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There’s a clear gap in the UK spa market for an affordable local offering that places an emphasis on top-quality treatments and services. Is Massage Heights, the successful US franchise chain, the solution?
The recurring income streams mean a relatively low risk businesses
With its recurring membership model and multiple revenue streams, the global gym industry has been extremely successful in popularising personal fitness training for the high street market.
With the health club sector now worth £53bn (US$75.1bn, €66.5bn) worldwide, the concept of taking previously premium custom services and making them more widely accessible to fitness conscious consumers – exemplified by firms such as Fitness First with its monthly subscription solution – has now become a benchmark of what is a proven and highly profitable business model.
Such membership-based models provide businesses with the opportunity to forge long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with their customers. The recurring income streams generated mean that the businesses are relatively low risk and are able to quickly become cash-flow positive – meaning every attention can be focused on improving client experience.
Within this context, one British industry to so far remain predominantly exclusive and ‘boutique’ is the UK spa sector. This is surprising since the increasingly health conscious Brits make over 6 million annual spa visits, with the demand growing yearly. And it’s luxury hotels with spas that account for over 41 per cent of all these yearly visitors.
Clearly then, there’s a gap in the market for an affordable local solution that places the emphasis on top quality spa and massage services.
Step forward Massage Heights, the Texas-based chain that’s successfully deployed the membership model to bring five-star resort style spa services to the high street.
Founded in 2004, the company has achieved its goal of making massage and spa services more accessible and therefore more frequently experienced. It now has 125 outlets across the US and Canada run by hand-selected franchisees.
With spa retreats located in busy urban areas and open during hours to suit local people – and with well-trained therapists, multiple levels of membership and product up-sells all contributing to revenue – dedicated Massage Heights outlets are able to offer an unrivalled client experience and as such generate more income per square foot than their competitors.
Given the current levels of opportunity in the UK spa sector – combined with Massage Heights’ proven subscription business model – the stage is set for early adopters to establish a strong foothold in the British luxury massage and spa market.
That’s why the search is on for an enterprising British entrepreneur to take the reigns at the forefront of the firm’s UK expansion, to grow the Massage Heights brand and franchise network into a household name across the country.
“Once considered a treat, massage has now gone mainstream in America and we’ve identified the UK as the next new market that’s ripe for expansion,” says Alice O’Donnell, vice president of marketing at Massage Heights. “We’ve developed a model that’s proven to be successful and transferrable, so becoming our UK master franchisor is a low-risk opportunity with high potential rewards.”
Could this UK master franchisor role and enticing opportunity be for you?
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2016 issue 2
Editor’s letter: Who will own the well-life consumer?
It’s the wild west out there and there’s a land grab going on as interested parties make their play to own the well-life consumer. It’s not clear yet how this will pan out as the industry matures, or where spa stands in the pecking order, but the threats are clear
Spa people: Tyler Gage
Runa’s Tyler Gage working with Channing Tatum on an Amazon healing centre
Spa people: Todd Hewitt
For the first time in four years, Shangri-La appoints a global head of spas. Spa Business talks to Todd Hewitt, the man to fill the role
Spa people: James White
Thermal spa researcher and consultant to head up major overhaul of Maruia Hot Springs in New Zealand
Interview: Irene Forte
Daughter of hotelier Sir Rocco Forte and niece of designer Olga Polizzi tells Jane Kitchen why the Rocco Forte Hotel’s new spa concept is a family affair
Design: Natural wonderland
Neena Dhillon visits the striking new Keemala resort and spa in Phuket and finds out about its unique design
Science: Skin deep
Modern research is redefining the way we think about skin. Neuroscientist Dr Claudia Aguirre explains what the findings mean for spas
Promotional feature: Clarins
Clarins’ head of Spas, My Blend and Retail, Prisca Courtin-Clarins, talks about the strides the company is making in highly prescriptive skincare, and the development of hotel spa concepts with the My Blend brand
Promotional feature: Massage Heights
There’s a clear gap in the UK spa market for an affordable local offering that places an emphasis on top-quality treatments and services. Is Massage Heights, the successful US franchise chain, the solution?
