A vision for the future of wellbeing

From day one, Spabreaks.com has set out to challenge and improve the wellness industry, making it more accessible to more people. This ethos runs through every fibre of our being - the product we offer, the way we offer it, the way we work, how we support our team and how we support our business partners.

How we support our customers

Front and centre of our customer support is our wonderful team. Each team member is given ongoing, regular training to provide the best experience and advice to customers. They have frequent product training, and also get first hand experience of our spa destinations. Customers can contact us on the phone seven days a week, and we're always happy to offer advice on where to go.

All our spa breaks are offered as packages, categorised by the experience. This is to make booking easier - choose from group getaways, hen party spa breaks, champagne afternoon teas, detox breaks and more. You can choose by the type of spa break, region, price point to make finding what you want as easy as possible.

In addition, there are multiple booking options. Customers can book online, over the phone, on online chat, and by email, or you can buy vouchers as a gift in multiple formats.

Everything we do at Spabreaks.com has been driven by a desire to make the customer experience the best it can be. It has always been a pillar of the way that Spabreaks.com operates, to listen to our customers and to build on their feedback and experiences. It was that mentality that led to our method of packaging spa breaks in the first place, as well as our creation of spa breaks suited to guests with cancer back in 2012, and it is a principle that has led to multiple updates to customer service protocols and booking capabilities as well as package options and categories over the years.

We listen to the consumer needs as they are now, and look to predict those that are coming down the line. Our founder, Abi, also makes a personal point of reviewing customer feedback on a regular basis. We adapt our processes in response to what our customers think, feel and want, and we actively seek to provide products and experiences that spa customers are looking for and the methods they prefer to book them.

We also work hard to add to the support system around our customer experiences with helpful information whether you're a first time spa goer, a mum-to-be wondering which treatments are safe, or if you're just not sure which order to enjoy the thermal suite in. We have therefore developed content hubs with vital information and adapted to a more digital first distribution and communications where requested but retained a UK-based call centre of informed team members.

How we support our business partners

One of the founding principles of Spabreaks.com was our belief that spas can be profitable whilst also providing excellent and meaningful wellbeing experiences for every location, price point, person and occasion. Working closely with our spa partners to understand their unique selling points, and market them effectively to the people who will most enjoy what they have to offer.

We therefore take a truly collaborative relationship to working with our spa partners, led by our Product Team. They work directly with spas to create packages that showcase the best that each destination has to offer. We then showcase them dynamically, effectively and with relevance.

In everything we do we consider the spa industry as a whole, as well as our own position in it. We are dedicated to helping keep the industry sustainable and profitable, and ultimately ensuring its survival. We believe that is rooted in the customer experience.

How we support our team

Our team is everything to us. Today, very few travel companies have a UK based call centre, but we believe it's essential to the customer experience that we want to offer to have passionate, dedicated, highly trained spa travel experts behind the scenes and speaking to our customers.

From our product teams to sales, marketing, IT and beyond, each member of Spabreaks.com is highly valued. As a result, we are not only dedicated to creating a positive, vibrant working environment but also supporting the personal and professional wellbeing of each team member. This is an approach that is directly led by Abi.

The ethos at Spabreaks.com, which filters from senior management throughout the company, is that everything is a team effort and no one individual from the director to the newest sales person is more important than anyone else. That said, this runs simultaneously with a belief in recognising individual talents and strengths, and using or distributing them to their best and most enjoyable advantage across the team.

Many of Abi’s actions when it comes to supporting her team go beyond the call of duty and are comparatively intangible, but they are fundamentally human – at its heart she remembers that the company is made up of and speaks to individual people with personal wants, needs and concerns. She is actively engaged with the individuals she works with and it is that caring approach that makes her employees so dedicated to the company.

On a more tangible note, Abi moved the team from offices in London to Brighton in 2017 to facilitate a more positive work/life balance. At the same time, she reduced the working day by 30 minutes and extended holiday to 25 days as standard. We also have wellbeing support on a daily basis including chair massages and yoga sessions.

Since we began, opportunity and professional guidance have been central to the way we look after our team. Each week Spabreaks.com sends team members to spas across the world to learn about the product they sell. We offer opportunities for career progression and Abi has mentored a number of individuals within the team herself, many of whom have gone on to start their own businesses.

How we're planning for the future

Going forward we only have our eyes set on being even better - delivering more for our customers, our partners and our teams.

We will develop more spa break category innovations, more products and we will continue to develop further into the market in Ireland and Europe, in line with consumer demand. We will continue to listen to our customers and identify and respond to their wants and needs.

Despite our ongoing developments with online bookings and communications, we are dedicated to retaining our call centre for anyone who prefers to speak to an individual on the phone.

We are committed to the ongoing enhancement of awareness and skills in the spa industry to cater to individual wellness needs, both within our organisation with our Safe Hands for Cancer spa breaks and other Safe Hands categories, but also beyond our own work.

This wider community involvement is thanks to our founder, Abi, who has worked with the Beauty and Wellbeing All Party Parliamentary Group, which addresses topics in parliament such as Menopause and Beauty Banks. She also works on the board of the UK Spa Association, with the CEW (Cosmetics Executive Women) - an organisation focused on improving and growing opportunities within the beauty and related sectors; and with the SATCC, an industry body dedicated to making spas more accessible for cancer patients, with Sue Harmsworth (founder of ESPA).

We also continue to offer apprenticeships and internships for local people through University of Brighton, and we are working with specialist recruitment agencies to provide more work opportunities within the company for anyone with a disability.