Pulse January / February 2021 | Page 26

“ Whatever makes the hotel guests for this period feel comfortable is something that we ’ re happy to offer .”

But soon , as those adaptations became standard practice and spas reopened , many spa leaders realized that some of the adjustments that they had made in response to the pandemic could be worth keeping in place , even under normal circumstances . Still others made use of the closures forced upon them by COVID-19 to speed up the arrival of treatments and services that they had been slow to add amid the pre-pandemic busyness . Now , those leaders are stepping into 2021 with a sharpened understanding of what worked well , what didn ’ t and what will likely stick around , even when COVID-19 no longer dominates every news cycle . spa , or they ’ re just more comfortable in their hotel room , or they want the intimacy of having that in-room experience .”
The market guided Pleasants in more ways than one as she looked toward 2021 , however . After noticing that guests were booking longer services , she led her spa to increase the length of massages . When guests began inquiring more frequently about CBD products and services due to in-
Let the Market Be Your Guide
In some cases , the need for creative solutions to problems caused by the pandemic hastened the implementation of plans that spas had been developing for months or even years . That was exactly what happened at The Spa at the Bellmoor in Rehoboth Beach , Delaware .
“ I come from Manhattan , where , in hotel properties I ’ ve managed , the spas always had in-room massage ,” says Heather Pleasants , spa director at The Spa at the Bellmoor . “ So when I came in five and a half years ago , the first thing I said was , ‘ Let ’ s do in-room massage .’ They were all for it , and we had kind of on the list to develop , but COVID sped all of that up .”
When the spa reopened in mid-June , Pleasants adds , the high level of guest demand for in-room massage made the decision to pivot fairly straightforward . “ For us , what has dictated the initiatives that I ’ m going to be implementing at the end of November and December [ of 2020 ] and then in 2021 was what the market was telling us . We quickly ascertained that [ in-room massage ] was one of the things that we wanted to offer .”
As Pleasants and her team worked on developing strict protocols for how they would safely deliver in-room services to hotel guests , demand remained high . They redoubled their efforts to move the launch of in-room massage from January to late November in an effort to provide peace of mind to guests who may have balked at entering the spa , which is open to the general public as well as other hotel guests .
“ Whatever makes the hotel guests for this period feel comfortable is something that we ’ re happy to offer . We understand that some people don ’ t want to go to the hotel
JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021 PULSE 23