Promotional feature: Neaumorinc
From a director of spa at Four Seasons to an entrepreneur who introduces exciting new beauty brands to five-star facilities, Shawna Morneau’s experience on both sides of the industry is enabling her consultancy to have an impact worldwide
Promotional feature: Dr Burgener Switzerland
Dr Burgener Switzerland to launch Haute Couture, a revolutionary skin treatment that personalises product and treatments to each person’s skin, using cutting-edge technology
Sensory zone: Set adrift
Niamh Madigan talks to researcher Justin Feinstein who thinks floatation could be a shortcut to meditation
Fitness: Defying gravity
The founder of AntiGravity® Aerial Yoga tells Niamh Madigan about the technique and a new suspension massage he’s developing for spas
Promotional feature: Gharieni
As Gharieni prepares to celebrate 25 years in the industry, founder and CEO Sammy Gharieni talks about the company’s culture of innovation, and how there will so many more exciting products to come
There’s a clear gap in the UK spa market for an affordable local offering that places an emphasis on top-quality treatments and services. Is Massage Heights, the successful US franchise chain, the solution?
The recurring income streams mean a relatively low risk businesses
With its recurring membership model and multiple revenue streams, the global gym industry has been extremely successful in popularising personal fitness training for the high street market.
With the health club sector now worth £53bn (US$75.1bn, €66.5bn) worldwide, the concept of taking previously premium custom services and making them more widely accessible to fitness conscious consumers – exemplified by firms such as Fitness First with its monthly subscription solution – has now become a benchmark of what is a proven and highly profitable business model.
Such membership-based models provide businesses with the opportunity to forge long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with their customers. The recurring income streams generated mean that the businesses are relatively low risk and are able to quickly become cash-flow positive – meaning every attention can be focused on improving client experience.
Within this context, one British industry to so far remain predominantly exclusive and ‘boutique’ is the UK spa sector. This is surprising since the increasingly health conscious Brits make over 6 million annual spa visits, with the demand growing yearly. And it’s luxury hotels with spas that account for over 41 per cent of all these yearly visitors.
Clearly then, there’s a gap in the market for an affordable local solution that places the emphasis on top quality spa and massage services.
Step forward Massage Heights, the Texas-based chain that’s successfully deployed the membership model to bring five-star resort style spa services to the high street.
Founded in 2004, the company has achieved its goal of making massage and spa services more accessible and therefore more frequently experienced. It now has 125 outlets across the US and Canada run by hand-selected franchisees.
With spa retreats located in busy urban areas and open during hours to suit local people – and with well-trained therapists, multiple levels of membership and product up-sells all contributing to revenue – dedicated Massage Heights outlets are able to offer an unrivalled client experience and as such generate more income per square foot than their competitors.
Given the current levels of opportunity in the UK spa sector – combined with Massage Heights’ proven subscription business model – the stage is set for early adopters to establish a strong foothold in the British luxury massage and spa market.
That’s why the search is on for an enterprising British entrepreneur to take the reigns at the forefront of the firm’s UK expansion, to grow the Massage Heights brand and franchise network into a household name across the country.
“Once considered a treat, massage has now gone mainstream in America and we’ve identified the UK as the next new market that’s ripe for expansion,” says Alice O’Donnell, vice president of marketing at Massage Heights. “We’ve developed a model that’s proven to be successful and transferrable, so becoming our UK master franchisor is a low-risk opportunity with high potential rewards.”
Could this UK master franchisor role and enticing opportunity be for you?
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2016 issue 2
Editor’s letter: Who will own the well-life consumer?
