WHEN THE COVID-19 pandemic caused spas around the world to temporarily cease operations in 2020 , it sparked a debate among many spa leaders . Some felt that treatment menus would need to be streamlined , both to make it easier for spas to abide by then-emerging sanitation protocols and government regulations and to focus efforts on popular , revenuedriving services . Others believed that expanding menus to include treatments that were less touch-intensive and offer potentially hesitant returning spa-goers a greater selection would be vital to bringing business back .
Nearly a year later , approaches continue to vary . Respondents to ISPA ’ s January 2021 Snapshot Survey illustrated the divide neatly , with 45 percent noting that they had added a new treatment to their menus in the final
quarter of 2020 and 42 percent indicating that they had reduced the number of treatment options on their menu during that same period .
Throwing a Change-Up ?
Many of the factors driving these changes are , naturally , pandemic-related , but as spas have adapted to many of the other operational demands that COVID-19 has placed upon them , their tried-and-true menu evaluation tactics have resumed their place in the process . For Nikki Miller , director of Kohler Waters Spas , that process — which results in the debut of a new menu each May — was disrupted by the spas ’ temporary closure last spring . In normal circumstances , Nikki and her team do a deep dive into the numbers to determine which treatments have done well and which have been less successful , and then they involve their therapists and service providers to establish a more holistic sense of how their menu is working and where it should go next .“[ Our staff ] is the number one driver for menu innovation — sharing what guests are asking for and how guests are responding to the treatments that we ’ re providing ,” she says .
After a thorough review , Miller turns her attention to new treatment trends and innovations .“ That ’ s when we take what ’ s coming and say ,‘ Okay , how can we now curate and create , rename , recreate and enhance what we ’ re currently doing ,’” she says . That ’ s when — again , under normal circumstances — a new menu rollout would commence . Not so in 2020 . But rather than add one more bit of complexity to the already challenging reopening effort facing Kohler
The Milk + Honey Spa has seen strong demand for classic treatments such as massage among their dedicated spa-going clientele .
MAY 2021 ■ PULSE 15