In my last post about the questionably popular snake massage service, the lesson to be learned is that just because you can offer a service doesn't mean you should. For smaller day spas (less than 6 treatment rooms) I rarely recommend having a wet room, hydrotherapy or a Vichy shower because they rarely provide a profitable stream of income. Let me explain.
[For my readers who are unfamiliar with what a Vichy shower is, it is a 5 to 7 head shower bar used in body treatments.]
The decision to include a Vichy shower or wet room in a new day spa startup (or keep an existing one) is admittedly a tough one. On one hand, you (a day spa owner) want to offer all the traditional spa services to your clients and not lose business to nearby hotel or larger chain spas. On the other hand, the room is hecka expensive to build and there is usually not enough business to support the enormous investment.
Let's take a look and see what the numbers tell us about having a Vichy shower. A full wet room (tiled floor & walls, integrated plumbing and drain) will conservatively cost $15,000 and up. One of those new integrated tub/color therapy/Vichy shower systems cost $7000 and up. Just for fun, lets do a very rough estimate of how many services it will take to pay back the smaller $7000 investment. Although service profits will vary by market and pricing and several other factors, a $10 net profit (Price - labor costs - prorated overhead costs) is achievable for most wet room treatments. That means after doing just 700 full-priced services, that piece of equipment it is free and clear! (That is if you paid cash and don't have to also pay interest on that $7000). A two or three year return your investment is a reasonable guideline for equipment purchases and to do that you'd have to have 4 - 5 services per week every week to pay it back in three years. Yet in smaller spas, where facials and massages are by far the norm, wet body treatments are done closer to 2 or maybe 3 times a week...which may double the time to payback that investment to 5 years or more.
Although these are very rough and generic estimates, they clearly show that without clients that schedule a wet room treatment more than 4 times a week at a price that provides at least $10 in net profit and no maintenance costs and no interest expense...it may take 3 or more years to just break even on that purchase. Are there other things you could spend that money on that would provide a higher return? Perhaps retail inventory, a high-buzz marketing event, or higher quality signage out front?
Even after knowing the bleak picture from the numbers side, you may still feel it is required to offer wet room services. Or perhaps you really don't want to invest more money to convert the room to a facial or massage treatment room. Douglas Preston wrote a great article a while back on A Profitable Approach to Hydrotherapy that you'll find helpful.
The bottom line is to find balance between what makes business/financial sense (using your facility space as wisely and fully as possible) and what fits the brand of your day spa (are these services your number one priority to provide?). This balance is sometimes difficult to achieve, yet by looking at major purchase decisions from both of these perspectives you are setting the foundation for a more profitable business.
Don't let me be the last word here. What has been your experience with having (or choosing not to have) a Vichy shower or hydrotherphy in your day spa?
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