Pevonia has positioned itself as the leading "historic" Spa brand in the USA for almost 20 years. The brand was founded by Sylvie and Philippe Hennessy, and has established itself in the four corners of the wellness world, with 18,000 Spas in over 64 countries, including the world’s most prestigious hotels. Pevonia has been honoured with a number of awards, and emerged as a benchmark in the much-coveted Spa market. Chrystelle Lannoy, the brand’s director in France, tells us about its hotel range.

Philippe HENNESSY & Chrystelle LANNOY

EMOTION SPA Magazine: How do you view the hotel Spa, and what is Pevonia’s position in terms of product ranges?
Chrystelle LANNOY: In real terms, creating a Spa means "imagining a new place", creating a new offer, "introducing" a new business within an already complex hotel management context. Pevonia has been operating in this market for almost two decades. This gives us a unique insight, especially as the French market is undergoing a sea change. We provide more than support; we offer a partnership to the hotel manager. Pevonia gives its partners advice on how to invest, from the layout through to the treatment range offered, which should be a "faithful" translation of the "spirit" of the place that is "home" to the Spa. These are ongoing partnerships by nature, as it is in this way that the turnover from this new addition to the hotel’s activities can be expanded. It is a win-win situation for the brand and its Spa host.

"Every one of our hotel customers is different,  and they each receive an answer from us that is tailored to them.
 In this way, they allow the brand to flourish in their Spa"

E.S.M: How does this partnership work more specifically?
C.L: For Pevonia, the partnership means helping the hotel operator to assemble the choice of treatments (exclusive, unique and personalised) that is in line with the hotel’s "character". The partnership is also about energising the setting with operational marketing initiatives to present the Spa range (information notices in the bedrooms, ephemeral treatments, signature treatments, mailshots, etc). But this type of support won’t be enough if it remains confined to a "marketing" enterprise (e-newsletters, etc). Successfully negotiating the Spa "challenge" nowadays means keeping the team on a permanent business footing more than anything, with just one aim: the bottom line. In fact, a Spa is a “unit business” in its own right, and needs to be run as such. For the hotelier, a Spa has to be a source of revenue where equipment/team work times are optimised to ensure the best operating income. Except that, today, a hotel manager’s training doesn’t prepare him for running this type of activity. This is where the support and the partnership that we have decided to embark on with our hotel distributors comes into its own.

E.S.M: Yours is one of only a few Spa brands to see hotels as a complete distribution network?
C.L: Yes it is. From the outset, we have viewed Spa hotels as a distribution channel in their own right. But a Spa has to be “approached”, in a business and a managerial sense, so that it is included as part of a hotel’s management contingencies. A Spa is run by hotel managers; it is up to us as Spa professionals to enable them to get the most from this activity and to bring them the support they need in terms of investment strategy, policies relating to sales and product ranges, facilities and services. This is where the brand’s experience makes a difference, and it’s also one of the main criteria that the hotel manager has to assess when choosing a brand partner.

E.S.M: What do you offer in another important area: team training?
C.L: One of the results of our principle of providing support is that we take great efforts in training teams to apply our treatments and in maintaining their consistently high quality. As an example, our training programmes are currently organised into modules that are dispensed according to a range of criteria and which are intended to match the maturity and standard of the teams and the specific points that the Spa managers want them to focus on. The teams’ skill levels have to be constantly increased in terms of care and crucial management issues: how to make the offer profitable and how to generate turnover. But also, looking beyond the profit margins, we have to ask how the Spa can be used to turn a customer into a repeat customer for the hotel and its services, how taking them into the world of the Spa illustrates the hotel’s particular service values, etc. Pevonia’s presence in 64 countries gives us a unique insight into how the market is moving, in terms of both customer requirements and trends.

E.S.M: What is Pevonia’s recipe for success with hotel managers?
C.L: First of all, for almost 20 years our business has been focused on this new concept of Beauty and Well-being that the Spa represents. Next, wellness as Pevonia sees its cannot be separated from the concept of quality of service; this is one of the points that hotel managers appreciate. This shared knowledge is a guarantee for us. We are also skilled in the formulas, products and protocols, and we see this rapidly expanding market in both general and world terms. This is why our strategy for the French market in particular is to join with hotel managers to satisfy the increasingly specific demand of customers, a demand that has changed a lot in the last few years. Every one of our hotel customers is different, and they each receive an answer from us that is tailored to them. In this way, they allow the brand to flourish in their Spa and can meet their and their customers’ expectations. The Spa is a booming market, definitely, but the fact that it is growing means we have a duty to help our partners keep pace with these permanent changes.

Informations :
www.pevonia.fr

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