Hotels and spas share many attributes, perhaps none more salient than that both are in the service industry. Whether we’re selling rooms for the night or massages for the hour, what differentiates one service provider from the next is the overall guest experience. Frontline employees shape guests’ perceptions and make the difference between a “Wow!” experience and just an average one. At Red Door Spa Holdings, we have come to realize that our associates don’t just represent our brand, they are the brand.

About three years ago, we conducted a competitive analysis of the North American spa industry. The overall rate of growth for spa services, which had seen strong double-digit increases for well over a decade, was beginning to slow, yet the number of new spas opening continued to accelerate. We asked ourselves how we would continue to succeed in this ever-increasingly competitive landscape. Our conclusion: we would focus on the guest experience. Providing a quality technical service (whether it be a massage, facial, pedicure, or hair cut) was simply the price of admission…if we were going to succeed in the long run, then we needed to provide the best overall guest experience ...