Creating Digital Anticipation for Spa Services

Spa and wellness services place a particular focus on being present and in the moment. Thus, a hotel's spa and wellness experience typically begins as soon as guests walk through the spa door. This is where a comprehensive, in-person, multi-sensory experience can be fully implemented. When a person visits a spa, they are seeking an opportunity to relax and restore their mind, body, and soul.

Unlike other activities that require thought and focus, the spa experience is an opportunity for the mind to simply "be." All you must do with your body is show up. Therefore, to get visitors to show up, hotels maintain a spa and wellness website page, as well as a brochure that is typically available at the front desk or in the guest's room. These detail the services and treatments offered and focus on providing this information to the guest to get them to learn about available services, costs, and hours of operation, with the hope that they will book a treatment.

The spa and wellness website is a key opportunity to entice the guest to book a treatment in advance of their arrival, as well as to create a sense of anticipation for their spa experience.

David Hume once stated, "Anticipation of pleasure is, in itself, a very considerable pleasure." Therefore, hotels and spas have an opportunity to amplify anticipation in order to maximize the pleasure that guests will receive as they journey to the hotel's spa and wellness center.

The amplification of the anticipation of the spa experience must be combined with the stimulation of multi-sensory experiences. Multi-sensory experiences awaken the guest's body, mind, and soul, providing a vast array of benefits through holistic rejuvenation. Accordingly, one of the principal goals of every spa is to rejuvenate its guests and ensure that they become more connected, relaxed, and restored.

The simplest way to understand a multi-sensory experience stimulating all five senses (i.e., sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell) is by using a simple raisin meditation designed by Jon Kabat-Zinn:

• By looking at your raisin, you are using the sight sense.
• By feeling the raisin with your fingers, you are using the touch sense.
• By putting the raisin under your nose, you are using the smell sense.
• By bringing the raisin to your ear and squeezing it, you are using the sound sense.
• By putting the raisin on your tongue and noticing the different flavors, you are using the taste sense.

This simple mediation reflects how a person can experience a single object in multiple ways. When thoughtfully combined, the overall experience is accentuated and maximized. The spa experience leverages the multi-sensory experience to amplify the restorative nature of the treatment session.

When a guest arrives at the spa, they will experience stimulation across all five senses.

• The spa design, lighting, and colors, coupled with decorations, all create a visual sense of place.
• The scent and fragrance that is created either through natural means (e.g., flowering plants) or by licensed scents surround the guest from their entrance into the spa to every treatment room.
• Sound is also leveraged, not only through sound therapy, which is offered in a variety of spas, but also through natural means (e.g., wind chimes or ambient music).
• The tactile experience is stimulated through the texture of sitting in the waiting chairs, the texture of the provided robes and towels, and the hands-on experience that the guest will have during treatment.
• Drinking water that is infused with natural ingredients quenches the thirst and satisfies the sense of taste that can be provided to the guest upon arrival, throughout their visit, and upon completion.

The purpose of this digital experience is to accentuate the sense of anticipation and excitement to visit the hotel's spa and wellness center. As a result, the spa can expect to have more spa visits, spa appointments, and revenue associated with its services. With this in mind, how does the hotel create a dynamic digital experience before arrival, and how does a hotel's website with a spa or wellness center stimulate the range of senses before a person arrives?

This can be accomplished easily through technology that leverages targeting and personalization to stimulate the imagination and evoke through the power of suggestion each of the senses by displaying strategically placed images, words, and videos.

To understand how a dynamic digital experience can be designed for visitors to prepare them for maximum relaxation and a restorative experience in the spa or wellness center, we must examine each digital spa visitor and their associated buyer's journey.

The typical buyer's journey flows through a series of steps: from inspiration to consideration, and finally to a decision. Following this buyer's journey in the context of the spa experience, the flow can begin with the visitor visiting the hotel's spa page to be inspired by the location and spa center. They will then look at the available treatments and prices, read reviews, and call or digitally book an appointment. The hotel's website must be flexible to understand the traveler, recognize where they are in their buyer's journey, and as the marketers say, deliver the right message at the right time to the right person.

Of course, smell, touch, and taste cannot be physically experienced while visiting a hotel's spa website. The only two senses that can be physically stimulated are sight and sound. Although sight is obvious, sound is more of a challenge. Websites have attempted to include audio tracks in the background; however, this ultimately creates a negative user experience. Fortunately, by using video on the website, sound can be leveraged as a person opts in to view a video.

It is the power of sight that will virtually stimulate all other senses through powerful images and words that evoke the imagination and can be easily experienced by the viewer.

• Smell: This may include the image of a flowering eucalyptus plant next to a flowing fountain with floating flower petals.
• Hearing: This may include the image of wind chimes being gently blown outside the spa window next to the flowing fountain.
• Taste: This may include the image of the thirst-quenching infused drink being brought to the lips of a spa-goer.
• Touch: This may include the image of a person picking up a white, fluffy robe.

At this point, it is not possible or practical to create a full multi-sensory experience on the web; however, you can still create a fully personalized experience for the website visitor.

To learn more about achieving this digital multi-sensory goal, read the complete article on Hospitality.Net or in Hotel Executive Magazine.

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Michael J. Goldrich, THN's Chief Experience Officer.?After spending nearly two decades in digital marketing and project leadership for multimillion-dollar brands and startups, Michael knows what truly drives website engagement and conversions – and it’s not by leveraging the marketing trend of the month. It’s how well you connect with the potential guests you’re trying to help and communicate your understanding back to them.