Please note: Our news digest items are current as of the date we distribute them. However, we do not maintain the links shared by the media, and, many stories in our archived news digests may no longer be available for viewing online.  We regret any inconvenience.

January 29, 2004

Welcome to SpaWire, a digest of spa industry news, features, and resources for the spa and salon professional, brought to you by SpaIndex.Com: Guide to Day Spas and Stay Spas.


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In this Issue:
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* Career Opportunities with mobileSPA
* Massage Clinic can ease into sales in new space
* Spas massage their image
* Marriott's Grande Lakes Orlando Resort & Spa Receives Award
* Starwood Hotels & Resorts to add Bliss Spa to W Hotels
* Kiddie Spas make a splash
* SoundWave: Telephone On Hold Service


Career Opportunities with mobileSPA
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mobileSPA is currently hiring independent contractors across the United States and Canada who are licensed Estheticians, Cosmetologists, Massage Therapists, and Nail Technicians.

mobileSPA is comprised of a network of spa professionals who travel to the client. We send licensed and seasoned spa professionals to our clients' homes, offices or hotels. mobileSPA caters to clients who seek upscale day spa pampering in the comfort of their own homes.  Our corporate clientele also use our servies to add sparkle to networking events and conferences, employee reward and recognition,  teambuilding events, holiday parties, client appreciation and off-site meetings.  We transport it all - from tables to candles.

mobileSPA takes pride in adhering to the highest standards of sanitation and personal hygiene - all of our supplies are disposables. We envision mobileSPA to have a very high standard at every location. In order
to provide top-notch services, we are in the process of carefully selecting our team.

If you have a sparkling personality with excellent customer service skills we would like to hear from you.  Interested applicants should call us at 800-321-4012, or email resumes to jobs@mobilespa.com or
lisa@mobilespa.com, or click on the link, below.

Find out more... >> http://www.mobilespa.com/jobs1.asp

Massage Clinic can ease into sales in new space
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Focus Healing owner Jeff Schadel is looking for ways to use new space at the massage center's changed
location. He is concerned that holding classes in the facility might disrupt the calm atmosphere. Consultant Clint Parry offers some ideas.  (Arizona Daily Star)

Full Story >> http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/business/7282.php

Spas massage their image
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Spas seemed to pop up everywhere in the late 1990s, staking out shopping mall storefronts and even squeezing into grocery stores. So it's no wonder that spa operators today are tweaking their business plans to compete in a crowded market.  Local spawning has reached the point that at least one veteran is refusing to call his business a spa.   "I have tried not to call myself a spa because I don't want to be like everybody else - that's because everybody is calling themselves a spa and I'm seeing the whole beauty industry now with 'spa' services,'' said Tom Schmidt, who has created three different spas in the last 10 years in Minneapolis.  Schmidt isn't the only one challenging the definition of a spa or a salon these days.   (Pioneer Press)

Full Story >> http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/7783278.htm

Marriott's Grande Lakes Orlando Resort & Spa Receives Award
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Presented with the 2003 Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) "Transaction of the Year Award" for the development of the nearly $600 million Grande Lakes Spa Resort in Orlando, Fla.   Grande Lakes was the largest non-gaming hotel project to open in the United States in 2003. It is home to Orlando's first Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels and is the first project to combine these two leading luxury hotel brands.

Full Story >> http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040123/dcf042_1.html

Kiddie Spas make a splash
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Reclining in a massage chair, her shoeless feet resting on a heart-shaped pillow, Shannon Fontaine looks
somnolent. If she notices Adeela Siddiqui slowly, steadily squeezing, kneading and massaging her tiny, tired tootsies, she doesn't let on. For Shannon, today is a "me" day. And, she figured, what better way to
pamper herself on a "me" day than a pedicure at a day spa?   "It feels good," says Shannon, who at age 7 has taken to spa pampering like a mature socialite.  (Knight Ridder)

Full Story >> http://travelvideo.tv/news/more.php?id=745_0_1_0_M

SoundWave: Telephone On Hold Service
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What are your spa and salon clients listening to, while they are on hold? Silence? Or, perhaps a radio station which may be advertising your competitors?

SoundWave is a leading provider of on-hold services to Salons and Spas across the nation.  For a limited time (extended for SpaIndex and SpaWire readers), all new SoundWave customers signing up by February 27, 2004, will receive two months of service FREE, as well as more than 40% off regular pricing for all-inclusive service.

Find out more... >> http://www.soundwavepro.com/