Spa and Hotel news from SpaCast.com. Part of Spa Index Media Network.

Snowstorms hurting East Coast Spa Resorts

The December snow storm has cost the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa millions in losses according to reports.

Read the story:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/atlantic_citys_borgata_casino.html

India Spas limber up for expansion in 2010

The country is likely to have more than 2,000 spas by the end of 2010, up from just 200. The wellness industry is alive and kicking in India and nothing demonstrates this better than the hyper-activity in the spa business.

Consider this: Hyderabad-based O2 Spas, which has set up shop at the Delhi and Mumbai airports, is now delivering spa therapies to offices. Weight loss and beauty specialists Vandana Luthra Curls and Curves (VLCC) is developing a residential medical spa in Gurgaon at an investment of Rs 100 crore. Delhi-based Spas India Private Limited, a subsidiary of Canadian Spas Worldwide, wants to expand from its single spa in Delhi to 10 more cities, Bangalore and Mumbai among them.

Read More

2009 called 'the worst downtown in our lifetimes' for Greater Phoenix spa resorts and hotels

When the owner of the luxury Phoenician resort reported year-end financial results, no negatives were spared in summing up the state of the hotel industry last year.

"For the lodging business, 2009 was the worst downturn in our lifetimes," Frits van Paasschen, chief executive officer of lodging giant Starwood Hotels and Resorts, said last week. "Even a tepid recovery will feel good."

Read More

#SpaCast: Design Trends of Spa Websites

Hotels and spas tend to go together. As shown by some of the examples featured in this article, spas are often one of several amenities offered besides standard hotel rooms. As a result, the spa is often a micro-site within the hotel or resort page. While some of the trends to hotel design carry over (e.g. highly visual photography), the target audience is more specific than that of the average hotel.

Read Story

Are medical spas a fast-growing but undefined industry?

...[A]s the medical spa industry continues to expand at a breakneck pace, oversight of these facilities is lagging behind. New cosmetic procedures and devices are increasingly blurring the line between the practice of medicine and the field of cosmetology — and putting some patients in the hands of less-qualified individuals.

Read the Story

Pennsylvania woman continues spree of thefts of spa services, dining

With the holidays approaching, new client marketing is ticked up a notch, schedules become more hectic and employees may be harried. How does your salon and spa prevent theft of services?

Tia Hassler has allegedly had her brows waxed, eaten Thai food, quaffed cocktails and gotten a pedicure in the last two weeks without paying a dime.

via www.lehighvalleylive.com

More men visiting spas to keep an leg up in the job market

Spas used to be a place where ladies went for a day of pampering. Not anymore.

Across Texas, salons report that men are showing up by the dozens. They're men like Andy Osborne, a sales executive for a hotel group.

"I just turned 40 this year," he said, "so I wanted to do something to make myself a little younger. I felt a little strange making the call, but they put me right at ease. saying it was typical. They are seeing more and more men."

Doctor Bill Johnson says that while woman go after ideals -- trying to mimic models in magazines -- men book appointments for very different reasons.

"It's a competition for the guys," Johnson says.

Read the Story

Time Out #NYC talks Boyzilians, Breacials, Lower Hair Color and more

Adrienne Rayski tests wacky regimens that leaves her wondering what "R&R" stands for.

Read More

How health farms became spas, and we got a bit soft #UK #Grayshott

Elaine Williams, director of natural therapeutics at Grayshott Spa in Hampshire, says: “Things were much more spartan in the old days. When you went to a health farm, it was serious. You’d have nothing but hot lemon water for three days, then some carrot juice and broth on the fourth day and if you stayed a week, some salad.”

Instead of state-of-the-art gyms, there were wooden planks for press ups, and treatments were water-based and painful, involving something called a Scottish douche, where sharp jets of hot and cold water battered your back, and a “sitz bath”, where you sat with your feet in cold water and your hips in hot water, then reversed them after three minutes. Enemas, saunas and cold plunges were also popular, and the massages were “agony”, according to Williams.

Read More

Phillipine Spa Association asks for a halt to "prostate massage"

Cebu, Phillipines

Spa and massage-parlor operators in Cebu are asking the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the city government’s anti-indecency council to inspect and, if possible, put a stop to the operations of several establishments offering “prostate massage.”

The private-public Cebu Health and Wellness Council (CHWC), composed of government and private stakeholders in the spa, wellness, travel and medical groups, also planned to make a statement against prostate massage and, specifically, against the chain of massage parlors under the “Lingam” name.

The disputed shops offer a supposed Malaysian type Lingam massage, which when translated in Sanksrit means “wand of light.” Lingam massage claims to relieve stress among its male clients

Read Story

Operators of a spa who claim to be the first one to offer authentic lingam massage in Cebu said the massage is not indecent.   Honey Yoo and Bella Bilocura, owners of Authentic Lingam Massage, said the exotic massage has the same purpose as other kinds of massage: to soothe and relax the client.    This massage technique involves stroking the male sexual organ. “Lingam ” is a Sanskrit word for the male organ.

Read Story