Words that always bring a smile to my face, do people know how powerful they are?
By Sandra Skoblar – Croatian wellness consultant
Sandra Skoblar
I would like to tell you a short story.
We all know that wellness/Spa is mostly one part of the hotel/resort, a part for which often guests says; “still, different from other parts of the hotel/resort”.
When you ask them why, they usually respond: “somehow everything is different, atmosphere, energy, staff, …”.
Exactly that guest comment is where the story starts, which we have to tell backwards.
Wellness/Spa creation
First someone had a vision, so they decided to support this vision with projects and studies and then they materialize it.
We start from the construction of its “skeleton” (cold construction) and then connect the areas with “joints” (zones). When we put everything in place, we add “muscles” that fill and envelop everything, give shape to the skeleton and add to it warmth and fullness (design and contents).
At that moment we have a formed Wellness (body), in which movement slowly begins; movement that stimulates the “heart” that pumps “blood” into all its smallest parts. Those movements are beautiful energies; bright-dark, active-passive, moist-dry, heat-cold, individual-group, guided-independent, closed-open, natural-artificial.
Wellness becomes a living organism that start movements, and those “heart” movements are employees and users who continuously initiate these different energies.
The story tells us that the creation of Wellness is very complex, be it small or large, alone or within a hotel/resort, because if we don’t create these different energies, we don’t have what makes it alive.
In order for clients to be immersed in those energies of well-being, recovery, unforgettable experience and story, we have to make a great effort, the right facilities tailored to the project, the appropriate offer and service and not least important: professional staff.
Do you want your guest to experience and live the Wellness Story (individually or in groups, guided or independently) as something that they will always remember and for that something they will always come back?
Then you need a holistic approach, personalized treatment, special rituals, proper protocol of using the Spa zone, rituals in saunas, experience of certain thematic spaces, news when they visiti again, the possibility to feel, taste and take something away.
Then Wellness/Spa is the true sense of the word “a living organism” that gives you the possibility to complete psycho-physical recovery and give something we all are looking for – escape from this fast- stressful rhythm of life – peace, well-being and balance.
Unfortunately, I have to say in the end that there are only few Wellness in Croatia that will tell this story.
Often it is just the content (added value) that the hotel/resort offers and passing employees with insufficient knowledge and professionality.
And it is no coincidence that investors are happy to look for an opportunity to outsource that part, because they know that wellness is the most demanding part for the operation and they do not want to invest effort, time and money to tell the story.
The end of today’s story is: I believe that wellness is still young in Croatia and that as time passes, it will gradually age and mature, gain more experience, power and importance and one day it will meet the expectations of those who know the Wellness story.
Sandra Skoblar
Wellness Consulting
Project management
Education / Wellness Academy