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Hotel Referrals

I am looking into expending my out-call services, and was wondering if anyone has any success/ ideas with growing their mobile practice.

I work full time, and would love to work on clients in the evenings. It is harder to commit to clients where I live, since my work is like 25 miles away. I would like to market somewhere in area where I work. So this way I could stay in area and work on clients.

I can always go to my family and get ready there.

So looking for some stories about getting into hotels. How to approach them? How you keep track of referrals.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Relax & Rejuvenate on July 26, 2012 at 1:25pm

You should get in touch with Windy City Massage.

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Permalink Reply by Hannah Levy on August 7, 2012 at 4:00pm

Hi! I'd recommend doing research on the hotels in your area to see if they have an existing spa on site or if they use out-call providers. It may be more difficult to get referrals from a hotel with an on site spa, they will likely want to keep the revenue in-house. When I worked for a Day Spa in San Diego, CA, I was in charge of doing outreach and networking with the concierge staff at hotels in the surrounding areas. I set up a referral program that if the concierge member referred 5 treatments to our spa, they would get a free 30 minute treatment of their choice.

I'd recommend creating an excel spreadsheet, or whatever is easiest for you to track the referrals. You will want to do this so that you have the referrals in your records and what you exchanged for the referrals. The easiest system might be if they send over a certain # of treatments, they will get a free or discounted service or treatment from you. This will give them a direct incentive to recommend you to guests.

I'd recommend that you create a one page flyer, or a brochure with information about you and the services you provide, pricing, your website, available hours. Include business cards and pricing information. You will want to give the Concierge staff enough to keep for themselves and to hand out to interested guests. You will then want to call or stop by regularly if you want to create a relationship with them. You can even call to let them know when they are getting close to their free or discounted treatment for all the referrals they have sent over.

Good Luck! and let us know how it goes : )

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Permalink Reply by Relax & Rejuvenate on August 8, 2012 at 12:17pm

Actually, it is pretty easy to get referrals from a hotel with a spa on-site, especially a popular one. When the spa is booked -- and few travellers plan well enough in advance, especially if a good chunk of the spa capacity is used by locals -- they turn to the concierge. Even when the spa is not booked, a concierge is more likely to offer an in-room service -- for which they collect a referral fee -- than to direct a guest to the spa.

Concierge refer based on $$. The more you offer, the more likely you are to get called first. 20% is the minimum they expect, with some 5 star hotels expecting closer to 1/3rd.

We have had several concierge tell us over the years they call independent therapists first -- A) they pay more and B) they know we are always available in case the higher paying independents are not.

legally, you have to have a W-9 on any person to whom you pay over $600 in a calendar year. Many concierge won't want to work with you if you force this -- their goal is under the table cash.