An Interview with Trent Munday Senior Vice President of Mandara Spa


Maldives
PUBLISHED July 14, 2018




 1.      Whats the current state of the hotel spa business in Maldives?

 

I travel extensively over the course of a year and visit hotels and spas in multiple countries. What is really interesting to me is that the more I travel the more I find that all spa markets pretty much share the same issues. While many spa managers will tell you their biggest issues are finding good staff, the biggest problem I see is a lack of clients. By most any metric you want to measure  - Capture Rate, Spa Occupancy %, Therapist Utilisation, etc., -  most spas in most markets are operating at sub-optimal levels. Maldives is no different.

 

 

2.      Why is it like this?

 

People forget that the hotel spa model is less than 25 years old. Before 1995 the idea of a spa in a hotel or resort was novel. Fast forward to today and spas are ubiquitous. Its hard to find any 4-star or 5-star hotel, anywhere in the world, that does not have a spa. The problem is, that in those 25 years, not much has changed. We are still offering the same types of treatments and services as we did way back then. The market has evolved, hotels have evolved, spas have very much remained the same.

 

 

 

3.      So, does that mean that hotel spas are dying? Are they going away?

 

When it comes to the hotel spa business, Im in the Glass Half Empty camp. For most people, they see this as a negative. For me, I see it as a massive positive. Why? Because in the empty, lies the opportunity. The great news is that spa are baked in to the system. Hotel owners feel they need a spa, guests expect to see a spa, ratings agencies require hotels to have a spa, travel agents also require that the hotels the feature have spa facilities. The entire industry seems to expect and require a spa. Yet, for the most part, the guest dont use them. So, we have awareness, which is half the battle. All we really need to do is tweak our services and offering in a way that makes us more relevant to our hotel guests.

 

 

 

4.      What do spas need to do to be relevant again?

 

The first thing to understand is that just as hotels and resorts are different, so too should their spas be different. In many ways, we have taken a one size fits all approach to hotel spas. Weve taken a concept from the grand old days of the large resort spas and just squeezed it a little bit and put it into a city hotel or smaller resorts (like here in the Maldives). And its not just about the facilities. Its really about the services and the offering. The key to becoming relevant again is focusing on Needs, not Wants. For too long, spas have been a nice to have. That works fine for a while, but eventually any long-term business needs to offer more. We found a great example at our Tomorrow Spa Meet Up in Male recently. One resort spa shared how their most requested service is to help guests with sunburn. A lovely, long, pampering massage is nice. But its still a Want. Easing the pain of a persons sunburn is a real Need. What about a Snorkellers Massage? A special treatment that focuses on the feet, ankles, Achilles, calves and knees. For many people, the muscles they use when snorkeling in the Maldives are not used much in the normal lives back home. Providing a special treatment specifically for those muscle groups seems like an obvious example of catering to a Need. To this day, Ive never seen such a treatment on a Spa Menu in the Maldives.

 

 

 

5.      What about Wellness

 

Wellness is something many people talk about today but when you ask them how they define wellness, they dont have a clear understanding. And thats ok. Many believe that in order to provide Wellness in a spa they require lots of expert and expensive practitioners and equipment. I disagree. In fact, I believe the Wellness Transition Market represents a significant opportunity for many spas in the Maldives. More and more of the visitors coming to the Maldives are aware of Wellness. They know enough to know that they should be living more well lives. They just need a bit of help to set them on the right path. The resort spa could be an ideal place for that Wellness journey to begin. The spas that do this should focus on evidence based wellness. There are lots of weird and wonderful spa and wellness treatments out there these days. But to ensure that guests stay engaged in Wellness, they will want to see the results. If they cant see immediate results they will at least want to see the evidence that what theyre doing has some real, tangible benefits.

 

 

 

6.      Where can people find out more?

 

The Global Wellness Institute website is great place to go for more information around Wellness. The Institute has a number of Initiative around various elements of Wellness. They also have a section on Wellness Evidence. The vast majority of this information is available for free.

 

I also have a weekly Blog, a weekly podcast and a daily video blog & podcast where I share my own opinions, insights and ideas.

 

My weekly blog can be found here… http://trentmunday.com/blog/

 

My weekly podcast  - Inside the Spa Business - is available on iTunes, Google Play store and all the main podcast networks.

 

My daily video blog - Trent365! - is posted on Instagram IGTV, Linkedin and Youtube and also available on iTunes, Google Play store and all the main podcast networks.

 

 

 

  

 

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