Winners of The Daily Herald’s Easter Egg Hunt are in for a luxurious treat. Indulgence by the Sea, the exclusive sponsor, has consistently been voted number one spa on the island in our annual “Best Of” series. Business is better than ever for St. Maarten’s favourite spa, a feat hard to imagine just over a year ago, facing the stark aftermath of Hurricane Irma.
Indulgence by the Sea celebrated two anniversaries last month – 15 years of business in St. Maarten, and 16 in Aruba.
The company first set up shop at Divi Little Bay Beach Resort, where it remains in business, and also operated in Oyster Bay Resort from 2009. However, it was forced to shut down its Oyster Bay location after the hurricane.
In fact, the spa’s owner and director, Angela Wallace, who flew in from Aruba on the first commercial flight available after the hurricane, came with the idea that both locations would have to be shut down.
She can remember like yesterday the collective gasp of fellow airline passengers as the plane came in for landing at Princess Juliana International Airport, around a month after Irma struck. Everyone was speechless. “Going through security, driving through the island, no one said a word,” she told The Weekender.
Heading straight to the resort, she was greeted by colleagues, Resort CEO Marco Galaverno, and Chief Engineer Barry Richardson. The spa seemed all but destroyed and was full of water, sand and seaweed. Divi Little Bay had also been converted into a military base.
Considering all the devastation the island faced, Wallace was sure there wouldn’t be a market for spa services, even if the physical structures could be recuperated.
The local market, which she had made a point of targeting over the years, was in need of food, water, shelter and getting their lives back. The tourist market was worlds away.
However, her connection to St. Maarten and the spa’s employees facing an uncertain future kept Wallace from calling it quits on business on the island.
While she couldn’t keep all employees or both locations, she placed six of her most passionate and longest standing colleagues under one roof at Divi. Indulgence by the Sea reopened on December 1, 2017. While the spa at Divi seemed a total loss at first, cleaning, repairing and replacing what was lost proved manageable. After deliberation, the decision was ultimately made not to reopen the Oyster Bay spa – a caved in ceiling, extensive water damage, and mould proved too much for the company.
Wallace was caught by surprise one day, when a distant light over the water turned out to be an incoming cruise ship. Visitors were returning to the devastated island. Soon after opening, schedules were fully booked and many people came in to purchase gift certificates. A man from the first cruise ship came for a massage, and even took a taxi to an ATM and back, so that he could enjoy a massage that very day.
A picture was posted of the team for a Valentine’s Day article, and loyal customers, delighted to see them, phoned in from abroad. The core team, many of whom had been working for Indulgence by the Sea for over 10 years, had become the trusted faces of the business, and loyal visitors now knew where to find them.
In February 2018, Indulgence by the Sea reinstated their popular “dollars to guilders” promotion and kept it up for an entire year. “The local market is the reason we’re still in business. We’re grateful, and happy to give back in any way we can,” Wallace said.
In February this year, the company saw its highest sales, across locations. “It’s incredible! Imagine where we were a year ago, just trying to survive. Imagine if we’d have closed down.”
Deciding to stay and try turned out to be the best decision. After reopening with six staff members, the number has now grown to 10. Indulgence by the Sea was voted St. Maarten’s best spa once again for the latest “Best Of” publication by The Daily Herald.
Offers include full body exfoliation, facials, manicures, pedicures, hot stone massages, deep tissue massages and waxing. Interested in booking an appointment? Call 1 (721) 542-9024 or 542-2333 extension 3280.
