Founder and CEO Riadh Bouaziz talks about the development of the linen company’s revolutionary new Dreamsoft product and its uptake in leading hotels and spas worldwide
Can you tell us about your latest product, Dreamsoft? Dreamsoft is a revolutionary new material that not only looks and feels incredibly luxurious, but also has twice the lifecycle of other spa materials. For hotel and spa operators, it can also deliver between 50-60 per cent savings on laundry costs, which after staff salaries, is the biggest running expense they face. Two other relevant points: the life of the product is more or less doubled compared to other products, and the softness is more or less similar to silk for the lifetime of the product.
When did it launch? We launched the product exclusively at Guerlain’s new flagship beauty institute on the Champs-Elysee in Paris in late 2013. A few months after that, we started our global rollout of the product for both Guerlain and other leading clients. For example, over the past year, we’ve completed Dreamsoft projects for Guerlain in Versailles, Prague, Moscow, St Petersburg, Vienna, Amsterdam and Zurich, as well as at worldwide locations with our client Ritz-Carlton and its many hotel and spa brands.
What’s so special about the Dreamsoft product? To begin with, it’s two fabrics in one – but that does not mean that two different layers are bonded together – it’s a single layer of fabric that keeps products extremely light and versatile.
Spa robes are 100 per cent super absorbent cotton on the inside, with ultra-light Wellsoft velour on the outside. The fabric has the look of a 600 GSM weight, whereas it’s actually only 350 GSM. This makes it very comfortable for clients to wear, and hotels and spas only need half the storage space for their robes and linens. You really have to see and feel the product to believe it.
Have there been any new developments since its launch? Yes, for Guerlain we launched Dreamsoft in classic white and have also been providing the product in lighter colours for clients, including Peninsula Hotels.
Last year, our long-term client Sofitel approached us to create a bespoke colour – a dark taupe – for its flagship thalasso and spa hotel Quiberon in Brittany, France.
Because Dreamsoft is made up of different fibres that each require a different dying process, and in turn each of those fibres are double dyed, producing Dreamsoft in darker colours is a lengthy and complicated process.
We spent months in R & D to produce the bespoke colour for Sofitel, and the end result was outstanding. Even we were surprised that Dreamsoft had an even more luxurious look in a dark colour!
What has been your most recent project with Dreamsoft? We’ve just completed a project at the Bulgari Hotel spa in Knightsbridge, London. This hotel has a very exclusive clientele, but its original sets of spa linens were something that you could find at a dozens other spas, and not really suitable for the quality of the Bulgari brand. We’d met the spa director Shelley at several trade events, and began talking seriously about a project for them earlier this year.
We’re very proud of what has been achieved. It’s a complete set of Dreamsoft and RKF linen products that elevate the client experience to a whole new level.
Firstly, we’ve recreated the brand’s exclusive “Bulgari Grey” in Dreamsoft. Each treatment room has a heavyweight cotton, waterproof valance made to fit perfectly over the bed. There are waterproof mattress covers and Dreamsoft sheets for clients to lie between, duvets and a super-soft waterproof pillow.
There are towels in all different sizes, and the spa robes are style like a beautiful cashmere coat. It’s a very flattering shape, and they come in several different sizes.
Our attention to detail meant that we measured and tailored everything in the Dreamsoft set down to the last millimetre.
Is Dreamsoft much more expensive than other materials for spas? No. In the lighter colours, Dreamsoft is around 15 per cent more expensive than regular cotton towelling, but operators can easily recoup that extra cost with the savings they make after around 10-12 laundry cycles.
The darker colours involve a more complicated process and are created as bespoke colours for clients, so this cost is also a bit higher – but those extra costs can still be recouped starting from around the 10th wash cycle.
What’s next for RKF Luxury Linen? Dreamsoft, of course, is not our only product – we cater for all the linen needs of luxury brands. We’re expanding our partnerships with leading hotels and spas, and we’ve also recently opened a Middle East office in Doha, Qatar.
With our client Sofitel and its SoSPA brand, there’ll be 24 new openings this year, meaning that clients will be experiencing Dreamsoft as far and wide as the Fiji Islands, Azerbaijan and Brazil.
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2015 issue 3
Letters:
Investors better placed to make profits in spas than operators, says Roger Allen
News report: LivNordic
Raison d’Etre signs a deal with Viking Cruise Lines for its LivNordic spa brand
Trends: Spa Foresight™ 2015
The team behind Spa Business share their insights on what the world of wellness will look like in the future
Interview – Craig Cogut:
The founding partner of Six Senses’ investment firm Pegasus Capital Advisors reveals his vision for the spa operator. Rhianon Howells reports
Promotional feature: RKF Linen
Founder and CEO Riadh Bouaziz talks about the development of the linen company’s revolutionary
new Dreamsoft product and its uptake in leading hotels and spas worldwide
Thought Leaders: Expert predictions
Thought leaders from around the world, working in different industry sectors, talk about spa trends, challenges and growth opportunities
Promotional feature: Thalgo
After 50 successful years in the professional spa and beauty industry, the Thalgo brand is as strong and as innovative
as ever
Promotional feature: ManageMySpa
CEO Sudheer Koneru explains how a move from enterprise technology into spa
software resulted in the creation of a powerful system
The Dreamsoft headset is so soft, clients never get a ring around their face
Shelley HepburnSpa director Bulgari Spa
Bulgari Hotel London opened in May 2012, and has quickly become a magnet for wealthy clientele, whether hotel guests or residents in surrounding Knightsbridge.
