Guest blog: how to renovate your salon or spa without disrupting guests

Warrick Burton, managing director of Titanic Spa in Yorkshire, reveals his top tips for undertaking renovations while running a business and how to make sure it doesn't impact trade.

Renovating your salon or spa can transform your business and enhance the guest experience once the work is complete, but getting there can be a bumpy ride if you need to remain open while the work take place.

However, the update will undoubtedly be worth it in the long term. At Titanic Spa, we’ve recently finished a £500,000 refurbishment in which the reception area, bistro, treatment rooms and spa apartments were all renovated to incorporate a refreshed, more modern look.

As our spa runs at 98% occupancy, our biggest challenge was ensuring our guests still received the same luxurious and attentive experience they were expecting. Here’s my top three tips for renovating your business without disrupting your guests:

1. Choose your contractor wisely

My advice to other spas embarking on a refurbishment programme is to firstly choose your contractors wisely. We handpicked contractors who were experienced in working in live environments and made sure they were aware that nothing should interfere with the guest experience.

They understood that they may need to quickly stop what they were doing at any given time and that working tidily, quietly and safely were of the utmost importance.

 

2. Do a lot of the work out of hours

Secondly, try to get as much work completed out of hours and be prepared to be there to oversee it. A lot of the work we had done took place early in the morning or late at night, for example, furniture removal, cladding, decorating, carpeting and replacing the ceiling all took place after midnight.

But this presented a new set of challenges as contractors working through the night sometimes misunderstood the brief, without me being there to correct it. We had to overcome a lot of issues through phone conversations and picture messages.

 

3. Consider your guests feelings

Lastly, it’s important you put yourself in your guests’ shoes, this way, you can see how the works might affect their spa experience with you. This was one of our most important learnings and I briefed the team to alert me to any interference with the spa guest journey.

By following these three rules, our refurbishment project went very smoothly and as a result we’ve only had compliments from our guests as they enjoy their new surroundings.

Image: ©Titanic Spa

Warrick Burton is managing director of Titanic Spa in Yorkshire.