The recent article in Spa Business on Dr Mehmet Oz (SB17/2 p 24-25) highlighted the potential benefits of spas on sleep quality, mentioning poor sleep as “one of the biggest underappreciated health problems.” Since sleep can have a causal or correlative relationship with most major chronic health conditions, the importance of sleep quality cannot be overstated.

One benefit of a wellness retreat is to bring awareness to common detrimental habits to sleep, such as working late at night. However, the causative factors to sleep disruption can go far beyond sleep hygiene and the need for relaxation. The advantage of a medi-spa like Chiva-Som is that multiple causes of sleep disruption – including hormone imbalances, nutrient deficiencies, and negative influences from chronic health conditions – can be safely explored in a relaxed setting.

A simple analysis of heart rate variability, along with basic mindfulness exercises, can provide tools for maintaining a wellness practice at home. This method helps to “turn down” the hyper-vigilance of our clients, thus promoting restful sleep.

In combination with lab testing, naturopathic counselling and traditional healing practices, the medi-spa not only reboots, but can also help realign the physical, mental and emotional aspects of health for achieving sustainable restorative sleep.

Escape from everyday stress sounds great, but for spas to significantly impact the wellbeing of their clients, it’s imperative they think of poor sleep quality as a multifactorial imbalance – and that they don’t miss the opportunity to address a broader range of disruptions to getting optimal rest.

I was happy to see James Clark-Kennedy’s article, “Taking the heat,” in Spa Business (SB17/2 p 56-58), which looked at research into the effects of thermal water on mood and mind.

This is important work that is most relevant, and research will become even more important in the future. It’s not enough to “know” that thermal water and other natural remedies help. It’s necessary to prove they work, both in preventive, as well as in curative terms – in competition with all sorts of pills claiming to deliver the same effects in an easier and quicker way.

This is especially true in Europe, where at least some spa treatments are still reimbursed by health insurance. Future research will also need to address causal relations to a greater extent – to explain why these treatments work. And wouldn’t it be great to have more evidence that spa treatments based on natural remedies are more sustainable?

We not only need more research, but also more exchange of ideas, cooperation and coordination – and more ways to transfer this information into practical business use.

One resource that can help move this forward is the e-library of the European Spas Association, which collects research from all over the world and is available as a free resource online at www.espalibrary.eu.

There is also a newly created conference – European Health Prevention Day – taking place 23-24 November in Wiesbaden, Germany. This event will include a roundtable of researchers who will discuss the future focus of research in this field. I hope stakeholders in the spa community will join the discussion.

PS: Yes – it’s the marketing guy writing a letter on research – because evidence is the strongest foundation of spa marketing!

The spa and wellness industry is exceptional at creating amazing experiences and improving the lives of our guests – but are we equally good at also taking care of our owners and investors?

Guest focus is natural for spa and wellness people – our typically intuitive and kinaesthetic nature is often what attracted us to this industry. However, ROIs, IRRs and KPIs are not in our comfort zone. Our industry continues to discuss and even argue about the benefits of KPIs and terms such as yield management. But many do not know how to relate these indicators to everyday business in their spas – they’re viewing them as statistics, rather than indicators. KPIs are tools, and their relevance is how they intersect – and the better business decisions that can be made accordingly.

For example, we often calculate treatment room utilisation, but the intersection between therapist utilisation and bookings turned away is more useful for indicating rostering or scheduling deficiencies. It’s our responsibility to provide the right training and systems that don’t push square pegs into round holes – to equip our spa teams with simple, translatable business analysis that minimises costs, maximises revenue and ensures their assets perform for our owners and investors.