Laurel Beauty and Spa — Attraction in Melbourne

Please read all the negative reviews before booking because they are 100% accurate. Before booking, I noticed a few bad reviews but dismissed them, thinking people sometimes overreact. I chose a therapist with good reviews (Carla), but now I realize those positive reviews are fake. After my horrible experience, I rechecked the reviews and found many others with similar complaints. This is misleading and deceitful, as the business continues to offer poor service while posting fake reviews. I booked at the River Esplanade location, which is close to my home, but when I arrived, they told me I had booked at the wrong location. I rushed to the other spa and arrived at 7 PM sharp. but then I was left waiting on the massage table for 5-10 minutes, which was frustrating as I raced over to get there in time. The massage was the worst massageI've ever experienced. I booked a remedial massage for 45mins. The therapist specifically asked me where to focus on (my neck and head) but then was just wiping oil on my back with 0 pressure for like 20-30 minutes. I politely asked her to move on from my back as it was so incredibly frustrating that she was just wiping it over and over again! Then she starts aggressively and erratically crunching my shoulder bone over and over again. Like she was trying to make me suffer for making a request. And I'm extremely socially anxious i never complain and i find it hard to speak up so i ended up just crying while laying there. I felt so uncomfortable i wanted to tell her to just stop and let me leave before the massage was over but i was scared of how shed react because when I had asked her something she ripped the towel off my head and said "what?!". I felt vulnerable laying naked on a massage table with such a unprofessional person so i just layed there and endured this horrible experience. when she had finished and left the room i couldn't stop crying. I felt so disappointed and frustrated as i had wasted my money and was made to feel so uncomfortable and scared. Please do not book with this business as i fear you will endure the...

I recently used a 120-minute voucher but didn’t realize it was for a package. It would be helpful if the website (Fresha) indicated this more clearly. The package included a 60-minute relaxation massage with hot stones, a 30-minute back scrub, and a 30-minute Geisha tub session.

I arrived about 10 minutes before my 3 p.m. appointment and rang the bell, but no one answered. I waited until 3 p.m. and rang the bell again, at which point someone came out to ask about my appointment and informed me that the therapist was still busy. Based on what I observed, after I was attended to and used the restroom, only one customer had finished their appointment, and I had been waiting for at least 15 minutes. It would have been nice if someone had acknowledged the wait earlier or if there was a sign indicating that the staff was busy and asking customers to kindly wait.

Regarding the massage, while I’m not an expert, I’ve had better relaxation massages. Typically, these include attention to the shoulders, which was not covered in my session. The massage on the lower half of my body involved light strokes with very little pressure, and the hot stones were used for only 5-10 minutes.

The back scrub was alright, although my skin felt a bit dry, so it was occasionally rough during the scrub. It felt a bit messy as well, and when the back get exposed to the air, it does get cold a bit. The glove scrub that was being used, hopefully it was a new piece and not used before.

The Geisha tub was an interesting experience, but it would have been helpful if the therapist had explained how much time I had or provided a timer. The towels honestly was a little dirty with stains on it.

Overall, the experience was alright, but I was disappointed with the relaxation massage based on my previous...

I visited Laurel Spa on Friday, November 15th with a friend for a 4:45pm booking, hoping to enjoy the 90-minute pamper package, which I customised with a 60-minute massage and 30-minute back scrub. Unfortunately, the experience was so shocking and unpleasant that I almost left halfway through.

My massage was with an older lady who barely spoke English and seemed disinterested from the start. She questioned my choice of the back scrub, claiming it was essentially the same as the massage, and it quickly became clear she wasn’t putting any effort into it. Most of the massage felt like light grabbing at parts of my body. To make matters worse, she unexpectedly used hot stones, even though that wasn’t part of the package and my friend didn’t receive them. At one point, she even rubbed the scrub onto the hot stones and then onto my neck.

The back scrub was bizarre: she applied a thin, mesh-like material on top of the scrub and left me lying there for an uncomfortable amount of time. I’m still not sure if that was part of the treatment. There was a moment where she asked me to sit up and placed a towel over my head and rubbed it as if she was drying my hair, I was left sitting upright naked with a mess of my hair, still confused if this was part of the massage experience. Adding to the discomfort, she kept kicking a rolling stool around and used my arms to balance herself while moving around the table.

The experience was stressful, not relaxing, and I was left feeling exposed when she held up a towel on the opposite side of the table, fully revealing me to both my friend and her masseuse. This was by far the worst spa experience I’ve ever had, and I will not...