Treat and Revive Spa

This is a great spa considering the location. The staff are great and the treatments are amazing. They tailor it to suit you and are very accommodating to each individual clients needs without asking or consulting management which I thought was amazing. The prices are as expected in London but once you’ve been there once for a treatment, they offer selective offers specially for clients, which I think is great customer service.

It’s more like 2.5 stars. I purchased a Groupon for a couples’ 60-​minute massage and facial. Once I had confirmation from groupon, I used the online booking system to immediately book in a choice date and time. I didn’t receive any kind of confirmation of the appt., so I tried for about three days to call the spa. It would either go straight to a recording with their hours or ring and ring.
After a week, I tried an email. Another week went by. I tried another, more seriously toned email expressing my frustration at the lack of response. I finally heard back (by email) and was curtly told in copy-​and-​paste speak that I had to book my appointment using the online system and I will receive confirmation by text. I was then instructed to rebook on another date because I was not booked for the one I tried to. No «sorry you are having trouble» let alone an apology that it took so long for them to respond. Because I was in limbo for about three weeks, I lost my appointment of choice and all other Saturday appointments for several weeks were also taken. Boo.
Finally our appointment date arrived. Once we were at the facility (located within the lovely Bannatyne Club in Maida Vale) the staff was friendly and accommodating. We were checked in fairly promptly but not taken back to the room until about 12: 40 (the appt still ended at 1:30, despite the late start being their issue, not ours).
The massage room was very nice, dimly lit with candles and music, and not a sound could be heard from the busy club outside. We were instructed to get undressed and those were nearly the only words spoken by our masseuses the entire time. Which is good, I concede, as you want to relax and there’s no need for small talk. But there wasn’t even a cursory «this is what your package includes: we’ll do legs, then back, then your facial. Your facial will include XYZ products that will do abc for your skin …» For someone who’s never had a professional massage let alone a facial (as in my husband’s case) and you’re basically naked and face down in a dark room with a stranger, you kinda want to know what’s about to happen, what comes next. Not to mention, they tout the «finest products in the industry» on their site … so what are they anyway?
The facial was ho-​hum, and I knew nothing about what they put on us, other than there were three different creams/​oils applied to my skin (and my hair, unfortunately; I left with my fringe sopping with grease).
All in all, the whole treatment was only OK, in my opinion. When I left, I didn’t have that «ahhhh» feeling that comes with relaxed muscles that have been worked on by a professional, and the facial products seemed like run of the mill lotions — they didn’t smell or feel particularly wonderful and my skin immediately after didn’t feel any different. My husband was pretty happy with his massage though. Either I’m too picky or his masseuse was better than mine.
We were offered a plastic cup of water after (not even a full bottle?) and given the chance to purchase the same treatment at the discounted price. (We declined.) We had paid £50 as a Groupon deal and this experience was worth about that. I would be fuming if we actually spent the sticker price of £228 (especially considering the lack of customer service at the start).
There was a big underlying issue here. Massages and facials are a luxury, and when your company buys in to groupon and tries to net that demographic who really don’t spend their disposable income on such luxuries on a regular basis, you have to work that much harder to sell it as something they should consider doing more often (with your company of course). It needs to meet their expectations and more. I felt like we were treated like Groupon customers who spent £50 and probably won’t come back so why bother. It’s a self-​fulfilling prophecy and it makes me wonder why companies with this attitude bother with Groupon.