On a cruise, there are port days and sea days. The port days are when the guests can go and explore the exciting places and the spa is usually very quiet. The sea days are when the ship is travelling from place to place and spend all day and night at sea. This is the day that all the revenue departments like Spa, Shops, Photos and Next Cruise make their money because no one can get off and so they have a captive audience.
Sea days in the spa usually start at 7.30am and can either finish at 8.30 pm or 9.30pm depending on your bookings.
A fully booked sea day can usually see about 10 guests and in the 14 working hours, you will have 2 one hour breaks.
Sea days are hard and long, but they are where you make the money because there are very few people who are going to come to the spa when they could be out in port.
Most body treatments last 50 minutes so you will have one hour and 15 minutes booked out. The extra 25 minutes is for you to do the consultation, for them to get undressed and dressed again after the treatment, for you to get them out, clean the room and then its time for your next guest.
You will also be expected to retail to every guest on a sea day. Now, while it will vary with every Manager, the 13 Managers I had whilst I was with Steiner all expected a lot of retail sales on a sea day, which means that in that extra 25 minutes, you also must have sold them something.
I know this sounds impossible and for the first few weeks whilst you get to grips with everything, it is very hard, but once you get the hang of things, it’s fine.
The secret is being prepared, so here is a list things you need to do that will help make your sea day run smoothly.
Selling
Selling is always about ‘planting the seed.’ You will learn all about this when working for Steiner, but basically when you go through the consultation at the beginning of the treatment and find out about their life, why they are having the treatment, if they have concerns, be sure to explain that after the treatment you are going to go through some things that they can do at home to help with their concern. That way it’s not a big shock when you start recommending stuff at the end because they agreed to it at the start of the treatment.
Cleaning the room between guests
The night before, or the morning of the sea day, take however many clean sheets and towels you need from the cupboard and keep them under your bed or in a cupboard in your room. This will save you from having to run backwards and forward between treatments and will make your room preparation a lot quicker.
The guest getting dressed
After treatment, guests usually take their time getting dressed because they are all relaxed. This would be fine on a port day but it’s not on a sea day, as you have to get all your stuff done ready for the next guest. So to save you running late because you are waiting for them to dress, ask the person who books them in to tell the guest to come 10 minutes early to get changed into a dressing gown, and they can put their clothes into a locker. This way, you only have to wait for them to put the robe on and then while they get dressed in the changing room, you can be getting on with other stuff. This is less rushed for you and the guest.
After reading this I hope you have a smoother sea day.
