Author:
nikoleta
Cruise Ship Veteran
I worked two contracts for Canyon Ranch Spa. First on the Celebrity Eclipse, and the second on Celebrity Silhouette. In two days, I’ll be at Silhouette again. There is both accurate and inaccurate information written here at crew forum about this company. Some people can not stand the pressure of working in the spa.
By many things Steiner is still better company, but according to some, Canyon Ranch is better.
Genuine Canyon Ranch is on the Regent, Oceania and QM2. Canyon Ranch is very similar to Steiner on Celebrity Cruises ships only. The reason is Celebrity company itself, which puts pressure on CR to reach high selling targets. Although Celebrity’s guests earlier complained about Steiner and agreed to another spa company, which does not pops up everywhere, it is hard to do business differently. Celebrity prefers targets, Canyon has tried to be different from Steiner, but their system is not working for Celebrity.
So they turned, unfortunately, to already proven Steiner’s business model, which is to push guests to the maximum, push sales and everything else. Many massage therapists who worked for the Steiner before, including myself, are very disappointed with the system. We ran away from Steiner, and now it’s all the same, just a company name has changed.
I’m sure you will comment … Look, she rebels, but gets back to ship again and again !!!
That’s right, I’m going back to work again.
I live in Serbia, where I can expect to be paid in a spa around € 300-500, while onboard it’s still much more. I love my job. On board, I pull my socks up and live month by month. That’s how I survive the whole contract and I hope that I will soon say; “This is really my last contract.”
I’ve worked for Canyon Ranch for 7 years on all the lines they operate on. Yes things are different on celebrity and targets are higher. But you all need to remember its a businesses and the main purpose is to make money. The effort needed to bring in money on other lines like Oceania is easier and the line will not allow staff to promote in guest areas. On Celebrity this needs to be done because the spa is fighting for the guest attention because of all the other revenues department s taking money from guest such as restaurants photo shop shore ex and so on. On Oceania and regent you don’t have art dealers photogs and a small shop so their isn’t so much completion and all speciality restaurants are free. So the guest have more money to spend in the spa.
I worked for Steiner Ltd. on Disney cruise line since 2010; and now I am about to finish my first contract with Canyon Ranch on Celebrity.
The pressure is the same target driven and that’s because of the cruise lines. It does not matter if you work for Steiner Ltd. or Canyon Ranch either way it’s the the cruise line that pushes them to hit targets set out so they have to push their staff.
I will tell you one else thing though…
Steiner Ltd. is way more affordable with their treatments so they get more bookings to retail more and they have a small selection of products limiting the guests choices.
Canyon Ranch is the opposite.
At the end of the day it’s a job the hours are log in any company/department on board any cruise line. It’s not for the weak and the people who can’t retail and are not driven to push themselves.
Did you mean canyon ranch is not for the weak
Which is good…salary wise…..Canyon ranch or steiner.
As I said in my other post, I can only speak about Steiner, so have no idea about Canyon Ranch.
There is a safety net payment of $800 a month, which is the minimum you earn.
Mostly it’s commission based, different cruise lines set different commission rates.
Sometimes you get comission as a percentage of the treatment cost, which can be 2/3/4% all treatments have a service charge which they call “auto gratuity” this can be upto 20%.
For example, if a treatment is $200 and your commission rate is 2%, and “auto gratuity” is 18% you receive $4 from your commission and $36 from the “auto gratuity”.
It it worth while baring in mind the “auto gratuity” isn’t included in the treatment cost, so a treatment that is $200 will actually cost the guest $236, often this is not completely clear in the price lists.
Coming back to the $800 safety net payment, the reason I say safety net, not basic rate is, if you make $400 one month, Steiner top it up to by $400 to $800, the same as if you earn $600, it is topped up to $800 by $200, if you earn $1,100, steiner do not pay you any extra.
I almost forgot, retail commission is 9% on every product you sell.
Also, I never worked out which one of these was right.
The training academy told me that the company takes the commission from the $35 of services and of retail per day to go towards board and lodging, which only works out about $1.40 a day.
A manager told me that wasn’t correct, it is only from your retail.
Then another manager told me that wasnt correct either, it was only on services.
Still to this day I have no idea, but one thing I did get used to very quickly was being told different things all the time by different people who were all convinced they were right.
How much money do you make per month with Canyon Ranch? Do they pay a base salary? Do you get to keep your tips if they aren’t paid in cash?
I can’t speak for Canyon Ranch, but I did 2 contracts and 3 charters on seperate ships with Steiner, or OneSpaWorld as it is now.
I do think it all depends on the ship, your manager and your colleagues.
On my first ship the Norwegian Spirit, I loved it, it was hard work and as it was my first contract I was told they were “going easy on me” but I did find at times, my best was never good enough, we had a representative from the Miami office in and I sold just $500 of products for the first time, feeling good about this I told my manager who passed it on to the head office rep, intead of a well done, I was asked why it wasn’t $1,000, when I said my guest didn’t want anything else, I was told, she could have done it. This kind of pushing doesn’t encourage you to work hard.
In my second contract I got so fed up with things like other therapists taking treatments out of my column, even if they were re-bookings or requests, being told, oh, they changed there mind and wanted a different therapist, but after politely enquiring with the guest, I found out they had been told I was busy. I expected long hours and that wasn’t a problem, I have no issue with working hard, but it just seemed like I was always IPM (In Port Manning) on my off time, which is not an easy thing to get out of, seeing the world through a window is not the same as seeing it for real, so as much as I have many great memories, in the end they were outweighed by the bad sadly, which led me to quit.
Ist true that as a massage therapist or any staff from steiner should do the cashiering as well?? I mean the therapist is the 1 who make billing also??.coz in our training with steiner..they teach and tell us that we are the 1 who make the cashiering as well..im just thinking maybe we are very busy and always in rush to make the cashiering evert other guest then the other guest for massage us already there waiting…like a back to back booking..pls enlighten me..tnx