Having just received an award for employee satisfaction, Kempinski The Spa in Gozo, Malta has much to celebrate. Katie Barnes meets spa manager Hana Daoud to find out more about creating a happy workforce
By Katie Barnes | Published in Spa Business 2015 issue 3
The village of San Lawrenz in Gozo, the idyllic sister island to Malta, is an alluring spot for a holiday getaway. It’s home to the 131-bed Kempinski hotel, one of the main resorts on the small island which attracts up to 1.7 million tourists a year.
But while the setting is a peaceful one, there’s a buzz in the spa following a recent award. Kempinski The Spa at San Lawrenz is managed by international spa company Resense, which bestowed the Highest Employee Satisfaction Survey Award to the Gozo property at its 2015 bi-annual Global Spa Managers’ Forum in Jordan this July. Every year, Kempinski asks employees across its global portfolio how happy they are with their working conditions, managers and development opportunities. Resense based its spa award on this, with staff in Gozo coming top out of the many spas it manages for Kempinski. But what gave it a winning edge?
Resense rebrand “I’m fortunate to have a very strong team,” says spa manager Hana Daoud, who won Resense’s CEO Award for Excellence in 2013. “The fact our guests are highly satisfied helps with motivation too”. Daoud’s route into spas was as a cruise ship therapist in 2000 but she’s been a spa manager for Kempinski for nearly 10 years. She started out in the UAE before moving onto properties in Europe, China and now Malta where she has family.
She joined the Gozo team in 2012, a year after Resense took over and introduced Kempinski The Spa – the official in-house concept. While half of the 2,400sq m (25,833sq ft) facility and its 27 treatment rooms runs as an ayurvedic centre outsourced to Softouch (see opposite), the other half had been managed in-house for 10 years and it was time for a refresh. Resense was an obvious choice, as it manages 26 other Kempinski spas and also developed its in-house spa concept which launched five years ago.
Kempinski The Spa, inspired by the European seasons, has spring treatments focused on detox; summer therapies based on rebalancing; autumnal offerings for relaxation; and winter ones for energising. Customers can choose any treatment at any time based on how they want to feel. “Other spas use Balinese or Thai concepts, or elements such as earth, wind and fire, but I’ve never seen a seasonal approach,” says Daoud. “It’s unique, very effective and guests find it easy to understand.”
Recruitment and training Having a fresh concept helped build team momentum says Daoud, who oversees 10 staff in total including five full-time therapists. But it’s just one of several elements that she feels led to the award. “It’s about having the right team in place,” she says, explaining that recruitment is handled by the hotel’s HR department which posts jobs locally and on the Kempinski global website. Resense assists with sourcing staff too. “I look for people who are down to earth and who can adapt to change – they need to be flexible in this industry,” says Daoud. “And it’s about being passionate about the job and having a sense of pride in what they do.”
Staff aren’t all local – while one therapist is Maltese, two are from Poland, one from France and one from Lithuania. Although it does help to have women from the island manning reception she says: “they’re angles, they know how to book a [treatment] sheet and make it perfect”.
As spa manager, Daoud sees it as her responsibility to give therapists the tools and opportunity to grow. “Empowerment is a key aspect,” she says. “They must feel able to be themselves with guests and know that they can make a difference.” And this all comes down to training.
Resense sets an official education programme for the year, covering treatment standards, guest experience/services, ‘conscious connections’ and specific receptionist/therapist/attendant training. Once a year it also delivers a 10-day intensive course onsite. Daoud supplements this with her own treatment spot checks and additional guidance where needed. In addition, product houses Elemental Herbology and Charme d’Orient offer training and the hotel has its own weekly or monthly updates on Kempinski brand/guest standards.
“If a therapist is new, then the first one or two weeks are dedicated to training depending on their level,” she says.
Staff at the spa are employed on a one-year contract and according to Daoud turnover is low with “many renewing most of the time”. And while it would be forgivable to want to keep employees which are up to speed, she recognises that a good manager also encourages career development – which sometimes means fledglings fly the nest. “[Career development] is very important for motivation. There are many spas in the Resense portfolio and new ones are opening all the time so it’s important to identify talents early on and to help them grow. It gives them an opportunity to develop their careers, to transfer to a new property to discover something different and travel the world.”
Management style Although Daoud won’t take much credit for her role in the employee satisfaction award, her own management style has undoubtedly helped. She’s clearly a driven individual who has tight control over what happens in the spa, closely watching the average customer spend to make sure the spa’s on budget, as well as scrutinising therapist utilisation.
“I don’t want my therapists to burn out and it’s the weekends and holidays, especially Christmas, that you have to pay attention to,” she says. “We do around 150-200 treatments a month and therapist utilisation is 68 per cent on average. If it goes beyond 75 per cent then I step in. I have some local therapists on-call if I need, or, if it’s really busy I can perform treatments myself too.”
