One advantage of a tight-knit rela-
tionship is the collaborative nature
that comes with it. Speaking on the
impact of collaboration on The Scarlet
Spa’s retail offerings, Cornish says
that if she has an idea for a product to
fill a gap in her retail space that re-
quires development, “we can work
with the product companies to co-
create products that meet our needs.
For example, we really needed a sea-
weed bath massage oil, so we worked
with a local company called Cornish
Seaweed Bath (no relation of mine) to
develop this product. It’s been lovely
to see their business grow as a result,
and to have those products that we
can use to make our guest experience
even more unique.”
Cornish’s desire to provide guests
with an experience they can’t get any-
where else is motivated by the unique
story that The Scarlet Spa seeks to tell
each and every guest who comes
through their doors.
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“As they leave, I really want our
guests to feel they’ve had an
experience that is configured to them,
and that we’ve chosen products that
are unique and special to them—in
short, that we’ve given them an experi-
ence they couldn’t have had anywhere
else. And hopefully, they feel the pas-
sion we have for the interesting stories
behind the products. We have lovely
guests, and most of them come for spe-
cial occasions. We want them to feel
that they are special, and their experi-
ence needs to be equally special.”
If a spa’s purpose is to make a
profit, and the best way to make a
profit is to tell a story, then the main
character of that story must be the
guest. They must feel welcomed and
at peace, as if they’re right where they
should have been all along. Every spa
director’s goal is to achieve this with
every guest and every treatment, and
the sentiment extends to every retail
product as well.
How Retail Reflects Your Story
While some spas, like The Scarlet Spa,
prefer to deliver a totally unique retail
experience to their guests, many find it
most advantageous to incorporate a
hybridized approach that includes bou-
tique brands alongside firmly estab-
lished “big box” brands with a proven
track record of excellence and depend-
ability. Patrick Huey, corporate spa
director of Montage Hotels & Resorts,
looks for this exact sort of excellence
and dependability with a guest-first ap-
proach. Rather than defining the story
of the spa and then telling that story to
the guests, Huey seeks to define the
stories of the guests and then mold the
spa’s narrative to appeal to them.
“When I’m looking for a brand, I
look for something that reinforces or
highlights what the guest experience
should be. I ask myself, ‘What is a brand
match for the property I’m working
for?’ I gauge the guest and try to decide
on products based on how they would