Operational differences between two spa partners, the Anazoe Spa in Greece’s Costa Navarino and The Chelsea Day Spa in London, were highlighted by Dora Koromila – spa director at the Anazoe Spa – in an exclusive Thought Leader column for Spa Opportunities, following the first week of an exchange of services.

Thought Leader: Dora Koromila, spa director at Anazoe Spa, Costa Navarino

Greek and British spa partners target each others’ guests

The week in March, 10-14, when Anazoe Spa brought its Greek therapies to guests of its new partner facility in London, Chelsea Day Spa, was a great success. Our therapists were fully booked with appointments all-day every day and, amazingly, quite a few guests booked treatments more than once!

The goal for this partnership is to bring together two luxury brands sharing common values and introduce them to new audiences. Chelsea Day Spa shares our values of excellent guest handling, customer service and exceeding guests’ expectations. This is the most important thing for us as partners. The next step in the partnership is for the Chelsea Day Spa team to travel to Costa Navarino in September.

In terms of operation, there are many differences between an urban day spa like Chelsea Day Spa and a destination spa like Anazoe.

Anazoe Spa, offers 1,000sq m (10,764sq ft) of thalassotherapy facilities, heat experiences and 21 treatment rooms. The daily management of such a large establishment requires very close supervision, to achieve flawless operation. Moreover, due to the fact that we are also a golf destination, the needs of our guests are very specific. For example, all of our therapists are required to have an academic background in physiotherapy to be able to treat our guests.

Another operational difference is that we have different types of guests depending on the season. For example, during spring and autumn, golf guests are our main clients.

On the other hand, we have more individual guests and families in summer. To satisfy demand, we had to develop a series of treatments and packages targeted at families.

On the contrary, a prestigious urban spa like Chelsea Day Spa enjoys the luxury of having regular repeat guests compared to a resort spa like Anazoe – where, in order to maximise our repeat guest numbers, we rely on the excellence of the whole destination.