Annie Nguyen
1/5
EDIT: Zen Day Spa has since replied to this review claiming that I’ve made false accusations. Since I can’t leave a response to their comment, I’ll simply update my review here to clarify a few things.
Firstly, I gain absolutely nothing from making false accusations. I was simply unhappy with the Hens Group Package that I experienced. The Hens day is an important occasion for many so I shared my review so that others would know what to expect when booking the same package.
In my original review, I stated that:
The Hens Package includes bubbly and cupcakes. The photos on their website and on social media showcase hens groups celebrating inside their spa lounge area with the food, drinks and decorations.
I felt mislead because I was told that we were not allowed to have any decorations...but this is not the main issue. When I was told this via email, I accepted this and moved on.
What made it disappointing was that on the day, the food and drinks were set up on a table outside of the spa in the walkway area (not inside the comfortable lounge as the photos had indicated).
On top of this, for our group of 7, there were only 3 seats set-up and 3 glasses of drinks. This means that only half of the group had the bubbly and cupcakes while the other half were left unattended. After some time of 3 of us awkwardly standing around outside, we all decided to just leave…
As for the timeline of events: 27 Jan was when I made the enquiry, 2 Feb I was asked to make a deposit, I made this on the 7 Feb, on the 10 Mar I was told there was a staff shortage so 2 guests had to be paired with the male therapist.
I didn’t say in my original review that my guests did not want to be paired with a male therapist. What I said was that I had already supplied the names of the 2 guests that volunteered to be paired with the male therapist, but this wasn’t taken into consideration on the day.
What actually happened on the day was that the guests that arrived first were suddenly asked if they were happy to be paired with the male therapist (not the guests I had named) which felt disorganised and it also put these guests on the spot.
Luckily, most of my group was happy to be paired with the male therapist but my feedback was that the timeline of events weren't ideal because we kind of had no choice.
Like I said, I made the deposit on 9 Feb and on the 10 Mar was when I was told 2 guests must be paired with a male therapist. Perhaps there are hens party groups that aren't comfortable with a male therapist that would like to know that there's a possibility of this happening prior to making their deposit. This is just an FYI for those groups.
But at the forefront of all of this. The overall experience didn’t feel luxurious because:
- There were inconsistencies in the massage. 6 of us received the full body massage (as expected as part of our package) while I only received a back massage... which was strange.
- Prior to the day I had organised who would be in groups 1 and 2 and named the bride-to-be so she could be prioritised. On the day, the bride was not given first priority and the group names were not organised as planned. It was just whoever filled out their form first was whisked away first.
No staff members even ever acknowledged the bride-to-be, I think even a little hello or congratulations would've been a nice touch.
- The massage table was lined with towels that felt old, rough, brittle (as pictured).
- We didn’t get any explanation of what products would be used for facial treatments despite some of us indicating we had sensitive skin.
And lastly, looking over our email thread again, perhaps there were miscommunications leading up to the day. However, this does not take away from the fact that the overall experience was a far cry from the "luxury" that is advertised and I’m even further mortified now that the spa manager has decided to focus on the semantics of email communication dates while blatantly overlooking the bigger issues.
