HANGING ON TO A LITTLE LUXURY

Las Vegas Business Press
BY VALERIE MILLER

Holiday spending is expected to reach its lowest levels in decades and retirement accounts are vanishing, but that doesn't mean people have to give up all their luxuries. Low-cost pampering is taking hold in Las Vegas as penny-pinching consumers look for ways to still enjoy spa days without the high cost.

Massage Heights' recent opening marked the latest entry into the membership-based spa business. The 24,000-square-foot Henderson store's debut in early November swelled the number of discount massage and facial franchise offerings, which already include places such as Massage Envy and FaceLogic. The latter of the two opened in June.

Although some franchisees own stores in more than one of the chains, the three discount spas have different corporate ownership but share strikingly similar membership offers: For around $59 per month, customers can receive one of the store's specialties free every month, whether it be a facial or massage, along with steep discounts on other services.

Massage Heights offers a free monthly massage to members for a $59 monthly fee, for example. Extras are thrown in and additional massages cost about $39. Customers can get the same high-quality pampering they might receive at a megaresort spa for a fraction of the cost, said Allison Mizener, Massage Heights' regional developer and owner of the first location at 1371 W. Warm Springs Road. Hard-stone therapy and peppermint foot scrubs are available. First-time customers are offered an initial 50-minute massage for $39.99, whether they are members or not.

Mizener is bullish on Massage Heights' growth potential, despite the current economy.

"We are targeting to bring in 15 stores in the next five years, with 450 jobs," she said. "Even though it is a new franchise, it is growing quickly."

The first location employs 15 in its 10-room facility. More staff may be added if business is strong, the owner said. Massage Heights' company Web site sets a goal of 1,200 stores nationally.

Mizener is looking for local franchisees and puts the cost of offering a store at $250,000 to $300,000.

The owner planned the opening of Southern Nevada's first Massage Heights since last January, before the financial crisis intervened. But an upside exists to starting a business in the current recession, Mizener said. Just as bargain shoppers jammed retail stores for deeply discounted Black Friday deals, would-be franchisees can find deals on prime locations now.

"There are great leasing opportunities right now. They (property owners) are almost giving them away," she added. "They have almost doubled the tenant improvement allowance."

The discounted membership model has appealed to both locals and tourists, who are tightening their purse strings and shying from pricier alternatives at resorts on the Strip, said Marissa Hawkins, the local FaceLogic territory owner. She also opened the first Massage Envy franchise established in the valley.

"It's a free one-hour facial (monthly) for members. Normally, it would cost $175 and up on the Strip," she said. "We have both, but the local demographic is our target."

A quarter of FaceLogic's customers are tourists. High-end skin products such as Eminence, Peter Thomas Roth and MD Skin draw in visitors and residents who might have frequented the resorts' spas, Hawkins added. That drew an increasing number of tourists in also.

"We don't advertise to them, but they find us," she said of the appeal of her FaceLogic on Blue Diamond Road to tourists.

On a summer day not long after opening, a wedding party packed the new spa. Some men joined women for facials, while others just observed. Males make up 10 percent to 15 percent of Massage Envy's clientele.

The wedding party were friends and family of a local member, which is another way tourists are thrown into the mix of discount-spa customers.

Las Vegas offers an eclectic mix of spa customers that tends to buck the national numbers, Mizener said. "The average age in the nation for Massage Heights is 30 to 50 (years old), but we see a span of the 20s all the way up to the senior years."

FaceLogic may be a good barometer of how its followers, such as Massage Heights, will do.

Hawkins is judging her first seven months a success. She is halfway to her first-year goal to grow a membership base of 500, and the first FaceLogic is halfway there, its owner said. After the 500 mark is reached, plans for second store can go forward. Hawkins said Green Valley and Summerlin are both potential locations for the second store.

An upgraded membership, called an Elite membership, runs about $79 and includes more expensive, longer facials. Those price points are similar to Hawkins' Massage Envy, which she opened in 2005. The Las Vegas Valley now has eight Massage Envy stores with a ninth scheduled to open in January, she said. Hawkins herself only owns one of the Massage Envy locations, but said since FaceLogic doesn't offer massages and Massage Envy doesn't provide facials, the two stores franchises complement each other.

"A girlfriend of mine owned the Massage Envy store next to (FaceLogic), so we refer business to each other," she said.

And there's the new kid on the discount spa block. The entry of Massage Heights into the Las Vegas market just a month ago is adding to the demand for spa members, but Hawkins doesn't see it as a bad thing "if they offer quality massages."

And maybe locals can escape the financial drama around them by partaking in a few excesses, albeit at a cheaper price, Hawkins said.

"They need a massage or facial to get away from it. It won't break their bank account and they can get away from it all," Hawkins added.

Contact reporter Valerie Miller at vmiller@lvbusinesspress.com or 702-387-5286.