spa industry

After a scrumptious breakfast on the sun drenched dining porch of the Hillcrest mansion (with a view of Lake Ontario from every window) we headed to our next spa – Elemental Embrace. Stacey gave me some background about the property explaining to me that they are very much into ayruveda and that we would be […]

Flew to Toronto this morning with our associate publisher, Stacey McLoughlin. After visiting several spas in Canada we will be attending the Leading Spas of Canada conference in Toronto next week. I am really excited to learn more about the Canadian spa scene. The Hillcrest, A Valenova Inn & Spa, was first on our itinerary. […]

I see this mostly when I am visiting a spa outside of the U.S., but I saw it today in a spa in New York: a spa trade magazine lying in the lounge area of a spa, for consumers to read. Ugh. When I am in Bali and I see one of our North American […]

Last Friday I had the pleasure of meeting Russell Sanna, Ph.D, who came all the way from Boston to visit us at our Spa Finder offices here in Manhattan. Dr. Sanna, the Executive Director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard, had contacted me after reading the NY Times Article on Sleep, in which […]

I am focusing much of my time now on details for the upcoming Global Spa Summit, which will be held here in New York City this May. This inaugural event was envisioned by a group of spa professionals who felt that there needed to be one spa gathering during the year – global in scope […]

My favorite session at the International Esthetics, Cosmetics & Spa Conference here in New York was the one given by Eva Jensch, a spa consultant from California who has been in the industry almost as long as I have and has probably worked in more “emerging markets” than anyone I know. She presented a sort […]

Yesterday I attended the International Esthetics, Cosmetics & Spa Conference in New York’s Jacob Javits Center. In the afternoon I spoke on the panel entitled “Residential Spa Market Update.” Andrea Foster, who is the director of corporate strategy for Miraval Holding, LLC/Miraval, Life In Balance, was the other speaker. I think Andrea and I both […]

My thanks to Marina Kuchurkina who took an eight-hour train ride from Moscow to St. Petersburg to give me a spa tour and teach me about the spa industry in Russia. Even though her English is very good, she arranged for an interpreter so that we could communicate flawlessly. Over cappuccino at the Grand Hotel […]

On my recent trip to Russia, I visited an interesting day spa in St. Petersburg called Beauty Palace Madam Grand. One of the first stand-alone day spas in Russia, it opened just a year ago. Here are the features I found unique: The décor is over-the-top luxury, tsar-style opulence, and dripping in gold. Despite its […]

Well, it doesn’t get more Cinderella-like than going to a grand dinner party at The Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg. At-attention torch bearers welcomed our Virtuoso Travel group (both property reps and agents), who were all in black tie and ball gowns. We strolled through various palace rooms dripping with gold leaf and chandeliers and […]

Am currently in St. Petersburg visiting spas. The Russian spa industry is in its infancy, but already I can see the seeds of great spas. I thought I would share with you one particular observation that you might find interesting. Have you ever had a Russian massage therapist? Or an esthetician trained in Russia? If […]

Had an interesting conversation this evening with Emanuel Berger, managing director for the Victoria-Jungfrau Collection. Several of his properties – all in Switzerland – have outstanding spas. I asked Mr. Berger which hospitality school in the world he would rate number one. He said that he still feels Lausanne Hotel School is best – and […]

It’s Saturday evening in St. Petersburg. Tonight the Virtuoso group was invited by Sir Rocco Forte to a cocktail reception and dinner at his Hotel Astoria. Sir Rocco Forte is the man behind a collection of ten (soon to be 12) luxury hotels, including Brown’s Hotel in London and the Balmoral in Edinburgh. He is […]

I check in. Grand Hotel Europe is an Orient-Express Hotel and one of the grand dames in the field. I feel instantly at home. A quick call to reception lets me know that, yes, there’s a spa. I call and book a manicure/pedicure and massage. Naturally I want to see what these will be like […]

Arrived in St. Petersburg from London along with several participants in the Virtuoso Winter Symposium. On a bus to the Grand Hotel Europe – a member of Leading Hotels of the World – I was able to get a glimpse of the new St. Petersburg. It was really moving. I haven’t been to St. Petersburg […]

Well, I think I have been watching too much American Idol. I forgot what great singing was really like – but I was reminded while enjoying the Josh Groban concert at the Turning Stone Resort, where Peter and I spent the Presidents’ Day weekend. Unfortunately, Peter never saw Josh Groban because he got antsy during […]

After settling into a very nice suite, I immediately went to the Native American-inspired Skana Spa where the assistant manager started my tour – and Michael Tompkins, Turning Stone’s VP of Hotel and Spa, finished it for me. The spa was quite impressive. Here are some aspects of the facility that made an impression: I […]

Here are the things that I learned during my visit to California WellBeing Institute: The property has three components that are all linked together. The Four Seasons Hotel The Spa The WellBeing Institute -When you drive up to the building, you find it has a bit of an institutional look, but the inside is clearly […]

Since I was in LA for our press breakfast, I decided to take the 30-minute ride to visit the brand-new California WellBeing Institute in Westlake Village that I had been hearing so much about. I knew few specifics except that it is the vision of David Murdock; that it opened in conjunction with a new […]

Another interesting tidbit came out of our L.A. press breakfast on the topic of the latest spa trends. In addition to sharing Spa Finder’s predicted top ten spa trends of the year for the U.S. in general, I presented some specific information from the current area. We talked about the hot trend in L.A. of […]