Spa director Shelley Hepburn says that after sampling RKF Linen’s Dreamsoft product, the spa placed a bespoke order. She says: “Linen is the most important part of the spa – it can really make or break the experience, so it was great to find such an ultra-luxurious product for our spa customers.
“The RKF team came to measure up and listened carefully to all our requirements. We had very particular needs as all fabrics had to match the Bulgari Grey. I have to say the Dreamsoft grey has turned out much richer and deeper than our previous towels and linens, and it matches beautifully with the natural wood interiors.
“There a lots of details that have made the new Dreamsoft arrangement very special. For example, the headset on the massage table is so soft, clients never get a ring around their face after a treatment. The pillows mould perfectly into the client’s neck, and the robes are like being wrapped up in a soft, light quilt.
“We have a high repeat customer rate of 70 per cent, and these clients have really noticed a difference in the quality of their experience.”
“It was great to find such an ultra-luxurious product for our spa customers”
Finely tailored Dreamsoft spa robes are flattering to all figures
RKF supplied Dreamsoft to the Shiseido Spa at the prestigious Excelsior Gallia Hotel in Milan
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Founder and CEO Riadh Bouaziz talks about the development of the linen company’s revolutionary new Dreamsoft product and its uptake in leading hotels and spas worldwide
Can you tell us about your latest product, Dreamsoft? Dreamsoft is a revolutionary new material that not only looks and feels incredibly luxurious, but also has twice the lifecycle of other spa materials. For hotel and spa operators, it can also deliver between 50-60 per cent savings on laundry costs, which after staff salaries, is the biggest running expense they face. Two other relevant points: the life of the product is more or less doubled compared to other products, and the softness is more or less similar to silk for the lifetime of the product.
When did it launch? We launched the product exclusively at Guerlain’s new flagship beauty institute on the Champs-Elysee in Paris in late 2013. A few months after that, we started our global rollout of the product for both Guerlain and other leading clients. For example, over the past year, we’ve completed Dreamsoft projects for Guerlain in Versailles, Prague, Moscow, St Petersburg, Vienna, Amsterdam and Zurich, as well as at worldwide locations with our client Ritz-Carlton and its many hotel and spa brands.
What’s so special about the Dreamsoft product? To begin with, it’s two fabrics in one – but that does not mean that two different layers are bonded together – it’s a single layer of fabric that keeps products extremely light and versatile.
Spa robes are 100 per cent super absorbent cotton on the inside, with ultra-light Wellsoft velour on the outside. The fabric has the look of a 600 GSM weight, whereas it’s actually only 350 GSM. This makes it very comfortable for clients to wear, and hotels and spas only need half the storage space for their robes and linens. You really have to see and feel the product to believe it.
Have there been any new developments since its launch? Yes, for Guerlain we launched Dreamsoft in classic white and have also been providing the product in lighter colours for clients, including Peninsula Hotels.
Last year, our long-term client Sofitel approached us to create a bespoke colour – a dark taupe – for its flagship thalasso and spa hotel Quiberon in Brittany, France.
Because Dreamsoft is made up of different fibres that each require a different dying process, and in turn each of those fibres are double dyed, producing Dreamsoft in darker colours is a lengthy and complicated process.
We spent months in R & D to produce the bespoke colour for Sofitel, and the end result was outstanding. Even we were surprised that Dreamsoft had an even more luxurious look in a dark colour!
What has been your most recent project with Dreamsoft? We’ve just completed a project at the Bulgari Hotel spa in Knightsbridge, London. This hotel has a very exclusive clientele, but its original sets of spa linens were something that you could find at a dozens other spas, and not really suitable for the quality of the Bulgari brand. We’d met the spa director Shelley at several trade events, and began talking seriously about a project for them earlier this year.
We’re very proud of what has been achieved. It’s a complete set of Dreamsoft and RKF linen products that elevate the client experience to a whole new level.
Firstly, we’ve recreated the brand’s exclusive “Bulgari Grey” in Dreamsoft. Each treatment room has a heavyweight cotton, waterproof valance made to fit perfectly over the bed. There are waterproof mattress covers and Dreamsoft sheets for clients to lie between, duvets and a super-soft waterproof pillow.
There are towels in all different sizes, and the spa robes are style like a beautiful cashmere coat. It’s a very flattering shape, and they come in several different sizes.
Our attention to detail meant that we measured and tailored everything in the Dreamsoft set down to the last millimetre.
Is Dreamsoft much more expensive than other materials for spas? No. In the lighter colours, Dreamsoft is around 15 per cent more expensive than regular cotton towelling, but operators can easily recoup that extra cost with the savings they make after around 10-12 laundry cycles.
