Spa Finder Releases Results of Day Spa Industry Survey

Spafinder Report cover

Spa Finder has released the results of the Day Spa Industry Survey. Conducted electronically in August 2007, with email invitations sent to a random sample of 6200 day spas nationwide, Spa Finder collected 389 complete surveys.

Here are some highlights from the survey:

85% of day spa businesses have just one location, and the majority of spa facilities measure less than 2000 square feet. More than one out of three day spas report gross annual revenues under $200,000, with 56% (the majority) reporting gross revenues falling under $400,000. At least 80% of our respondent-spas had been in operations for less than ten years. A majority of spas had been fully operational for only about two years.

Spas reporting revenues at the one million mark or above (one in five spas) have been in business for at least nine years.

On average, respondent spa-menus offer 40 different treatments and services. Multiple services and treatments per visit in our respondent spas were common. At least 60% of clientele received two treatments; around 80% of all clients spent less than $150;

Almost half of the respondents stated that retail business contributed around 10% to their gross annual revenue. More than 50% of clients spent less than $50 on retail purchases.60% of our respondents carried less than 150 retail items at their spa.

Almost all respondent spas had a spa website, however most spas do not do much to promote their online presence. A large majority of respondents did not use any internet marketing strategies.

Commission only was the most commonly used salary structure. If a spa was using a combination of pay-per-hour and commission wage structure, the pay was about $10 with an average commission rate of 29%.

Human resources issues such as obtaining, retaining, and managing motivated and quality staff was listed as the greatest challenge that respondent spas faced.

Almost 85% of respondent spas did not have a reservations department (to handle client appointment bookings) separate from their front desk operations.

31% had a marketing budget of under $5,000 per year Respondent spas with higher revenues did not necessarily use expensive marketing methods but chose to focus on marketing tools that reached their target audience appropriately.