New Indian Inspired Spa Centre in Europe for the First Time

Jiva Spa has just recently opened doors for the first time in Europe despite the fact that the spa brand is well-known across other places in the world. The wellness manager of Jiva Spa for London speaks more about the opening of the centre at Taj Hotel in Victoria, London and why she is not intimidated that Brexit can potentially affect the business negatively.

In fact, it wouldn’t take too long until Jiva Spa becomes a well-known name in London and Europe in general. The hotel spa is situated at Taj 51 Buckingham Gate in Westminster and it is offering a quite different and more unique experience than what you can get as a spa and wellness service in the city. The Indian traditions of relaxation, healing, and boosting health are the main concept behind Jiva Spa that along with Taj Hotels has a true Indian origin with an ancient Indian approach to health and well-being, Ayurvedic-inspired healing treatments for the body and spirit with a blend of contemporary Mediterranean philosophy for pampering not just your physical body but also your soul.

Despite the fact that Jiva Spas are well-known in many other areas in the world and run by the family-own hotel chain Taj in locations such as Abu Dhabi, Indian, South Africa, and the Maldives, the wellness centre has just recently stepped on the European spa scene and opened for the first time in the location in London. The wellness manager Paola Leone is definitely driven to help the spa centre become the number-one spa destination in the city and she has some big plans that go along the big investments made for building the wellness centre from scratch.

“Jiva Spa is known by guests who use Taj Hotels around the world but we’re not recognised in the UK and Europe, and I wanted to change this.” 17 months ago Paola Leone saw a great opportunity for Jiva Spa to open doors. The hotel was due to a major refurbishment and renovation that cost a lot of money already. However, Leone discussed her plans with her general manager and they came up with the decision to redo the old spa of the hotel and make a big investment in order to ensure the opening of Jiva Spa in London’s Taj Hotel. Leone explains:

“We were unable to have the Jiva Spa brand before because we didn’t have the right facilities. All we had was two treatment rooms and a changing room with a very small, old sauna, which wasn’t up to standard.”

After the approval of the Taj headquarters, the London Jiva Spa just opened in February 2019. The facilities are not just sparkling new but safe to say up to the highest standards in the branch with a vitality pool, a cold “emotional shower”, steam room, sauna, relaxation area, fitness centre, and three treatment rooms, one of which is specially made for couples and has a bath. The treatments and therapies offered at the spa centre include an interesting and unique blend of physical, psychological, and physiological relaxation, healing, and purification. Each aspect of your spiritual and physical well-being is catered by a five-step spa process that pays attention to your detoxification, boosting the circulation of blood, shedding the dead skin, cleansing your aura, healing the body with the power of a touch, etc.

Indeed, Jiva Spa is a very different experience and nothing you can experience anywhere else in London. This is why Leone is hoping to a client return of 90% in the next two years.

“Our current client split in 60% hotel visitors, 20% corporate clients, and 20% locals, but I really want to target the latter group. We’re based near Victoria and it’s growing, affluent area, so I want to repeat business from locals. I want to create a relationship with them.”

Says Leone and further explains their loyalty client scheme with:

“There are a lot of hotels nearby but they don’t have the same spa facilities we do, I want to capitalise on that.”