Steiner Spa Consulting (SSC) launched Steiner Spa Index, a tool to help predict the success and viability of spa projects. The template, which is available for free through SSC’s website, www.steinerspaconsulting.com, analyzes the key factors of hotels that impact the spa business and compares these with industry metrics through a proprietary algorithm. The resulting findings—Steiner Spa Index Scorecard—produce a snapshot of how a spa will fare before it is built. “Hotels need a basic understanding of the business potential of their spa before they invest in the project,” says vice president Trent Munday, who led the team that created the template using more than 200 spa projects developed by SSC. Steiner Spa Index reviews a combination of metrics, including hotel occupancy, average room rate, average food and beverage check, hotel guest demographics, and market segments, to predict the revenue potential of a spa. It also incorporates a number of cost variables, such as the expense of treatments, products, utilities, and staffing, to arrive at a prediction of each spa’s overall profitability. “It’s through the combination and weighting of all these factors that we arrive at a Steiner Spa Index score that will ultimately determine if we go forward with a project,” says Munday. “We also use these scores to advise the owners on how much investment they should put into the spa, based on their specific return on investment requirements.”