Date: 17 September 2018
Time: 7pm – 10.15pm
Location: Oriental Palm Spring Sauna, CWB
Massage quality: 2/5 Reasonable veggie, found knots and worked them out but not particularly relaxing, girl stopped early, 41 mins into 45 minute massage, only continued to 45 mins on my request
Price: $462 for spa, food and drink, 45 minute massage, plus $50 in tips after extensive argument on the way out
Repeat: Can’t
, ‘banned’ from the spa by the manager for tipping $50 on top of $462 bill rather than requested $150-$300.
I and a mate are regulars at Sunny Paradise but thought we’d check out Oriental Palm Spring Sauna, near Causeway Bay. Place somewhat smart but beginning to look a little run down in places, bamboo scaffolding in the lobby, hole in the ceiling above the entrance stairs etc (not in the same place as the scaffolding). But the changing rooms are smart and the changing staff are helpful, polite and good humoured. The spa is reasonable, very hot pool around 42 degrees and very cold pool at 9 degrees which flows into the sauna, a nice touch. Steam room fine, food and drinks in the spa were the standard meat balls in brown water but good fruit selection.
The chill out lounge is nice with electric reclining sofas, big screen TVs and a pretty decent menu of food and drink. It’s quiet and dark, with young-ish girls working in the chill out lounge. Masseuses younger and more attractive than Sunny Paradise but it seems primarily a veggie place.
Couple of attempts to upsell us from 45 to 90 minute massage, once in the lounge and once by the girl at the start of the massage, in interests of time/money I requested 45. Massage was slightly ‘poke and rub’, but she did a reasonable job of finding and working on knots. No massage by feet / girl standing on you which I kind of missed.
There was a digital clock in the room and I noticed it was 9.29 at the start, a few seconds later 9.30. Yet at 10.11 the room phone buzzed, girl answered and immediately stopped, saying ‘massage finish’. I said no, that’s 42 minutes, would you mind keeping on going? She understood and somewhat grumpily carried on until 45 mins.
Meet my mate back in the spa, shower, change and head to the cash desk. On the way back down to the lobby we see a sign on the edge of the counter saying ‘We recommend tips of $150-$300. In case of poor service, complaint may be made or tip not paid’. As it was facing up the stairs and at the far end of the counter, it would be difficult to see the sign on the way in. It isn’t on the posters advertising the price.
I said $50 was what I would be tipping since the massage was short albeit of reasonable quality. Cue big argument with the staff ‘$150 is the basic tip” “We don’t pay the girls so you have to tip at least $150” “It isn’t optional” etc etc, to which I calmly said I’m sorry, this isn’t a negotiation. I’m tipping $50. The cashier relented and wrote $50 on the bill, then the manager appeared and the whole argument began again. She said ‘if you weren’t happy with the massage you should have asked to change girl during the massage’, to which I say ‘I’m not unhappy, I’m just not tipping 36%’. She eventually said, ‘Fine, you pay $50 but you cannot come here again’. Seems crazy but whatever, we pay and leave.
So what was going on here? I don’t want to be tight but $50 tip for an ok quality veggie 45 minute massage seems reasonable to me – would you guys have tipped more? Do they do this to everyone? I don’t want to do a masseuse out of a fair reward but this feels like a semi-scam. In other comparable spas (Sunny P, Royal Sauna Spa) tips of $50-100 are seen as reasonable. Anyone had a similar experience to this?