It’s the wild west out there and there’s a land grab going on as interested parties make their play to own the well-life consumer. It’s not clear yet how this will pan out as the industry matures, or where spa stands in the pecking order, but the threats are clear
Spa people: Tyler Gage
Runa’s Tyler Gage working with Channing Tatum on an Amazon healing centre
Spa people: Todd Hewitt
For the first time in four years, Shangri-La appoints a global head of spas. Spa Business talks to Todd Hewitt, the man to fill the role
Spa people: James White
Thermal spa researcher and consultant to head up major overhaul of Maruia Hot Springs in New Zealand
Interview: Irene Forte
Daughter of hotelier Sir Rocco Forte and niece of designer Olga Polizzi tells Jane Kitchen why the Rocco Forte Hotel’s new spa concept is a family affair
Design: Natural wonderland
Neena Dhillon visits the striking new Keemala resort and spa in Phuket and finds out about its unique design
Science: Skin deep
Modern research is redefining the way we think about skin. Neuroscientist Dr Claudia Aguirre explains what the findings mean for spas
Promotional feature: Clarins
Clarins’ head of Spas, My Blend and Retail, Prisca Courtin-Clarins, talks about the strides the company is making in highly prescriptive skincare, and the development of hotel spa concepts with the My Blend brand
Promotional feature: Massage Heights
There’s a clear gap in the UK spa market for an affordable local offering that places an emphasis on top-quality treatments and services. Is Massage Heights, the successful US franchise chain, the solution?
Promotional feature: Neaumorinc
From a director of spa at Four Seasons to an entrepreneur who introduces exciting new beauty brands to five-star facilities, Shawna Morneau’s experience on both sides of the industry is enabling her consultancy to have an impact worldwide
Promotional feature: Dr Burgener Switzerland
Dr Burgener Switzerland to launch Haute Couture, a revolutionary skin treatment that personalises product and treatments to each person’s skin, using cutting-edge technology
Sensory zone: Set adrift
Niamh Madigan talks to researcher Justin Feinstein who thinks floatation could be a shortcut to meditation
Fitness: Defying gravity
The founder of AntiGravity® Aerial Yoga tells Niamh Madigan about the technique and a new suspension massage he’s developing for spas
Promotional feature: Gharieni
As Gharieni prepares to celebrate 25 years in the industry, founder and CEO Sammy Gharieni talks about the company’s culture of innovation, and how there will so many more exciting products to come
Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai in Hoi An, Vietnam, has put together a Global Wellness Day
(GWD) agenda with activations rooted in nature and shaped by four pillars of Joy – in
alignment with the day’s theme #JoyMagenta.
The Global Wellness Summit (GWS) will celebrate its 20th anniversary at the 2026 event in
Phuket, Thailand, later this year with the theme: The Science, Art and Soul of Wellness.
Auko, an all-inclusive development, is opening in Phong Nha in Vietnam in Q3 2026, with a
series of 30 tented eco-lodges and wellness hospitality operations by Lumina Wellbeing.
Therme Manchester’s 28-acre development, which will include interconnected glass pavilions
that measure 65,000sq m, will be the largest bathing and wellbeing attraction in the world once
complete, according to prof David Russell, CEO of Therme UK.
Naples Beach Club, a Four Seasons Resort, has opened a 2,800sq m spa called The Sanctuary,
with the design and concept inspired by the Native American people that populated Florida’s
Southwest coast – the Calusa.
Swire Hotels’ luxury hospitality brand Upper House has revealed it will roll out its two-day
House of Healing retreats at its three hotels in Hong Kong, Chengdu and Shanghai.
LVMH-owned beauty house Guerlain will launch up to five spas with partners a year as part of
its plan to expand globally, according to the brand’s international spa and wellness director,
Diane Davody.
A new global study by Kevin Kelly and Peter Yesawich, called WELLSurvey 2.0, has revealed
more than half of consumers in the UK, US and Germany would not choose numerous high-
profile wellness resort brands for a future trip.
