Heavenly Spa let me down

Last week Friday, 12 October I sent the following email to The Heavenly Spa at the Westin Hotel.

Till today, I have not even gotten a response. As you will read, I will truly disappointed with their service of my treatments, and I am now appalled that they don’t even have the courteous of replying to me.

Below is the email I sent to them with my concerns.

To whom it may concern

I hope this email finds you well.

I have been living in Cape Town for the past 6 years and I am a great lover of spas. I have visited a few spas in Johannesburg, but spend a lot of my time at various ones in Cape Town, my favorite being The One and Only. Amongst others, I also went to the Table Bay, Chrystal Towers, Life Day Spa. I had stayed at the Westin many years ago on vacation, but never got the opportunity to use the spa facilities.

In November last year, my best friend booked a treatment for me for my birthday at the Heavenly Spa and I was quite impressed.

My younger sister who lives in Johannesburg, visited Cape Town for her bachelorette week, before she gets married next month.

I decided to treat her to the full spa experience and having been impressed last year, I decided to book at the Heavenly Spa instead of the One and Only.

I booked a 60 minute massage, as well as a mani and pedi, for two people. Her best friend also joined us, but booked in for a 90 minute massage and a pedi.

It is with much regret that I have to write this email to say that our experience was definitely not up to standard.

Our appointments were booked for 4pm, and as advised (and per my previous experiences), we arrived earlier to enjoy the spa facilities.

My sister and I arrived just before 1pm and were not very warmly welcomed.

The lady at reception handed us our towels and gowns, and asked if this was our first experience. I explained that I had been here before, but it was my sisters first time and would appreciate it if she could show us around. She breathed a deep sigh, walked from behind her desk to the foot of the steps, rambled how to use the lockers and walked off.

She did not show us around as they usually do, and she was rather unfriendly.

Whilst I do understand that spas are meant for relaxing and not being disturbed, NO one checked in on us from the moment we arrived. I know that due to the water shortages, towels were made less available. However, we had swam and used our towels to dry off and rinse before using the steam and sauna facilities. We were not given new clean towels and we saw someone (whom we thought was a staff member), and requested a towel from her. She was very kind, but advised that she did not work there and when she went to the front desk to try and arrange for us towels, no one was available.

When her best friend arrived at around 3pm, she was given the same cold treatment and they only issued her with a gown. She later had to go and request a towel.

Our treatments were to begin at 4pm. We waited in the waiting area and had some tea. Until 4pm, no one had even approached us. I then saw two women passing by and I humbly asked when our treatments would begin.

One of the the******s scoffed at me and answered very sarcastically that “I should be patient they will come”.

At 4:05pm only, they gave us the forms to fill out what areas we would like them to focus on etc etc. This process is usually seen to way before the treatments begin.

The treatments were satisfactory, but not great.

My massage room was icy cold and upon asking to warm up the room, I was told that that was not possible and that she would switch on the electric blanket for me. This only heated up close to when my massage was almost over.

She applied a muscle relaxer gel on my back and covered me with a towel, and then asked me to turn over. That very towel was then placed on my body which was sticky and wet with the gel from earlier. It was very unpleasant.

When they asked my sister to turn over, they did not cover her eyes with the “bean bag eye covers”. She said that there was a bright white light the entire massage.

They did not close the blinds of her best friends room. There was a blazing sun burning up the room for the entire session. Her the****** did not once query whether or not the pressure was correct.

We then did our nails. Whilst they did an excellent job with the shaping, I was (unintentionally) cut on my finger by the the******, which ended up with my finger bleeding.

We did not polish our nails but merely had it buffed.

Our treatment was Tuesday at 4pm, and by Wednesday morning 6am the shine was already gone.

We had not used our hands for much during those few hours (on hard work like dishes or cleaning).

All in all, I think it is safe for me to admit that the experience and treatments were an utter disappointment and I really regret booking in at the Heavenly Spa.

I felt it only right to bring my concerns to your attention.

I hope that you can compensate me in some way because given the money spent, it was not worth it.

I apologize for my honesty but I am truly appalled by the experience, service and treatment received.

Hoping to hear back from you soonest.

Best regards Hajra Yunus Ismail +27 79 **********