The darker colours involve a more complicated process and are created as bespoke colours for clients, so this cost is also a bit higher – but those extra costs can still be recouped starting from around the 10th wash cycle.
What’s next for RKF Luxury Linen? Dreamsoft, of course, is not our only product – we cater for all the linen needs of luxury brands. We’re expanding our partnerships with leading hotels and spas, and we’ve also recently opened a Middle East office in Doha, Qatar.
With our client Sofitel and its SoSPA brand, there’ll be 24 new openings this year, meaning that clients will be experiencing Dreamsoft as far and wide as the Fiji Islands, Azerbaijan and Brazil.
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2015 issue 3
Letters:
Investors better placed to make profits in spas than operators, says Roger Allen
News report: LivNordic
Raison d’Etre signs a deal with Viking Cruise Lines for its LivNordic spa brand
Trends: Spa Foresight™ 2015
The team behind Spa Business share their insights on what the world of wellness will look like in the future
Interview – Craig Cogut:
The founding partner of Six Senses’ investment firm Pegasus Capital Advisors reveals his vision for the spa operator. Rhianon Howells reports
Promotional feature: RKF Linen
Founder and CEO Riadh Bouaziz talks about the development of the linen company’s revolutionary
new Dreamsoft product and its uptake in leading hotels and spas worldwide
Thought Leaders: Expert predictions
Thought leaders from around the world, working in different industry sectors, talk about spa trends, challenges and growth opportunities
Promotional feature: Thalgo
After 50 successful years in the professional spa and beauty industry, the Thalgo brand is as strong and as innovative
as ever
Promotional feature: ManageMySpa
CEO Sudheer Koneru explains how a move from enterprise technology into spa
software resulted in the creation of a powerful system
The Dreamsoft headset is so soft, clients never get a ring around their face
Shelley HepburnSpa director Bulgari Spa
Bulgari Hotel London opened in May 2012, and has quickly become a magnet for wealthy clientele, whether hotel guests or residents in surrounding Knightsbridge.
Spa director Shelley Hepburn says that after sampling RKF Linen’s Dreamsoft product, the spa placed a bespoke order. She says: “Linen is the most important part of the spa – it can really make or break the experience, so it was great to find such an ultra-luxurious product for our spa customers.
“The RKF team came to measure up and listened carefully to all our requirements. We had very particular needs as all fabrics had to match the Bulgari Grey. I have to say the Dreamsoft grey has turned out much richer and deeper than our previous towels and linens, and it matches beautifully with the natural wood interiors.
“There a lots of details that have made the new Dreamsoft arrangement very special. For example, the headset on the massage table is so soft, clients never get a ring around their face after a treatment. The pillows mould perfectly into the client’s neck, and the robes are like being wrapped up in a soft, light quilt.
“We have a high repeat customer rate of 70 per cent, and these clients have really noticed a difference in the quality of their experience.”
“It was great to find such an ultra-luxurious product for our spa customers”
Finely tailored Dreamsoft spa robes are flattering to all figures
RKF supplied Dreamsoft to the Shiseido Spa at the prestigious Excelsior Gallia Hotel in Milan
Gran Hotel Taoro in northern Tenerife, Spain, has completed the final phase of its three-year
renovation with the debut of its Sandára Wellness Centre.
Hand and Stone Massage and Facial Spa, the spa business with more than 650 locations across
the US and Canada, has appointed franchise expert Carrie Walsh as CEO as the company plans
to expand.
Synergy – The Retreat Show, the global trade show for retreats, has launched a global research
initiative that will provide insights into the retreat sector from both consumer and industry
perspectives.
The Wellness Tourism Association (WTA) has published a non-regulatory global industry
framework designed to ensure the retreat market offers responsible experiences.
A new survey of UK and international spa practitioners shows that stress, burnout and
wellbeing concerns have caused one in three respondents to consider leaving the industry.
The UK's four Chief Medical Officers have published a refreshed edition of Physical activity
guidelines: UK Chief Medical Officers' report, updating the evidence that underpins the nation's
physical activity recommendations and placing greater emphasis on strength, balance, reducing
sedentary behaviour and, for the first time, supporting people taking weight loss medications.
Anna Bjurstam has left her role as Wellness Pioneer at Six Senses Hotels and Resorts and
launched a new wellness, longevity and “consciousness consultancy” called Wahayla.
Fairmont Cheshire, The Mere, has opened today (10 July) in the Northwest of England
with a
1,715sq m Fairmont Spa that has been designed using a ‘Wellness without Walls’
concept.
Contrast therapy, based on the alternation of hot and cold rituals, has become one of the
most valued practices in the fields of wellness and recovery. [more...]
In the fast-paced world of fitness and wellness, where high-intensity workouts push us to
our limits and the sweat pours, the importance of efficient recovery cannot be overstated. [more...]
+ More featured suppliers
COMPANY PROFILES
Bioline Jatò Bioline Jatò is a family Italian company
operating in the professional skincare
industry since 197 [more...]
