In an effort to measure spa performance, Coyle Hospitality Group surveyed 2110 people, representing consumers throughout the United States. The survey covered a variety of service related issues from how many treatments are booked per visit and key enjoyment/disappointment factors to treatments requested and where spa products are purchased.

The survey participators were mostly female (1899) and between 18 and 61+ years of age, with the majority of respondents in the 30-40 age category (723).

Interesting findings include:

- Most responses showing that on average people visit the following spa categories 1-5 times in the last year:
  • Day Spa (57%)
  • Resort/Hotel Spa (57%)
  • Salon (38%)
  • Destination Spa (22%)
  • Club Spa (21%)

- The top three reasons why people would visit a salon or spa if they are not frequent spa-goers:

  • Gift Certificate (989)
  • Coupon/Discount (792)
  • Gathering with Friends (557)

- Respondents answered that they utilized the following services at least once over the past year:

  • Hair Services (1890)
  • Nail Services (1633)
  • Massage services (1604)
  • Skincare services (1390)
  • Waxing/Hair removal (1072)
  • Body Services (786)
  • Makeup Services (569)
  • People are most likely to book two services for one visit (1197 responses) followed by one service (628 responses) and three (491 responses) in third place.

- Spa experiences have in general been

  • Somewhat Satisfactory (764)
  • Extremely Satisfactory (671)
  • Neutral (64)
  • Somewhat unsatisfactory (9)
  • Extremely unsatisfactory (3)

- The top four factors in satisfactory spa experiences are:

  • Quality of service provider (1281)
  • Cleanliness (1000)
  • Value (time per dollar) (702)
  • Friendliness of service provider (607)

- The top four factors in unsatisfactory spa experiences are:

  • Quality of service provider (1088)
  • Cleanliness (866)
  • Value (time per dollar) (754)
  • Friendliness of service provider (725)

- When people are disappointed with a treatment or service they are:

  • Likely to complain (646)
  • Neutral (408)
  • Very likely to complain (319)
  • Unlikely (232)
  • Very unlikely (26)

- If people are not likely to complain, the following are the leading factors that would encourage them to mention their disappointment:

  • Comment Card in the locker room (719)
  • Reception asked how service was (578)
  • Manager's card available without having to request it (497)
  • I have no problem voicing complaints (488)
  • Manager present and circulating (445)
  • I rarely/am not likely to complain (126)
  • Never had a disappointing experience (117)
  • Other (94)
  • Spa complaints are often (271) resolved to satisfaction, followed by sometimes (225) and finally, always resolved to satisfaction (210).
  • Regarding service recovery, (810) people were very unlikely to return to the spa if they had significant disappointment with a spa experience and did not complain. (631) people were unlikely to return and (180) people were neutral.
  • If a person had a significant disappointment with a spa experience and she complained, with the issue not handled satisfactorily she is highly unlikely to return (1257) followed by unlikely to return (315).
  • If a person had significant disappointment with spa experience and she complained with the issue handled satisfactorily, she is likely (932) to return followed by very likely (410).
  • People spend an average of $912 on spa services per year.
  • Results are spilt as to whether people use the same spa for skincare needs and massage needs. (540) say yes, (532) say no.

- People purchase home skincare at these top four outlets:

  • Drug Stores (503)
  • Beauty Store (Sephora, etc.) (389)
  • Grocery Store (284)
  • Specialty store (Kiehls, etc.) (272)
The other category also made up for (555) respondents and was comprised mainly of department stores, at-home sales people, and internet orders.
  • The most important factor when selecting skincare for home use is results (1199).

About Coyle Hospitality

Based in New York City since 1996, Coyle Hospitality Group is a market leader providing mystery shopping and brand quality assurance services exclusively to hotels, restaurants and now spas worldwide. A selection of current Coyle Hospitality Group hospitality clients includes Little Palm Island Resort & Spa, Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts, Morgans Hotel Group, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, Starr Restaurant Organization, Affinia Hospitality, China Grill Management and Daniel Boulud Restaurants. Since 1996, CHG has completed over 20,000 quality evaluations exclusively for hospitality clients. For more information please visit