Friday’s Sticky Situation: Treatment Table Sprinkle

In this new weekly column, we present real-life day spa disaster scenarios, and reveal how pros dealt with each crisis. (Warning: These situations can be awfully sticky—and uncensored!)

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The Situation: “This is a crazy one. We had to fire a client because he kept urinating on the bed after his service,” says one anonymous spa owner. “It was gross. We had to throw out the blankets and sheets.”

The Solution: “After the first time it happened, we thought maybe the client had just had an accident, but he kept doing it with the same therapist. Maybe he had a health issue. We don’t know. But he was a repeat offender, so finally the therapist asked me for permission to tell him he couldn’t come back. We coached the manager to approach it in a very polite and unassuming way and say, ‘We’re afraid we’re not the kind of facility that can work with you under these conditions, and it would be better to go to a clinic that can manage whatever health issues there may be.’ When people do odd things, I think they find someone who doesn’t rat them out at first, and they keep going back.”

What would you have done? Please sound off below in the comment field. Have you had a similar experience? Got a sticky situation to share? Email your spa horror story to [email protected]!

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