Absolute Spa Reviews

2.9

44% would recommend to a friend

(43 total reviews)

Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia

43% approve of CEO

37% positive business outlook

Absolute Spa has an employee rating of 2.9 out of 5 stars, based on 43 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Absolute Spa employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Personal consumer services industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

43 reviews
1.0
Nov 9, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It is close to the sky train.

Cons

Where do I begin... Lied about guaranteed hours in interview. $14 an hour unless you make commission and it is very hard to move up on the point system, then they cut your hours or even call you off for the whole day so you are really making less than 14 an hour because you are not getting paid for time you have set aside to work. Pedicure stations are extremely hard on your back and neck, the other girls told me the owners won't invest the money to make them less harmful on there backs and necks, what a shame... You will get in serious flack if you call in sick but they will call you off if they don't need you, how is this fair? Was not told to me in interview in fact they told me that would not happen. Training is very minimal and also very unorganized. Makes it hard for you when you do get booked because you are running around trying to find where everything is. Most of the time you are sitting around waiting for guests and you want to stay at the front of the spa so you get retails sales but rarely do make retail sales. Who wants to sit around all day waiting?

1.0
May 25, 2017

Esthetician

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Definitely a "teamwork" vibe, coworkers are great, tips are in cash daily, relaxed workplace, everyone constantly uses their phones and sit around

Cons

They make it seem like you will make commission on services instead of minimum wage (which is also a joke because even the people at the front desk who didn't shell out 20 grand for school and training make $2/hr more... no experience necessary) but in reality you'll get $11/hr for 25-30 hours a week even if you're a full time employee because it is very slow and you get put on call a lot. The commission based rate is a complete joke, the commission goes down anytime the service price does (specials on services, group bookings, promotions) so the company is losing out on nothing and taking away from the estheticians when they do things like sales. They like to hire students right out of school to give you $11 but charge a high rate for services ($150 facials, $80 pedicures) with little to no training. Training is basically doing a small part of the service and the person you're training with going "yeah that's good enough"They also do product knowledge training with the company's products they sell a couple times a year which you are expected to attend but do not get paid for, and if you skip them they threaten to take away the services with those products used in them from you. Turn over rate is very high because the company lies to get you on board but keeps none of the promises it says. And then they refuse to be a reference for you because they would lose too many people if they did. There are no benefits..... you pay full price for any services you may want, can't trade services with others, basically a 20% discount on some products and that's about it. Managers are really unfriendly and unapproachable, they make getting time off a nightmare (you have to ask everyone to cover your shifts and mark down that you asked them before you put in your time off request form for the time off, they want 2 months notice for any days off, and won't give any time off may-September and November-January because that's the "busy time" of year. The spa is also kind of a mess. ALWAYS out of necessary products (nail files/wood sticks, skin products used for facials, things like gauze, towels, sheets, robes) and it's up to you to try and figure out what you're going to do/how you're going to complete the service without the necessary items. They aren't concerned about estheticians daily schedules, they will take out breaks or move them to something like an hour after you get there or an hour before you leave which I'm personally not a fan of because I run out of energy and need to eat. Paycheques were kind of dumb, twice a month on the 15th and last day of the month, BUT you have to wait "5 business days" after said dates but they aren't always on time and nearly 80% of my cheques were wrong by missing hours, or services, or sales. All in all the company is a complete joke but almost everyone I worked with was a complete delight.

2.0
May 23, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Friendly co workers. I stayed with this company because of this reason.

Cons

The Absolute Spa lacks an effective system to properly train their concierge / front desk staff - this was always a major concern for me. I worked at this spa as an RMT for several years and saw so many booking / scheduling related errors, mishandling of cancellations and carelessness with customers’ requests. You name it. The concierge staff at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver are especially unprofessional. In 2017 alone, they cost me close to a thousand dollars in lost income due to scheduling errors. A poor booking job means fewer returning customers and that in turn leads to less profit for the company. It is simple logic, but sadly the management at Absolute Spa had a hard time understanding it. RMTs tried to advise the spa manager regarding this issue. Maybe she was too afraid of making changes or simply did not know how to implement them. She put RMTs under a lot of unnecessary stress and caused unbearable frustration. As a result, a lot RMTs were forced to quit in order to avoid working at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. Before I quit, I grew tired of constantly finding errors in my work schedule. I only wish the Absolute Spa management knew how to run their business in an intelligent way. However in the end, judging from what I saw, I think they just simply do not care.

avatar
Absolute Spa Response
8y
Thank you for taking the time to post your opinion and providing us with your feedback. A spa environment is run very differently than a clinic setting. We do require our professional service providers to commit to their availability - full or part-time, in order to have the flexibility to book appointments based on our customers preferences and availability during the spa's hours of operation. Our booking system is user friendly and we provide a week of training for all new spa coordinators, with ongoing support to ensure success. It sounds like we have an opportunity to do a better job of ensuring greater teamwork between the reception staff and the service providers to build greater workplace satisfaction and camaraderie among all team members. I would have loved the opportunity to address all of your concerns directly while you were working with us since you were not satisfied with how the managers responded to your frustrations.
Viewing 1 - 3 of 43 Reviews

Glassdoor has 45 Absolute Spa reviews submitted anonymously by Absolute Spa employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Absolute Spa is right for you.