10 Things Your Spa Won't Tell You

And while spa brochures promise such benefits as "finding yourself and nurturing your soul," what you're more likely to find is a whole bunch of strangers — all vying for the same services you want.

Those crowds mean that it can be almost impossible to schedule appointments for treatments — the whole reason you're there to begin with. When Bernard Burt, a veteran travel writer and co-author of the book 100 Best Spas of the World, visited Ancient Cedars Spa at Wickaninnish Inn on Vancouver Island (where a two-night spa package can go for over $500), he found guests scrambling to get all the treatments they wanted. "The spa is just too small," Burt says. "They can't keep up with demand." Ancient Cedars manager Stephanie Molyneaux admits that Burt has "a valid point," adding that the spa plans to add two treatment rooms within the next year.

Jenni Lipa, president of Spa Trek Travel in New York, does her research to avoid the crowds. "I look at the ratio of spa treatment rooms to guest rooms and the ratio of spa staff to clientele," she says. At a destination spa, one treatment room per 10 guest rooms, or one staffer per guest, is a good sign, according to Lipa. "If a 300-room hotel has only three spa treatment rooms, that's a problem."

2. "The brochure rate is just an opening bid."
Everyone knows spas aren't cheap. The nation's top spas — including the Golden Door in Escondido, Calif., and the Greenhouse in Arlington, Tex. — will run you around $5,000 per week.

But hidden extra costs can jack up your tab fast, even at a reasonably priced spa. The biggest culprit: gratuities, which are included in the prices at some spas but not at others. "It's appropriate to tip 15% for services, and that can add up if you have three $150 services a day," says Lynn O'Rourke Hayes, editor of online magazine Spa Reporter.

Many spas will also try to sell you pricey skin-care products following your treatment. While you're not required to buy, "they're very pushy sometimes about selling these products," Burt says. "You're relaxed after a massage and susceptible to suggestion. It's big money for them."

3. "We'll rub you the wrong way."
Massages come in a variety of formats these days, from intense deep-tissue work to reiki, in which the masseur barely touches you. When you enter the massage room, you may have no idea what kind you're getting.

Terry Herman, a management consultant and spa industry adviser in Westmont, Ill., thought she was scheduled for a relaxing 45-minute massage when she visited the Heartland Spa in Gilman, Ill., in 1997. Then the masseur began kneading her so forcefully that she almost cried out in pain. Herman, who has chronic back problems, asked him three times to lighten his touch, but, she says, he seemed too absorbed in his work to notice. "I complained to management, but they didn't care," Herman says. The next day, Herman saw that she was covered with bruises. Mary Quinn, Heartland's executive director, says that although she does not recall Herman's visit, "one of the greatest assets of the Heartland is the way we handle guests." She adds that Heartland masseurs are certified by the state of Illinois and must complete in-house training, which includes instructions on how to interact with clients.

Herman had a similar harrowing experience with a facialist at a Chicago day spa. "She broke some of the capillaries on my face," Herman says. "To get them fixed, I would have to get laser surgery."

What's a client to do? "You have the right to ask the therapist to lighten his touch," says Susan Lord, M.D., of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, an educational institute in Washington, D.C. "If he doesn't listen to you, get off the table right away."

4. "Our therapists aren't trained."
There are today 5,700 spas in the U.S. alone, generating over $5 billion in revenue every year — a 152% jump since 1997. With so many new spas opening, finding enough trained masseurs, facialists and personal trainers has become a challenge. "With so much demand, it's getting harder and harder to recruit people," says Burt. "Spas have to take what they can get."

And they get away with it, because the rules are lax at best. The International Spa Association (ISPA) — the closest thing to a governing authority for spas — requires that employees who provide treatments at its member spas meet certain state requirements for licensing (such as completing 500 hours of training and passing a state exam). But thanks to individual state laws, that rule doesn't amount to much, says Sara Eavenson, co-founder of the Bramham Institute, a spa and spa-training center in West Palm Beach, Fla. "Some states don't require licenses," she says, "which is really scary."

She suggests this litmus test: If you're getting a facial, the ultimate stamp of approval for facialists is certification from CIDESCO, an international school for estheticians. When in doubt, says Robert Stergas, manager of Syracuse, N.Y.'s Onondaga School of Therapeutic Massage, look for massage therapists who have been certified in either New York or Florida, since these states have the highest standards for licensing (in New York, for example, a massage therapist must complete at least 1,000 hours of classroom instruction, followed by a comprehensive exam).

5. "Some of our treatments are silly..."
According to the International Spa Association, 71% of spas say they are adding new treatments this year, which range from the bizarre (like "aura imaging," in which a special camera takes a full-color photo of your "energy field") to the just plain goofy-like the $95 "barbecue wrap" at Dallas's The Spa at the Crescent, in which a massage therapist slathers you with a mixture of honey, tomato paste, cayenne pepper and corn meal.

Do such treatments have any real purpose? Anne Melby, the Crescent's spa director, says that their wrap "exfoliates and smoothes dry skin, stimulates circulation and helps rid the body of toxins. And it smells fabulous — you just want to eat it." Dr. Lord isn't impressed. "I can't think of any biochemical reason why these food treatments would be useful," she says.