WAHM Forums

My brother and his family recently moved back close to our family. My sister-in-law loved my spa escape open house and wanted to invite new friends that she had met. My brother is an ER doctor and had to work last night, so I took my mom to keep the kids (6 months and 19 months). Momma was going to give them baths and put them to bed. My sister in law said there were 15 people coming. That's a lot to me, but I thought it will be great because my SIL will be able to get a lot of free things and enjoy some relaxing time with her new friends. WRONG!! As the moms came in, they brought their children with them! They ranged in age from 6 months - 8 years old. It was awful! There were 15 women trying to relax while children were running through the den yelling and screaming. I had made it more than clear to my SIL that there weren't suppose to be any kids, but as they arrived, she said I told them it was okay. It was awful! I had driven an hour to get to my SIL house because they don't live in our city, used products on the women that clearly couldn't hear what was going on. At the end of the night only four people bought a grand total of $174.00. I was so upset, but really tried not to show it. Within the past month, I have had an amazing spa with huge sales and now one with horrible sales. My SIL said that she was shocked people didn't buy. I explained to her that this was why I told her that children should not attend. Honestly, by the end of the evening I wasn't sure what was so great about beauticontrol and I love it! So, moving on and focusing on positive things to come. I just needed to share. Lesson learned...no children allowed!!!!!!!

Something one of my hostesses said on this subject has always stuck with me. I had a spa where the hostess had her son (who is so cute but is the BIGGEST cry baby I have ever met! If his mom is a foot away from him, he starts bawling! I felt bad for her though because her husband refuses to watch their son), and the 3 guests that came brought their children ranging in age from 2 - 8. Plus, there was a newborn baby that the hostess was babysitting that spent the time before relaxation screaming (she fell asleep right before relaxation). Then, the hostess' son screamed through the relaxation. Well, one of the mom's booked a spa of her own and made it very clear to all invited that there were to be no children. She made the point that "During the relaxation, we were supposed to feel like we were on the beach, but I felt like i was in the sandbox." So, I try to add that in with my hostesses to lighten it up, but I still try to stay firm with the rule.

Your story made me laugh b/c i was thinking back to a spa that i did in March for a Relay For LIfe Fundraiser... the hostess had a son in late elementary school and one of the guests had brought her middle school daughter and they were pretty good throughout the spa while we did skin care, SOH, etc. however, just as my ladies are doing foot soaks andgetting their eyepads on, the kids decide to BLAST that rap song "low, low, low"... while singing along to it, of course!so the hostess laughs it off saying how they are such funny kids. i made a light comment about the music, and she asks the kids to turn it down (which of course they cant hear) so she drops it and this continues through the rest of the spa. I was trying to work in the breathing exercise in between "apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur...." i was so hurt and pissed at the end of the spa. but now reflecting on it, it is funny to know that we never know what to expect when we enter someone's home!
I do the invitations for my hostesses, and whether in the phone call or paper invite, i do include: make arrangements for little ones b/c this is "you" time. that also takes the pressure off the hostess to tell her friends that they need a sitter.
Take the good with the bad- they all equal out in the end. Its the mistakes that you learn from, and that you are able to build your life's entertaining stories from!http://www.wahm.com/forum/smileys/smiley36.gif

Thank you for making me see the funny side. Good heavens! You made good points...I will use them!!!!

That sounds like an interesting spa event! You really do have to try and laugh it off and go with the flow. I have had other spas with kids in the other room or hubbies that refused to turn down the football game. So, usually I work it into the relaxation. I'll have everyone on the beach all alone, and I will say "You think about your family at home, and you can almost hear your husband watching the football game in the bedroom" or "You can almost hear the kids playing in their room". It always gets a giggle and lets people know that I can have a sense of humor about the situation too. I have also had a dog outside jumping on the glass door so you could hear it's nails clicking on the glass and I turned it into raindrops on the glass of the beach house.

that is so funny Bethany....I've done the same thing and it does make people laugh as well as you relax about the whole situation. One time during a relaxation there was a trickle noise from the kitchen right in the beach part of the relaxation and I said, you can even here the trickle of the nearby waterfall...and the ladies just busted out laughing....so yes you have to be flexible with these types of situations and not stress too much about them. I haven't had a "kids" included spa lately....been pretty lucky I guess.

I know exactly how you feel about the kids, dogs, hubbys etc. I did a spa that was in combination with Pampered Chef - (my daughter sold Pampered Chef) - this was the 2nd one we had done together and the first was for my sister. SO....anyway - this spa was in February in Fargo so it was snowy, cold and almost 4 hours from my home - ok - so no big deal, got to see my daughter and son in law anyway - we get to the hostesses house who by the way did not do anything I mentioned for her to do to earn her hostess rewards...as we approached the door, we could hear the kids screaming and the dog barking. We walk in and there are 5 kids, a bunch of cats and a dog and an unbelievalbly horrible odor which happened to be a combination of smoke, cat smells and I dont know what else. It more or less made both my daughter and I almost gag and our eyes water.The dog jumps on both my daughter and I and this dog is a huge black lab. There were 4 cats laying on the couch and I could see cat hair all over. So - we try and make the best of the situation.The dog because it is winter out gets "chained up" in the kitchen (right where my daughter is doing her prep for the pampered chef part) - barking loudly - and jumping so you hear this huge chain rattling. The kids are running through the house and I said to the hostess "remember this your spa and time for you to relax" her comments were - oh this is relaxing compared to what it is usually like in here. So we proceed with the "pampered spa"

All the while the dog is barking, the kids are screaming and the cats are jumping on my table with products and we have to put up with this horrible smell.

