Airport security lines, delayed flights, overweight luggage…travel certainly can be a hassle. Once at the destination, long meetings and scrutiny by upper management can add to the stress. But there is hope for the harried — if the destination hotel has a spa. As it turns out, investing in spa activities can have positive results not just on attendees’ aching backs, but on the company’s bottom line as well.
Meeting owners can use a spa to help cut health care costs and have attendees feel more energized, focused, appreciated, and, at the same time, relaxed. Here’s how.
Goal: Cutting Health Care Costs
The cruel reality is that job stress is making people sick and, in turn, resulting in a drain on employer health plans, not to mention decreased productivity. Lynne McNees, president of the Lexington, KY-based International Spa Association (ISPA), points to a startling study from the World Health Organization, which predicts that by 2020, the top five causes of death — heart disease, severe depression, traffic accidents (via road rage), stroke, and chronic lung disease — will all have stress as an underlying factor: “We have to find a way to manage that stress, and spas can help,” says McNees.
Using a spa program to kick off an employee wellness initiative or as a reward for those already enrolled is an ideal way to incentivize healthy living. If employees have made any positive lifestyle changes as a result of a worksite wellness program — e.g., getting fit, eating more nutritious food, losing weight, or enrolling in a smoking-cessation program — enter them in a drawing to win a spa treatment.
“We have seen a major increase in guests and meeting planners asking about wellness programs,” says Jennifer Licciardi, spa director for the Stillwater Spa at Hyatt Regency Coconut Point, Bonita Springs, in Florida. “In past years we would get requests for yoga classes or chair massages at breakout sessions once or twice a year. This year we are getting weekly requests for them. It’s an exciting shift in the industry; for a long time spa was seen as a luxury, and we are now recognized for health and wellness.”
Goal: More Energized Attendees
Spa treatments are not only for unwinding; there are treatments designed to help boost an attendee’s energy as well. Reflexology, for example, is the centuries-old Eastern practice of wellness and health balance. According to practitioners and devotees, specific reflex points in the feet correspond to individual organs and specific parts of the body. Using thumb pressure, therapists activate the reflexes to help improve circulation and well being — resulting in more energized attendees.
Healthful food and beverage options, along with massages, yoga, meditation, and exercise breaks, also are increasingly helping to enhance the energy level at meetings and events.
Many hotel groups, including Starwood Hotels & Resorts Hawaii, have developed a menu of spa offerings specifically designed for meetings. Spa therapists can do quick chair massages, shoulder and arm massages, or work aromatherapy oils into attendees’ temples to raise energy levels.
Goal: More Focused and Productive Attendees
Smoothies, fresh fruit juices, raw vegetables, and low-fat options are popular for today’s meetings and keep wellness a part of the larger event. Not only are these foods healthier for an attendee, they will keep her more focused and on task than high-sugar and high-fat selections.
Express treatments can also benefit attendees, without removing them — mentally or physically — from the meeting for long stretches of time. More than 70 percent of ISPA’s members feature express treatments of 30 minutes or less, which are both less expensive and more efficient. “They give the opportunity to have that spa experience but keep attendees focused on the business at hand,” says McNees. Although some say express treatments go against the spa tradition of taking several hours for maximum effect, others hold that they are better than having no treatments at all.
Goal: Attendees Who Feel Appreciated
“For optimum results, it’s best to thread the spa experience throughout the meeting. It can be disingenuous to offer 30 minutes in the spa over a four- or five-day meeting and say, ‘We are doing this because we care about you,’ ” says McNees, who adds that while “a meeting planner doesn’t truly know what someone’s issues are when they walk into that meeting, a professional therapist will know. That’s why it’s best to give each attendee a slot of time to get what they require at that moment instead of trying to cookie-cut what they need.”
Michael Snapkoski, director of sales and marketing at Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, VA, is receiving more requests from corporations that want to reinvest in their employees. “They are looking for ways to rejuvenate their people who have been doing all the heavy lifting the last four years,” he notes.
At the Coeur d’Alene Resort in northern Idaho, a popular way to incorporate a spa treatment is by giving a credit that an attendee can use as he chooses. That’s exactly what Tom Andersen, vice president of sales with Spokane, WA-based Ameristar Meats, a custom meat-cutting and processing company, did last September during the company’s first incentive trip.
The group of 95 salespeople and corporate managers from various meat distributors qualified for a four-night stay at the resort, which included a $250 voucher to be used for either golf or spa treatments.
“We gave our attendees a spa menu from the resort, and they could pick and choose whatever they wanted,” says Andersen. “The group just loved the spa. That was the first time we ever planned a trip like this, and we hit it out of the park.”
With low morale a problem at many companies, allowing attendees to self-select what will make them feel most special is a surefire way to build loyalty.
Goal: Relaxed Participants
Spas are being used as a spot to network, relax, and bond with colleagues. If there isn’t time in the schedule — or money in the budget — for attendees to have treatments, they still can benefit from the Zen-like atmosphere through small, quiet meetings in the spa’s lounge spaces.
Several law firms have used the Lansdowne Resort’s Spa Minerale as a place for client meetings. “In between treatments, they have meetings with their clients,” says spa manager Lily Addisu. “We recently booked a lounge area in the spa for one law firm and served hors d’oeuvres and Champagne.”
Indeed, the 12,000-square-foot spa, with its 13 treatment rooms, four manicure stations, four pedicure stations, and three lounges, is spacious enough to reserve an area for a group of people without inconveniencing any leisure travelers, explains Addisu.
Or consider incorporating a ritual-style activity that is designed to help stressed attendees to take a deep breath. Before each treatment at the Moana Surfrider’s Moana Lani Spa in Oahu, HI, guests symbolically leave their cares behind in a koa-wood bowl filled with salt, which is known for its cleansing properties. After the treatment, spa staff will throw the salt — and worries — in the ocean to symbolize renewal and cleansing of both the body and mind.