Ahavia Lounge Spa Customer Service Disaster for a Mediocre Massage

To recuperate from our super tiring day yesterday, my friends and I decided to book our treatments at Ahavia Lounge Spa for this afternoon. All of us happened bought Group-On vouchers which require you to book an appointment a day in advance so I even called them while we were having dinner in Sta Rosa, and Carla confirmed that we had a slot for 4:00pm today.

My best friend and I arrived just in time. I was even able to park my car closest to the entrance because it seemed like 4:00pm was a good time to visit. The guard gave me a number (23) which I thought was ridiculous given that I parked my own car and didn't leave the keys so I totally didn't get what the number was for.

Our other friend, my kaladkarin partner, Chips, arrived much earlier than us and asked the spa if she could get a Foot Spa while waiting, and they said yes. She even asked them if she had enough time before our appointment, because if not, she could have it done after, however, due to numerous delays, they only attended to her slightly before 4:00pm even knowing that our appointment was at 4:00pm so when we arrived, we said we'll just wait for her to finish and then go and get our massage.

Ahavia Lounge Spa in San Juan

The lady behind this desk then told me that we would have to wait for 5:30pm for our slot. I found this unacceptable so I told her we had an appointment at 4:00pm, and they should not have started my friends Foot Spa treatment before our massage if we were going to lose our reservation that they confirmed. Seeing my irritation, her supervisor (called Sir Andrew) immediately asked me what the matter was, and assured us that they would be ready with for our massage after my friend's Foot Spa.

My friend finished at around 4:30pm. When we asked if we could already have our treatment done, this Andrew guy asked us if we would mind waiting 20minutes because "one of their customers extended, whatever that means". Also while we were having this discussion, there was a group of extremely irrate customers in front of the desk because this was their second visit where they had an appointment and they were told that they could not be accommodated. The girl said that she called on Thursday for a 7:00pm appointment yesterday and was told she was not on the appointment book and to come back today and today she was being told the same thing.  I was obviously eavesdropping, thinking we were lucky, we managed to get the next available VIP room (or so we thought). This was also the part where I made sure I remembered it was Carla who confirmed my appointment.

Since it seemed like they were doing their best to accommodate us, we asked Andrew if they would give us a complimentary service for waiting, and if there was somewhere we could wait since by then their waiting area was just full of Bad Vibes from people they have managed to irritate by their sheer incompetence. And they call themselves a Spa. Tsk Tsk. Andrew agreed to this, and showed us to the Children's waiting area and sent us some tea.

The kids lounge is quite nice.
I thought I would be able to leave Sofia here when I came back.
But that was before I realized I would never ever come back.

My best friend Jem.
This was when we thought we would wait 20 mins.

They served us sweetened tea that tasted like Taho.

This is me with Chipsy, with her now smooth feet.

After 25 minutes, I went out to follow-up our massage. We were told that they were just checking our room, sort of implying that we will be getting our service soon. After numerous follow-ups and the same answer I insisted on talking to the Andrew guy again. He explained to me that the client in the room extended, and when I asked why they allow the clients to do so, he said that the client locked the door (can you really do that in a Spa --- ano to Motel???) and was not answering his knocks. This was already around 5:30pm. An hour since he put us in the kid's lounge. But he told us we would get a complimentary VIP room for our next visit. All of us didn't want a complimentary VIP room you need to wait hours for. We asked that he give us a different service instead.

After numerous follow-ups again, I found out that they only had 3 VIP rooms (which was included in the newest voucher that they are peddling on Group-On), and when I asked if they could give us a different room instead, I was told that we had to wait for the room with the 3 beds because there were 3 of us. I told them, we didn't need to be in one room since Jem's voucher was for a different package. Then they told me, they had no rooms available anyway. Then finally we were told that the room was being prepared for us. I found this to be quite fishy since I didn't really see anyone exit the treatment area to the reception and main entrance but I was just happy to get served. After more than 1 hour of being made to wait.

Very unhappy after more than 1 hour of waiting.
And I thought we came here to relax. Tsk Tsk.

When they told us we had to wait 5-10minutes for our room to be prepared, we watched the clock like a hawk. After the 10 minutes was up, they had to locate Andrew again (it seems like the others are not allowed to give specific answers), who told us our room would be ready in 3 minutes. We asked to wait in the room while they were preparing it.

So this is the VIP room.

It matches my bag.

Let's spell V. I. P!!!

After clowning around. It was already 5.45PM.
They were not yet done prepping our room.

We got our massage at 6pm. 4 hours after our confirmed appointment time. 30 minutes after the 5:30 slot they were giving us, which I said was unacceptable. As the therapists were prepping around us, I asked one of them why the client was taking so long to open the door. The therapist told us "Yun may-ari po yun nandito kanina. Siya yung nagpapamassage." (It was the owner who was in here, getting a massage.)  No wonder they couldn't force the owner to open the door. They might lose their jobs. That's assuming what the therapist said was true. - so I guess, the owner would rather LOSE customers - or irritate them, in a place they go to for rest and relaxation.

Now, about the massage. It was passable. We got the voucher package for 2 pax for a 120min Volcanic Stone or Sea Shell treatment in a VIP room. My 45-minute hot stone massage from a street corner spa in Ho Chi Minh City was so much better that the massage I got from Ahavia. They really need to give you 120 minutes because there is so much dead time during the treatment when they prepare the stones because they use it on you body part by body part. And it seems like they only use it on you with a few token strokes so they can call it a Volcanic Stone massage. My only thought bubble was well, for the voucher price, it's still not too bad. The only really good part was when they massaged our heads for all of 2 minutes. Hahaha. You should know that the only time they are prompt is for the duration of your treatment. Ours ended at 7:59pm on the dot.

After our massage, we asked to see Andrew to claim our complementary service. We were told by the front desk that he already left and just asked for our names and contact numbers - which they already had because we had to give it before our treatment.

Ahavia has just moved to a new location because it seems that they are trying to expand. They also have a viral facebook promotion where they ask you to do 7 steps, to be eligible for an iPad raffle. Step 7 is to go to the reception and ask for your raffle ticket which will be given together with a free soap. Since I am a sucker for a sale, I did all these steps last night because I knew I was going to Ahavia. When we arrived, I already asked for my raffle ticket and they told me that they still needed to check I did all the steps, and it will be ready for me after the treatment. When I was claiming my raffle ticket after the massage, they gave it to me, but when I asked for the free soap, I was informed that they needed to check I did all the steps. So many inconsistencies and incompetence in this spa. Number 7 said you get both if you do all steps. and they told me that they will check while we were waiting and getting our treatments. I just told them, I did all the 7 steps which I told you when we arrived. You've had more than 4 hours to check. So they gave me the soap (which I don't really want. It's just the principle of the thing!) because I complained, but I guess that incident, together with this scathing review means I lose my chance of winning an iPad. awwwwww.

It's a good thing getting this out of my system relaxed me more than my visit at Ahavia Lounge Spa. You should only visit them if you want to waste your time and you want a mediocre massage. just saying.

By the way, the number the guard gives, It's for attending to you only when your number is flashed. I only found out afterwards. What kind of spa treats it's customers like they are waiting in line at an airline ticketing office!?! Seriously!