Susie Ellis, SpaFinder Insider

One of our spa trend predictions for 2009 was “Brands, brands, brands.” The recent announcement that Sheraton is adding a spa brand called Nectar (created by Spatality) is a perfect example of this trend. And I must say it seems timely – a mid-priced hotel brand adding a cool spa. How do I know that Nectar will be cool? Because Richard Dusseau and his team at Spatality designed it!

Richard (pictured on the left with his partners Elaine Fenard and Ingo Schweder) showed me some of the early drawings of the Nectar brand a few years ago. It was immediately obvious to me that this was going to be a winner. It had great design and yet was created to be efficient for the consumer and the operator which would keep costs down. He cleverly designed the sauna and steam together in a unique way and the colors he used to bring the brand to life – well, I thought I was seeing the spa of the future. Guess I was.

One of the recent press announcements about the new Nectar spa brand at Sheraton described it as “high design/low ego.” Who would have known all those years ago that this would be exactly what would resonate in today’s world?

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