Visitors and residents of Guam will have a new Balinese spa experience available on Guam from July — Spa Bali at the Holiday Inn Guam.
Maurillo “Mori” Warren financial officer at the Holiday Inn Guam said Spa Bali will “Enhance the guest experience in terms of what we have to offer to our guests both for the Japanese market as well as for the local market. We feel we will be offering a product that gives the market a better choice and value for their money. We know it will be an added feature of the hotel thereby positively influencing more room sales as well as revenue from the local market.”
In order to create the ambiance of a Balinese spa Spa Bali located on the fifth floor of the hotel will feature hand-carved teak walls traditional bamboo runners throughout the hallways sandstone carvings and Balinese décor plants and flower arrangements.
Ketut Madiani founder and owner of Spa Bali said “Everything came from Bali: all furnishings carpets wood paintings oils — even the towels. We actually had everything pre-fabricated in Bali; had it carved there and sent up in containers and assembled here.”
Dan A. Bradley Madiani’s husband — as well as project manager and consultant for Spa Bali Guam — said the value of the project is about $750 000. He said Spa Bali spent about $180 000 in materials plus shipping; plus in excess of $30 000 for the cost of bringing staff from Bali to Guam.
Spa Bali staff on Guam will consist of three associates from mainland Indonesia eight from Bali and three from Guam. Madiani and Bradley said it was essential to bring most staff from Bali and Indonesia to offer authentic Balinese spa treatments.
“Our plan for this spa is to bring the level of treatment and experience from Bali to Guam ” Bradley said “We’d always planned on hiring the three local people — cosmetology licensed staff and hairdressers. We couldn’t train people in Guam — no matter how good they were we couldn’t train them in the techniques and materials; it would take years.”
6-D Construction Co. is completing construction renovations but a pre-existing spa facility has saved Spa Bali in construction costs. Bradley said “We didn’t have to have an architect. I’ve done all the designs décor and most of the labor myself. My wife won’t let me charge her. I do the work for free.”
Joseph E. Zitnik former general manager for Holiday Inn Resort Guam said the building was constructed in 1996 originally as the Park Hotel and the space meant for a spa was never developed. Zitnik told the Journal “Holiday Inn took over the former Parc Hotel in June 2000. There was always a space set aside for a spa but it was unfinished and the owners had never completed construction or signed on a spa company. After Holiday Inn took over we were in no rush to open a space but preferred to wait until we found the right partner — which I believe we have.”
Zitnik said Spa Bali is renting and converting the space to its requirements.
Spa Bali will open for business in July but has met delays in obtaining visas for the eight Balinese staff so the grand opening will take place in October when it is fully staffed.
Bradley said “The U.S. Immigration has a limit on how many workers you can bring in per year for the country — 66 000 for the whole country. In March they reached that figure. In October there will be another 66 000 per year allowed. Despite opening at only 30%-40% capacity our level of service will be just as good in July as it will in October but you’ll probably have to make a reservation way in advance.”
Madiani said training will allow identical massages. “We want each customer to have the same experience. Just like in Bali when we pray we have to have the same ritual — so the staff that are coming here will have to have the same ritual techniques as if they were already working here. From greeting the customer to the offering of the tea to the treatment itself.”
The spa wanted to open at the highest level of service Bradley said. “That’s why we feel we’ll be very successful in this market — the philosophy of Spa Bali is that everything has to be a one-to-one exchange between the therapist and the customer.” He said other spas had a fast-food approach to service. “You know take as many as you can and as long as you spend an hour on the table it’s not quite important to them to really deliver what we think a spa should deliver and that’s peace relaxation and sometimes therapy.”
Bradley said other spa companies calculate reception time into an hour’s treatment. “If you come to us it’s a full hour of service. We don’t rush you. If the customer says ‘I have a small pain right here in my neck ’ or wherever — we want to take that extra three or five minutes to focus on what the customer wants.”
Bradley said Madiani Melani Key the spa manager and he all have previous work experience in the spa industry. “We felt that the demand and the need was still out there to produce spas but we didn’t just want to mass-produce spas. We want to focus on quality rather than quantity.”
Spa Bali has two spas in Bali the new location in Guam and plans to open in Maui. “We’re way ahead of where we originally planned to be but this opportunity came up. We’re looking at opening another spa in Maui — we’ve received verbal approvals and we’ve submitted designs.”
Key said spa treatments originally started from a royal pre-wedding treatment. “Gold is symbolic of royal treatment. We wanted to create that here in our décor so our customers that came in would feel so special feel like they are royal — the idea is that every one of them is a VIP. Everyone is worthy of a royal treatment.”
The spa will charge a flat hourly rate about $78 an hour of for tourists and about $47 an hour for local rate.
Spa Bali’s facilities include a beauty salon; three rooms for double massages; a VIP Suite with a double massage area with spa bath facilities; and three single massage rooms. Also included will be a product area male and female saunas and locker rooms and a tea ceremony area.
Services Spa Bali will offer include manicures pedicures traditional Balinese Hair braiding boreh (the Balinese body wrap) body scrubs facials massages various body baths and reflexology.
Spa Bali products will have an Asian base and include all-natural Tropical Spa Oils. Part of the proceeds for products will benefit the World Wildlife Foundation. Direct marketing company Amway also will distribute Tropical Spa Oils throughout the United States. Bradley said Tropical Spa Oils is the only company that produces oils in Indonesia that meets USDA standards. For facial products Spa Bali will be using Martha Tilaar which Madiani said is the leading product of cosmetology in East Asia.
Warren said “We think that Spa Bali is the right choice as a partner for Holiday Inn Guam’s spa operations. We’ve tried their spa in Bali and we find that both the product and the service are excellent. We believe the same quality can be delivered here on Guam.”MBJ
