There are moments in life when the odds for enjoyment seem to be stacked against us. One of these, sadly, is travelling on a modern London bus – it’s getting harder to imagine now but in the days of the Routemaster it used to be quite fun.
Another, and not just in London, is spending time in an airport lounge. The mere prospect of it is enough to make my shoulders hunch and fingers jitter. Hours and hours of dead time with nothing to do but shop or eat unhealthy muffins (I don’t trust those “no fat” claims).
So far we beauty-conscious travellers have considered ourselves fortunate to have Molton Brown spas at Terminals 1 and 4 at Heathrow and at JFK in New York. About 90 clients a day visit the UK spas, while about 35 pass through the doors of the US branch. But – and it’s a big but – they are only available to Club Class passengers who are flying with British Airways. Though Chanel has a colour nail bar at Terminal 3, open to all.
Of course, to any would-be entrepreneur, a captive market with in-built low expectations, in great need of a little pampering and dedicated attention, should spell out “opportunity” in neon lights. And a solution would herald a slew of grateful customers.
For instance, one friend, who recently happened upon the Xpress beauty salon at San Francisco Airport, described the experience as not just like finding water in the desert but finding your favourite naturally carbonated bottled water with a twist of lime. She chose a manicure and the chance to relax in an electronic massage chair before she boarded her flight, and though it may not have been the best manicure she’d ever received, it certainly felt like a situation where wasted moments would otherwise have been strung together like an out-of-control washing line. And it changed her experience of long-haul flying from bane to bliss. Who could ask for more?
Well, two former bankers, Grant Thompson and Andrew McCaffery, could and did. They decided it was time to take better care of their wellbeing but instead of brothers just doing it for themselves, they set up Rejuve, a spa-type salon, which opened at Heathrow’s Terminal 1 two weeks ago.
Rejuve, as its name implies, is all about rejuvenation – and rejuvenation in a place where we don’t normally find it, no matter how hard we look.
Officially calling itself the first wellbeing spa in airport history, it could change how we view modern travel and its travails, reviving an almost forgotten idea that we should enjoy travel, the time spent on it, and the wonders of hopping from one place to another – even if it is for business meetings rather than sightseeing.
Rejuve is a members-only club, but don’t get runway rage over that as you can either buy a day membership (£25) or opt to sign up to the tiered membership scheme with varying benefits – at the top end you have nothing to pay once you’re inside the ash and walnut lounge.
Here everything the sophisticated traveller might need is on offer: healthy take-away meals, Bloomberg and flight departure screens, eight beauty treatment rooms (all named after ancient gods just to help boost any weakening egos), Jurlique products, a well-equipped gym, shower rooms, an ostrich leather-tiled barber where shaves, hair trims, non-polish manicures and pedicures and head, shoulder and hand massages can all be performed.
But the dynamic duo is quick to point out that this is not a spa – “I hate the ‘s-word’,” attests Thompson. No, this is about taking care of yourself and having that possibility presented to you right there, after passport control. In the longer term, the Rejuve chaps hope men (at the moment they believe the majority of their customers will be businessmen, but the space is really fairly unisex) will readjust their travel habits and arrive earlier at the airport so that they can fit in their health and grooming there, rather than rushing to do it all beforehand. That said, everything is organised with time limits in mind (the longest treatment is 75 minutes). And if all you want is a shower and maybe a shave, that’s fine. They also hope to roll out the concept around the world.
So, thankfully, this is the final call for stressed-out airline passengers. Could they kindly make their way to Rejuve, make themselves known to a crew member and let’s breathe a collective sigh of relief.
www.rejuve.info
www.xpressspa.com
www.moltonbrown.com
www.chanel.com
edwina.ings-chambers@ft.com
More columns at www.ft.com/chambers
