Renee’s Relaxation and Body Mechanics

I purchased a couples massage Groupon to go with my best friend (my husband hates massages, he’s crazy)! The price was absolutely right, it was only $ 50 for a couples massage, but I feel now I should have realized what I was going to get for $ 50!
Booking the appointment wasn’t that bad, it was just a two turn game of phone tag which I can handle.
I’m going to preface the following with: I’m a massage therapist, so I have a fairly high standard for massage and certain massage practices.
When I booked the appointment, Renee (the owner, I’m assuming), informed me that there was an additional $ 30 fee to cover sales tax and gratuity. I let it go, because I had already bought the Groupon, but I did not like the fact that she added her gratuity into a «fee». I feel it’s shady business practice and one that will not bring returning clients through the door, but I’ll get to more on that in a minute, on to the massage!
As for the massage, it was a very basic massage, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t necessarily good either. The office is located in the City Club building and it’s a little hard to find unless you know downtown Cleveland well. The massage room was small and cramped, and it seemed like I was suffocating when I was face down on the massage table because there was a space heater fan blowing right in my face.
There were no intake forms to fill out or liability waivers to sign, which I thought was odd. I’ve always had my clients do intake forms and sign a liability waiver. The waiting area was a eating area for everyone that shares the 10^th floor in the building so I thought that was a little odd.
I had Renee and my friend had Tanya from Tanya’s Infinite Touch, I’m guessing they work together for the couples massages, they seem to share that tiny space, so I’m guessing that’s how it work out. Renee worked out some my knots, but she did some joint work that I’m normally not a huge fan of. Joint work is hard to do correctly without injuring someone, so I’m very picky as to who I allow do it on me.
She didn’t ask me if I wanted specific areas done, she just kind of did her thing, which for the massage novice is fine, but for someone who not only does massage therapy for a living, but also has had a million massages in her lifetime, I would probably be more mindful to ask if there were any specific areas to work on.
My friend thought that Tanya was too rough and had too long of nails to do massage properly. As a massage therapist, you should know that you shouldn’t wear nail polish or have long nails.
As we were leaving, I paid Renee the additional $ 30 that she stated covered sales tax and gratuity. Charging the sales tax, I completely understand, however, I don’t HAVE to give you gratuity. You have to understand in this business that gratuity is NOT required. It is always appreciated, but NEVER required. It really threw me off that they were requiring that I leave gratuity when I didn’t have to leave anything.
The funny thing is, I ALWAYS have tipped my massage therapist wherever I have gone, at least $ 20, sometimes more if the massage was amazing, but never less than $ 20 especially if I was using a Groupon. If Renee hadn’t said that gratuity was required, I would have left $ 20 each for Renee and Tanya and paid the sales tax on top of that, but because they made me obligated to give them money I didn’t have to give them, they got less.
I or my friend will not be going back, I don’t want to have to be demanded to give them more money. Oh, well, their loss.