RE: How much massage in an hours appointment?
I think it should depend on where you work. If you work where clients can't spare more time off work than 5-10 minutes in total changing, paying, and making their next appointment, then it is only fair for them to incorporate that into the hour. I work near the Old Bailey. Most of my massage clients are busy lawyers who start taking their clothes off the moment they come in and are on the couch within 2 minutes. By the time I have washed and dried my hands, they are ready and waiting. They charge an awful lot per hour and don't want to waste their valuable massage time doing anything else:)
How long is a one hour massage?
So you feel in need of a nice massage, find a therapist and book a 'one hour massage' for £40.
You arrive at the health centre before the therapist does.
They invite you in to the treatment room 5 minutes after your session was due to start.
As a new client they spend 10 minutes asking and writing down your name and address, home phone number, mobile number, ask what you want from the massage, any medical details.
Told the massage is 'about an hour' and asked to undress.
On the couch and the massage starts; it's good no complaints, suddenly it's over. Wow I must have enjoyed it so much I lost all sense of time?!
Therapist leaves me to get dressed in my own time (which is costing me).
Glance round and as I suspected the massage lasted 35 minutes of ACTUAL PHYSICAL MASSAGE! That's what I pay for as far as I'm concerned.
Next time they might not fill in a form that I could have done while waiting at reception so could be 10 minutes longer plus 5 minutes if not late starting even though I was early. Does anyone else feel stupid telling someone their name and address etc when said person is sitting right next to them and then asks you about spelling etc when you can do it yourself (for free).
I feel cheated and because of that I do not intend to return as I don't want to 'wonder' how long my 'one hour' massage 'might' (not) last should I return.
So therapists how long is a one hour massage?
Should consultations be 'free' so as not to cut into the clients session time (of massage).
A good way of making the NEW client feel they are getting a good deal and treated fairly I would say.
A bit rambling but hope you get my point and yes I am a right whinger but even so!:rolleyes:
firstly why should we provide our services free, your consultation (form filling) is part of the service, these are details we need to go through for legal reasons.
if your therapist was late they should make the time up and not on your time.
im a mobile therapist, so the treatment time starts as soon as in their home. I give them the paper work to fill in while im setting up my couch, it also gives me time to talk to the client to discus any issues and what they want from the treatment.
My sessions last around 50 minutes, with approx 40/45 massage. The client gets dressed while i pack away this is on my time not the clients
I guess if you have bad service you wont go back, but you might have had a bad salon/clinic/therapist so the next one might be better.
As im a sports massage therapist i have to go through a lot more with my clients before massage can start, but for therapeutic massages you should get most of that hour 45/50 at least
sorry your experience wasnt good
firstly why should we provide our services free, your consultation (form filling) is part of the service, these are details we need to go through for legal reasons.
I could have filled out a form in the waiting room in MY unpaid time, only the medical contraindications, if any, might need to be discussed in the treatment room (in my case).
Good marketing? "Free Consultation" sacrifice a few quid to gain a regular repeat client (possibly) same as some therapists do a pay for 3 sessions get fourth free or similar.
My session was purely recreational not sports injury/fitness where as with medical procedures history taking assumes a more prominent part of a session.
When I book a one hour massage I want a one hour massage or very near as you concur.
I would never dream of giving any client less than a full 60mins (or 90mins if that's what they opt for) of MASSAGE time. Anything else - dressing, undressing, consultation, discussion before and/or afterwards, showering before and/or afterwards, etc is all carried out 'free', as it were.
The only time I would consider giving a client less than the full session would be if he or she turned up very late and I had someone booked in straight afterwards. But usually I leave a big gap between appointments anyway to allow for all the faffing about in between.
I can undertand salons perhaps need to give less than an hour if they want to keep their appointments running all day, on the hour, every hour. But if that's the case then they should not describe it as a ONE HOUR massage. But that's just my opinion. I'm sure there will be others who feel differently.
Kitten
x
I could have filled out a form in the waiting room in MY unpaid time, only the medical contraindications, if any, might need to be discussed in the treatment room (in my case).
Good marketing? "Free Consultation" sacrifice a few quid to gain a regular repeat client (possibly) same as some therapists do a pay for 3 sessions get fourth free or similar.
My session was purely recreational not sports injury/fitness where as with medical procedures history taking assumes a more prominent part of a session.
When I book a one hour massage I want a one hour massage or very near as you concur.
I do not do free consultations, why would I want to give away my time to listen to someone tell me their life history.
My working day is long enough but you are suggesting that I make it even longer, if I have back to back clients, it is likely that you will need to get undressed and dressed in the hour that you pay for, not in my time. I assume you dont do extra time at your job, you take comfort breaks in your break time, and you work 100% of the time.
I do not need to use good marketing to entice clients, I dont do marketing, I have had 20 new clients in the last 6 weeks. When I book my clients, I make them aware that the first session will involve ME asking them some questions about their health, if THEY fill in the form, they seldom read the questions fully, seldom respond fully and often just look for where to sign, potentially missing the fact that they have a skin condition or illness that would contraindicate treatment/massage.
To answer your question though, my treatment/massage lasts as long as it takes to achieve my aims and the needs of the client, and it wont be longer than 50 mins, allowing 5 mins to prepare and 5 mins for you to get dressed and allow me to set up the room, get clean towels, and book your next appointment or dicusss after care etc.