Firm but fair is another way to describe her approach. “When therapists join, they’re excited to be in Gozo near the beaches and of course they get to go to them, but they need to know what the hotel expects from them first. It’s important that they have an understanding of this and are on board with it because we have high standards.
“I’m very straightforward with them, but they prefer it that way. They can be like that with me too. From the beginning, I tell them to come to me with anything they need, or with any problem and that we’ll always find a way to work around it. I’m very fair. Of course, staff can be challenging, but we have no drama and we all get on well and want to help each other.
She concludes: “It’s important that they’re happy. Because if they’re happy, then so am I and, ultimately, so it the guest. I love my job with a passion and to hear guests come out and say ‘oh that was wonderful’ is what it’s all about.”
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 Ayurveda Centre opened at Kempinski San Lawrenz in 2002 with a view to giving the hotel a point of difference in the Maltese market. It’s managed by Softouch, a company originating from Kerala – the Indian hub for ayurveda – which operates 17 centres including 13 in the UAE, Africa and Europe. It shares the premises with the Resense-managed Kempinski The Spa.
While Kempinski The Spa caters more to locals and those seeking à la carte treatments, the Ayurveda Centre specialises in retreats which range from three to 28 days in length and cost €600-€3,500 (us$650-3,790 or £418-£2,440).
Ayurvedic spa manager Dr Sreejith Kammath says the retreats are all-inclusive and cover accommodation, prescribed food from an ayurvedic chef onsite, and two hours of yoga and treatment programmes a day.
The retreats cover an array of ailments from stress and pain relief to spine care and weight loss, but most people choose the relaxation and rejuvenation package.
In a world where imbalance often accumulates quietly, Wildsmith unveils its newest
wellbeing innovation: Silent Loads, an approach designed to meet the needs of modern spa
guests with precision and depth. [more...]
The Spa Life UK Convention returns from 21–23 June 2026 at Whittlebury Park Hotel, Spa &
Golf Resort, bringing together spa managers, directors and owners for two days of focused
education, meaningful connection and commercial insight. [more...]
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Having just received an award for employee satisfaction, Kempinski The Spa in Gozo, Malta has much to celebrate. Katie Barnes meets spa manager Hana Daoud to find out more about creating a happy workforce
By Katie Barnes | Published in Spa Business 2015 issue 3
The village of San Lawrenz in Gozo, the idyllic sister island to Malta, is an alluring spot for a holiday getaway. It’s home to the 131-bed Kempinski hotel, one of the main resorts on the small island which attracts up to 1.7 million tourists a year.
But while the setting is a peaceful one, there’s a buzz in the spa following a recent award. Kempinski The Spa at San Lawrenz is managed by international spa company Resense, which bestowed the Highest Employee Satisfaction Survey Award to the Gozo property at its 2015 bi-annual Global Spa Managers’ Forum in Jordan this July. Every year, Kempinski asks employees across its global portfolio how happy they are with their working conditions, managers and development opportunities. Resense based its spa award on this, with staff in Gozo coming top out of the many spas it manages for Kempinski. But what gave it a winning edge?
Resense rebrand “I’m fortunate to have a very strong team,” says spa manager Hana Daoud, who won Resense’s CEO Award for Excellence in 2013. “The fact our guests are highly satisfied helps with motivation too”. Daoud’s route into spas was as a cruise ship therapist in 2000 but she’s been a spa manager for Kempinski for nearly 10 years. She started out in the UAE before moving onto properties in Europe, China and now Malta where she has family.
She joined the Gozo team in 2012, a year after Resense took over and introduced Kempinski The Spa – the official in-house concept. While half of the 2,400sq m (25,833sq ft) facility and its 27 treatment rooms runs as an ayurvedic centre outsourced to Softouch (see opposite), the other half had been managed in-house for 10 years and it was time for a refresh. Resense was an obvious choice, as it manages 26 other Kempinski spas and also developed its in-house spa concept which launched five years ago.
Kempinski The Spa, inspired by the European seasons, has spring treatments focused on detox; summer therapies based on rebalancing; autumnal offerings for relaxation; and winter ones for energising. Customers can choose any treatment at any time based on how they want to feel. “Other spas use Balinese or Thai concepts, or elements such as earth, wind and fire, but I’ve never seen a seasonal approach,” says Daoud. “It’s unique, very effective and guests find it easy to understand.”
