MassageLuXe Spa opened in mid-February with “great momentum,” owner Rosalyn Brown said. But exactly five weeks after the spa opened, it temporarily shut its doors. Surging COVID-19 cases put operations on hold, leaving Brown to spa employees, make rent and pay vendors.
So when MassageLuXe reopened June 25, staging a safe and successful return to business was critical. So far, sticking to health guidelines and social media outreach has paid off.
“We’ve been booked and really, really busy since we opened,” front desk employee Domonique Maldonado said. “I guess it’s the fact that everyone’s been in their house for about three months. Everyone needs to refresh again.”
Brown said the spa’s layout — a street-level lobby above several massage rooms — gives the location “built in soundproofing.” Safety precautions make quality massage, facial and waxing services possible amid COVID-19. Guidelines across MassageLuXe locations (the spa is a franchise) call for temperature checks and frequent sanitation. At the H Street spa, one service room even serves as storage for overflow personal protective equipment.
It’s not just well-executed health procedures that are drawing customers. Offerings like a LuXe Lounge stocked with tea, coffee and water and the HydroLuXe water massage give customers a “quality experience,” Brown said.
“They can have a moment of clarity and relaxation, and really just enjoy that self-care that is hard to come by,” she said. “Our job is really to be a service to our clients.”
On spa services, Maldonado recommends facials, which she said are just “as important as massages.” Alisha Roberts, who has friends who have scheduled appointments at MassageLuXe, said she has heard only positive reviews of the spa.
Roberts promoted the spa on social media after coming across a post Brown made in a Facebook group for Black Washingtonians. Roberts, who co-founded Richard Wright Public Charter School, said she wanted to promote the Black-owned spa as it navigated reopening.
“We all were really excited to know it’s Black-owned, and it’s right on the H Street Corridor, which is such a hotbed of activity,” Roberts said.
“We’d love to have clients come in and try us out for the first time,” Brown said. “We want to provide them a sense of peace in the midst of all this chaos.”
Make an appointment at MassageLuXe online here, or call 202-558-6160. Visit the spa’s Facebook page for more information.
Eva Herscowitz is a journalism student at Northwestern University currently interning with the Hill Rag. She writes for Northwestern’s student newspaper, The Daily Northwestern. You can reach her at [email protected]