I do however think 35 mins would be too short for subsequent sessions. Last week I assessed a student who told me that the initial seesion was 90 mins in which there was no treatment, just assessment, and 15 mins of the next session was "catch up" so it looks like you actually got a good deal.
to add free consultaions to my service would cost me 1/2 hour for each client, to allow you to dress and undress and schedule appointments outside your 1 hour appointment would mean I lose 10-15 mins per client, multiplyed by 8 per day would equate 80 - 120 mins per day, approx 5 hours per week and approx 6 working weeks per year.
Why not suggest you take a gown, change in your own time at the start and end in your car and take your own detailed medical history with you when you go, then you can have close to an hour of massage, minus the time your therapist takes reading your medical history and clarifying a number of points that you have omitted to expand on.
I dont do many full body massages, if I do I make it 75mins, that way you get 60 mins massage, but it costs an extra £8 than a normal treatment.
those therapists who partake in disount schemes are devaluing their services, and could fall foul of the taxman who frowns on such actitivies, and by the way what do you do for free for the therapist? or for complete strangers who book your services? so why would you expect the therapist to treat you for free. In this world you get exactly what you pay for IMO
the bottom line is "value for money" and obviously you felt you didnt get it, hence the reason you wont go back, perhaps giving constructive feedback to the salon/clinic would help others get a better service??
regards
BGFL
my treatments are 55 minutes or 25 minutes long.
I then have 5 minutes to go through paperwork for first timers, and then I finish the massage at 55 minutes past, that gives me time to leave them to get dressed and pay.
My clients are well behaved and know they need to be out in 5 minutes, for the "talkers" I finish at 50 minutes past, they soon get the message.
This is an old thread but I think it is worth re-reading in view of Luke's recent query. Personally, if a client books a hour's massage, then I won't book my next client until 75 minutes later: ie allowing 15 minutes of 'dead time' between clients. So my clients will get a full hour of massage unless they are very slow to undress.
Alan
Why not suggest you take a gown, change in your own time at the start and end in your car and take your own detailed medical history with you when you go, then you can have close to an hour of massage, minus the time your therapist takes reading your medical history and clarifying a number of points that you have omitted to expand on.
This would be close to my ideal.
Even better would be if the massage therapist was also a qualified driving instructor, then I could drive around for an hour getting a stress relieving massage and learning to drive at the same time. All in the £40 of course:rolleyes:
Well, we obviously all have our own way of working. If someone booked in for an hours massage with me, thats exactly what they'd get, an hour of hands on treatment. I don't consider the consultation to be a freebie as such, I just acknowlegde that for every hours massage it will need an hour & half in actual time. I have no problem with that. The client comes to me wanting just the massage work, they have no interest in the form filling, that is for my benefit. I'm sure most people would be happy to just skip all the consult bit if they were made aware that they had to pay for it. I myself recently had a full body massage at a salon nearby and was a bit miffed to realise it was over and done with in 45 minutes and she didn't even do a consultation! So needless to say I won't be going back!
Well, we obviously all have our own way of working. If someone booked in for an hours massage with me, thats exactly what they'd get, an hour of hands on treatment. I don't consider the consultation to be a freebie as such, I just acknowlegde that for every hours massage it will need an hour & half in actual time. I have no problem with that. The client comes to me wanting just the massage work, they have no interest in the form filling, that is for my benefit. I'm sure most people would be happy to just skip all the consult bit if they were made aware that they had to pay for it. I myself recently had a full body massage at a salon nearby and was a bit miffed to realise it was over and done with in 45 minutes and she didn't even do a consultation! So needless to say I won't be going back!
Absolutely spot on!
My philosophy of getting massage; as a client.
This is an old thread but I think it is worth re-reading in view of Luke's recent query. Personally, if a client books a hour's massage, then I won't book my next client until 75 minutes later: ie allowing 15 minutes of 'dead time' between clients. So my clients will get a full hour of massage unless they are very slow to undress.
Alan
Have now merged the 2 threads so all the info is on the same thread.;)
Moonfairy
HPmods
This is such an interesting debate how we all work so differently depending on the environment we are working in. I offer 25 min and 50 min massages and that is how long the massage lasts - because I'm mobile I let clients know to allow for longer as I need to set up my equipment first - do a consultation - then the full 25 or 50 mins of massage and then pack away.
I also do some work for a clinic and have a never ending problem with them booking a 30 minute or 50 minute treatment into that amount of time with no buffer time for the client to walk up stairs, get undressed etc etc. I can't quite get them to understand that if we say its a 30 minute massage that's what it should be! Thats why I'm always running late at the clinic 😮
Yup, my actual massage time is about an hour. The rest (including time to "come round" on the couch at the end) is included. Of course, the consultation part is much shorter after the first appointment, though one client told me recently that her previous therapists have never filled in forms at all after the first session!
When I was first trained, we were encouraged to do a 50-minute massage, which I guess would suit a salon where you have to get people in and out within tight time slots, but it doesn't feel long enough to me now.
This thread is very thought provoking. In Uni I was trained in a working spa so I'd have clients back to back and their 1 hr appointments would have to include consultation, un-dressing, water and feedback. So on avarage it would be 45 minutes hands-on time out of 60.
It seems from this thread most agree that its better for the client to receive the full treatment time. However, most, if not all spas, salons and hotels dont comply to this ethos and yet they have far more clients, and are able to charge tripple than than your avarage S/E therapist.