Recruitment and training Having a fresh concept helped build team momentum says Daoud, who oversees 10 staff in total including five full-time therapists. But it’s just one of several elements that she feels led to the award. “It’s about having the right team in place,” she says, explaining that recruitment is handled by the hotel’s HR department which posts jobs locally and on the Kempinski global website. Resense assists with sourcing staff too. “I look for people who are down to earth and who can adapt to change – they need to be flexible in this industry,” says Daoud. “And it’s about being passionate about the job and having a sense of pride in what they do.”
Staff aren’t all local – while one therapist is Maltese, two are from Poland, one from France and one from Lithuania. Although it does help to have women from the island manning reception she says: “they’re angles, they know how to book a [treatment] sheet and make it perfect”.
As spa manager, Daoud sees it as her responsibility to give therapists the tools and opportunity to grow. “Empowerment is a key aspect,” she says. “They must feel able to be themselves with guests and know that they can make a difference.” And this all comes down to training.
Resense sets an official education programme for the year, covering treatment standards, guest experience/services, ‘conscious connections’ and specific receptionist/therapist/attendant training. Once a year it also delivers a 10-day intensive course onsite. Daoud supplements this with her own treatment spot checks and additional guidance where needed. In addition, product houses Elemental Herbology and Charme d’Orient offer training and the hotel has its own weekly or monthly updates on Kempinski brand/guest standards.
“If a therapist is new, then the first one or two weeks are dedicated to training depending on their level,” she says.
Staff at the spa are employed on a one-year contract and according to Daoud turnover is low with “many renewing most of the time”. And while it would be forgivable to want to keep employees which are up to speed, she recognises that a good manager also encourages career development – which sometimes means fledglings fly the nest. “[Career development] is very important for motivation. There are many spas in the Resense portfolio and new ones are opening all the time so it’s important to identify talents early on and to help them grow. It gives them an opportunity to develop their careers, to transfer to a new property to discover something different and travel the world.”
Management style Although Daoud won’t take much credit for her role in the employee satisfaction award, her own management style has undoubtedly helped. She’s clearly a driven individual who has tight control over what happens in the spa, closely watching the average customer spend to make sure the spa’s on budget, as well as scrutinising therapist utilisation.
“I don’t want my therapists to burn out and it’s the weekends and holidays, especially Christmas, that you have to pay attention to,” she says. “We do around 150-200 treatments a month and therapist utilisation is 68 per cent on average. If it goes beyond 75 per cent then I step in. I have some local therapists on-call if I need, or, if it’s really busy I can perform treatments myself too.”
Firm but fair is another way to describe her approach. “When therapists join, they’re excited to be in Gozo near the beaches and of course they get to go to them, but they need to know what the hotel expects from them first. It’s important that they have an understanding of this and are on board with it because we have high standards.
“I’m very straightforward with them, but they prefer it that way. They can be like that with me too. From the beginning, I tell them to come to me with anything they need, or with any problem and that we’ll always find a way to work around it. I’m very fair. Of course, staff can be challenging, but we have no drama and we all get on well and want to help each other.
She concludes: “It’s important that they’re happy. Because if they’re happy, then so am I and, ultimately, so it the guest. I love my job with a passion and to hear guests come out and say ‘oh that was wonderful’ is what it’s all about.”
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 Ayurveda Centre opened at Kempinski San Lawrenz in 2002 with a view to giving the hotel a point of difference in the Maltese market. It’s managed by Softouch, a company originating from Kerala – the Indian hub for ayurveda – which operates 17 centres including 13 in the UAE, Africa and Europe. It shares the premises with the Resense-managed Kempinski The Spa.
While Kempinski The Spa caters more to locals and those seeking à la carte treatments, the Ayurveda Centre specialises in retreats which range from three to 28 days in length and cost €600-€3,500 (us$650-3,790 or £418-£2,440).
Ayurvedic spa manager Dr Sreejith Kammath says the retreats are all-inclusive and cover accommodation, prescribed food from an ayurvedic chef onsite, and two hours of yoga and treatment programmes a day.
The retreats cover an array of ailments from stress and pain relief to spine care and weight loss, but most people choose the relaxation and rejuvenation package.
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.
Luxury hospitality and wellness pioneer Jeremy McCarthy has launched Leisure Alchemy, a
digital platform that will provide professionals with strategic guidance on how to build
transformational leisure experiences that drive profit.
In a world where imbalance often accumulates quietly, Wildsmith unveils its newest
wellbeing innovation: Silent Loads, an approach designed to meet the needs of modern spa
guests with precision and depth. [more...]
The Spa Life UK Convention returns from 21–23 June 2026 at Whittlebury Park Hotel, Spa &
Golf Resort, bringing together spa managers, directors and owners for two days of focused
education, meaningful connection and commercial insight. [more...]
+ More featured suppliers
COMPANY PROFILES
UK Spa Association Our mission is to raise awareness of our industry within schools, colleges, society and crucially at [more...]
