Ann Brown, founder and CEO of Saltability and the co-founder of Himalayan Source, discusses tips for maximizing underutilized treatment rooms with halotherapy.
For spa directors trying to maximize revenue, an empty treatment room represents lost opportunity. When dealing with booking treatments and managing therapists’ schedules and disruptions due to COVID, however, maintaining 100 percent utilization can be a continuous challenge. While you may struggle with having enough therapists on the schedule, your clients are craving spa therapy. We continue to live in a world of high anxiety and uncertainty due to the pandemic, and clients are seeking respite and more touch, more peace and wellness. How do you solve this problem?
Instead of remaining dependent upon your staffing to maximize your revenue and keep your rooms fully booked, consider creating new avenues for generating revenue. Look for ways to expand your services and bring wellness to your clients that require no therapist time — strengthening your overall business even while you deal with employee absenteeism that may occur due to the pandemic. For example, Himalayan salt and halotherapy can add value to your spa on multiple levels, human touch-free. Passive uses of Himalayan salt, such as salt rooms, salt beds, salt loungers, and salt pods release naturally occurring negative ions when warmed, reducing tension and stress by purifying the air that is often contaminated by harmful substances positive ions released from things like electronic devices. Plus, Himalayan Source's private halotherapy experience provides an innovative, new treatment experience that combines multiple modalities in a safe space – no hands-on therapist required.
A private halotherapy experience combines far infrared heat therapy with the benefits of Himalayan salt to create a luxury healing experience with a particular focus on supporting respiratory health. Utilize your front desk staff to check guests in for this experience and avoid dependency on therapist staffing for use of treatment room. You’ll save on therapist commission as the client benefits from restorative relaxation and the benefits of halotherapy. In the private halotherapy experience, an aesthetically pleasing, glowing Himalayan salt wall sets the environment. A halogenerator disperses pharmaceutical grade particles of Himalayan salt from a halogenerator, while the client soaks up the benefits of relaxing on a massage table with far infrared heat therapy combined with gemstones, pulsed electromagnetic held therapy (PEMF) and LED light therapy. Guided meditation rounds out the rejuvenating, recentering experience.
Halotherapy cleanses the respiratory tract and strengthens lung function by stimulating the body's internal processes through the inhalation of pure sodium chloride (a natural, basic mineral — salt). A halotherapy room is a controlled dry salt aerosol environment, and clients only need to inhale and exhale to reap the wellness benefits. The tiny, negatively ionized salt micro-particles will help improve your breathing and more.
Known to provide symptomatic relief for adults and children for skin conditions such as acne, dermatitis, dry and flaky skin, eczema, psoriasis, rashes, rosacea, skin aging, and skin inflammation, halotherapy naturally triggers skin microcirculation and cellular membrane activity. It enhances the skin's protective properties and processes to support the repair and regeneration of healthy skin.
One-hundred percent pure Himalayan salt, considered the purest and most beneficial salt ever discovered on earth and containing 84 naturally occurring minerals and salts, can also add value and revenue to your spa through Himalayan salt panels. Adding salt panels to your sauna helps create a clean, pure, bacteria-free environment that detoxifies and replenishes the body. Add a panel to your existing space or construct with a new build-out. Heated panels can also be added to meditation spaces and treatment rooms.
Get creative and think beyond the traditional uses of your treatment rooms and traditional treatments. Explore ways to offer wellness that is available anytime, regardless of who you have scheduled or if you are fully staffed or not. You’ll bring in more revenue to ultimately strengthen your business, creating a more profitable pro forma. Project a more profitable future and offer unique, innovative spa experiences that add value for clients.
Ann Brown’s spa expertise extends from licensed cosmetologist, esthetician, nail technician and massage therapist to accomplished spa director, business manager, and spa consultant. She holds more than 25 years of experience in nearly every aspect of the resort spa business. She is the founder and CEO of Saltability and the co-founder of Himalayan Source.