Carlos Calvo Rodriguez is the Corporate Director of Spa Training at Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts.
Like many in the industry, he started his career in wellness, specifically physiotherapy, going on to work as a therapist, supervisor, assistant spa director, and director, before moving into corporate training.
With so much experience under his belt, Calvo-Rodriguez was the perfect person to ask for his expert opinion on how the spa industry can solve its major staffing problem. You can read what he and other industry experts had to say in our Special Report: Can the spa industry solve its staffing problem before it’s too late?
We also asked him which industry trends he’s excited about. The answer? Simplicity and social media. Here’s what Calvo-Rodriguez had to say about why the simple menu is best, and why more spas need to step up their social media game.
What are some of the trends you’re excited about in the spa industry right now?
Simplicity. I like the move towards simplifying menus, rather than those big menus like before, when you would go to the spa and the menu is 20 pages of different massages. When you’re on page number five you forget what the first massage was.
The simple menu is the mark of a good spa. When I see five or fewer massages on the menu, I know the therapists are experts in those specific protocols. When I see more than five, I wonder if the therapists are just doing whatever they want.
I’m also excited about the business opportunities provided by social media, and I’m surprised that some spas have been slow to get on board with that, along with online booking, of course. People want to have things fast and easy in terms of booking. And social media. Whenever I go to a spa, I always go and login to the Instagram or Twitter or something like that and I try to do the geolocation. If they don’t have geolocation, I wonder, where’s the social media manager in this place? Where’s the marketing? Why would you not have geolocation? People now like to tag and if they tag you, you get business.
I think the spas who do not take care of their social media right now are going to be left behind. Our major customers are millennials. If you’re not connected you will not get their business.
Now read:
Special report: can the spa industry solve its staffing problems before it’s too late?
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