product with their finger tips and removed the products with dripping wet cotton pads. High quality salons use brushes and cotton pads. They did not do extractions so all the juicy pimples were left for me to deal with afterwards. The massages were OK. I fell asleep during mine which tells me it was relaxing but we noticed they only used their hands (not their elbows or forearms) and they did not use any techniques for trigger point body work. My mom said her masseuse did not keep one hand on her at all times (which helps you relax because you don't have to wonder where they are or where they will touch you next). The massage music was terrible. Who wants to listen to Cannon in D in piano during a massage? You walk down the isle to that song but you don't get a massage to it. Weird. Every now and then the CD player would gear up for the next song so you would hear that (iPods are much better in a small space). Then the CD stopped during the middle of the massage and they did not fix it. So we were music-less for the next 30 minutes. One other important technique they are lacking is tucking the bed sheet out of the way for the massage and body polish. Professional masseuses will purposely tuck the sheets up as high as your hip so they can work the upper thigh and glute muscles. Since they did not do that I was unaware of where my sheets were on my body and it also felt as if they were shy about hitting that spot on my body. As they were wiping the sugar scrub off of our bodies - the wet towels they used were plopped onto the floor in between my mom and I. Each time they plopped a towel it startled me. They should be setting the towels onto a table top. The whole production could use a lot of polishing. It was really hard for us to enjoy the experience: 1) because we were so mad that we were fooled by their website and 2) because I was noticing all the mistakes they were making.
The intent of this review is not to bash them but to help them by pointing out areas for improvement. Some areas I've mentioned can be quickly remedied with little effort. There were some positives from our experience:
My grandma had her hair and makeup done and the lady did a wonderful job. We thought all the ladies were very nice and pleasant to talk to. read more