The sales from her spa were $120 - no spas were booked, and as my daughter was cleaning up after the spa, the dog who had been tied up now for 2 hours, was let loose - he proceeded to jump on her, then because he was tied up for so long, he peed on her foot. The hostess laughed and said "oh he does that all the time" It was the worst spa and pampered chef show we had done. We did end up doing two more after that - and they were both really good - $400 in spa sales at one and $650 at another...neither had kids or dogs at the pampered spa.

So I feel what you are going through. The good thing is - we can laugh at these situations and always realize that we are here because we love the products and want other people to love it as well.

Thank you girls for your great stories! I guess we always hear about the great parties, but not the bad parties. I wash sharing with my director what had happened at our success meeting yesterday and she said she had a great story. She said that she once had a party where the hostess lit a joint and everyone got stoned. Nobody bought anything! So, it made me feel so much better! I think this could be a great book by BeautiControl. We could all share our unusual parties.

My friend did a Spa and had one of the ladies buy the microdermabrasion buffer to use for cleaning her bathtub!!

I have had my fair share of bad spas!
I got sucked into a vortex of bad spas this past feb-april
* I did a spa where they had a crow for a pet that did not have a cage, and flew around the trailer, the entire spa ( my shortest spa ever, a new record of 25 minutes) they also did not have a bathroom...yes they went outside. ewww.
*I have been yelled at by ahusband watching a hockey game, as i was trying to set up for the spa.
*I witnessed domestic violance and battery at the beginning of one spa.
*I have had all my stuff packed up in my bins, before I was finished, as the guests smoked a joint instead.
* I had one party where the girls were doing cocaine in the washroom.At this sameparty a couple of the girls were prostitutes, and talked openly about "tricks".

it has been a year of interesting memories, what I have learned from the experiences is the key is really good hostess coaching, and if you feel uncomfortable in any situation that ultimately it is your business, and your say whether you provide them wih the spa experience, you can choose to leave.
I have to say I enjoy hearing about others bad spas, we can laugh in retrospect and helps to know you aren't the only one!

I've had one where nobody bought ANYTHING, there was one woman there making fun of the whole thing.http://www.wahm.com/forum/smileys/smiley19.gifI just had one that only had $150 in sales, but the way I figure- I made $25 an hour (I was there 3 hours including driving to and from) so that's not really too bad!! Hang in there- I'm sure something FANTASTIC is waiting just around the corner!!!http://www.wahm.com/forum/smileys/smiley10.gif

I thnk we have all had bad spa's. I just had one that the rep backed out at the last minute and I was asked if I could do it because there were supposed to be 15+ people there. We ended up with 6 people including hostess. And one kept telling me how MK has a better product. At the end after no one bought anything I just said thank you and was told well you would see more sales if you did MK. So I asked if she was a rep --she was NOT. But they were still better acording to her. just smiled and said we may have a similar line but BC still has the SPA products. THen I packed up thanked m hostess and walked ut th door with no sales and a one hour drive ahead of me. Yes I drove one hour each way for this. But it is all just experience and you learn what you want to improve on and what you know you are doing right

sharada, you're a better person than me with that woman...http://www.wahm.com/forum/smileys/smiley7.gif
Iwould have probably just told her thats good andthat we all have our preferences and that I used to be a MK user too but so glad I was introduced to BC. But I would have asked each person individually what they thought of the products and why they werent' buying. Whenever I have a $0 spa like that...I just flat out say, you know, thanks for having out today blah blah blahand I respect their no buying decision but it is important feedback for me and my company as to why my sales were $0....most people will be open with you with their objection and then you can figure out what their hesitation is and work with it. it may be something like not understanding the product completely, no $$or something. I personally have a survey box on my order form that i have people fill out what their favorite part of the spa was....and I use that to close them on products. I have not had $0 spas since I added this to my order form.

Hi. What do you ask on your survey?

They refused to talk they just walked out the door as I asked questions. No biggie I am still the winner I HAVE BC and shared with them they lost by not being open to something new. SO I figure no big deal just go on to the next group they will LOVE IT and JOiN MY TEAM--LOL
It is all about positive thinking.
SHARADA

sharada...I'm sorry that happened...why did the girl even bother with a spa if they were going to be that way?thats just plain ole mean!
My survey is very simple. Like this:
Check Your Favorite(s):
____Hands ____Eyes ____Feet ____Lips ____Neckwrap ____Face

its in a small box on the order form and I refer to it at the end of the spa and tell them to let me know what they thought was their favorite and that it helps me in my future spas. I tell them to check their favorites and if they have a hard time picking one that they can check all. Everyone always marks something. And as I go through their orders, I look at the survey and see if they bought what they checked and say thank you for filling out the survey...if they check things they didnt' buy, then I say I noticed you enjoyed the XXXX, I would love to give that to you at your spa as part of your hostess gift. What date would you like to schedule your spa? If they don't want to schedule a spa then I usually following with a coupon or after spa special for them and mention the product then.