Rock Spa & Salon — Attraction in Atlantic City

Unfortunately, my stay here started off grand, but ended on a sour note.

My cousin and I planned this weekend to get my mom and aunt away on a mini vacation. We thought that this trip to Atlantic City would be great and would bring back many memories we had as children making the same trip.

I immediately signed up for the Wild Card rewards so that we could get points and do this every other month. Our first night was great. We spent most of it on the boardwalk, the ocean, and even got on the wheel for old times sake.

The second day is when it went downhill.

We planned a day at the spa. I decided to go to the pool and sundeck instead. Upon making the spa appointment, we asked what the “Service Charge” was and the lady on the phone explained that it was the tip included (my mom was not in on this phone call). My mom, aunt and cousin went to the spa and spent well over $500.

Anyway, I had explained to my mom what the lady said over the phone. However, when she went to pay, she was confused. She asked the lady at the desk if the tip was included and the lady never responded Yes or No, she just told her the name of the person that performed her massage. So, my mom tipped 20% on top of the 18% that was already included.

The lady never stopped to explain to my mom that the “Service Charge” included the tip and if she wanted to tip additionally, she could. Instead, she let my elderly mom tip on the total price including the service charge and not the original price of $139.

This really upset me.

Why would you not take the time to explain to an elderly person that is confused about the pricing. My mom was looking for the word “Gratuity/Tip” and thought the service charge was an additional fee that they just tagged on.

When I asked to speak to a manager, Anthony Adams claimed he needed to do an investigation. When he came back, he said that the “Service Charge” included a “Commission” and not a “Gratuity” and that my mom left a “Gratuity” on her own.

Now, he must have thought I was stupid. I know we used the word “tip” in our phone call and the lady explained it was included, NOW it’s a “Commission” which is separate from a “Tip/Gratuity”. So the person who performed the massage go an 18% commission and a 20% tip based off the total price including her commission………38% profit.

They knew what they were doing with my mom. Had my mom known, she still would have left a tip on top of the commission to make it a 20% profit.

If this is a high-end salon, you explain to people what they are paying for and you don’t take advantage. Its not the money, it’s the principle.

“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both” Dwight D....

On a girl's week, me and my BFF each had two treatments on different days. My favorite was the 80 minutes hot stone massage with the scalp massage add on. Jackie was absolutely incredible and brought me relief from aches and pains that have been nagging me for a while. I will definitely be back to see her again!

The atmosphere is great, clean and with ample space for changing by the lockers. There is one small changing room if you're shy about changing in front of people.

They have plenty of water, plus trail mix, fresh fruit, tea, personal items such as disposable hair brushes and toothbrushes, even disposable panties you can wear during body treatments if you don't want to get you underwear or bathing suit messed up with oils or lotions, and even deodorant, hairspray and gel.

They had robes to fit my big plus size body, as well as extra large bath sheet size towels. I appreciate the size inclusivity!

NOTES: Booking was challenging. The website does not appear to be updated regularly and had different Services listed in different places, none of which lined up exactly with the services you could choose from trying to book online. We ended up calling and booking with a person on the phone, and they still screwed up both of our reservations for the second spa treatment. This caused our last day to be chopped up and rearranged for 4:30 spa appointments when we were originally scheduled much earlier in the day. Even having our confirmation numbers was not helpful. There is a flight of stairs between the locker room and the treatment rooms. This may not work for all clients and I am not sure if they have an elevator to make it accessible. They include an 18% service charge which goes to the massage therapist, and if you want to tip on top of that for excellent service you can do so at checkout. It was challenging to get loyalty points for our spa services, but that was a theme throughout the Hard Rock where none of the departments seem to know much about the Unity Rewards program and you get different information every single time you asked. The players club, who issues the Unity Rewards cards, was not any more helpful nor any more consistent in the three separate visits we made there trying to figure things out. Oh, and even if you have a Unity Rewards number, you must show the hard plastic card and your photo ID to get loyalty points.

5 stars for excellent massage therapists in a clean calm and well-equipped facility. 3 stars for booking and checkout experiences. 2 stars for the Hard Rock Unity...

I recently went for a spa day for my birthday with a friend. Overall the spa is lovely and I enjoyed the facilities however there were things that I did not care for and made the experience a bit disappointing. For at least the first 10 mins of my spa appointment, I was forced to sit through aroma oils and foot scrub upcharges. I stated I get migraines and don't wish to use any fragrant products. I was still forced to smell them even after I said no. After the 3rd or 4th one I think she got the point. I paid a lot of money for an 180 min massage, I shouldn't feel forced to get something else or waste my message time setting through this. But I did feel like I had to pick something so I agreed to a foot scrub at an additional charge. I also was told repeatedly that this was a Swedish massage and the pressure would be light to medium and if I wanted more pressure then I needed to book at deep tissue massage. I said I was fine with medium pressure but again was told that I would not be getting deep pressure and I again said that was fine. My friend and I compared experiences afterwards and she did not have the same experiences at all. Not sure why I had to listen to up charges and be lectured on the pressure of the massage.

When I went to check out I was told a 20% service fee was added to the bill but that this was not GRATUITY. I asked what it was for and was told it was to pay the workers for the services I was getting. This confused me since I was paying a lot for this massage. $36 was added to my bill on top of the $179 for the massage. I have to pay the employees on top of what I paid for the massage? I was then asked what I wanted to leave for gratuity. I asked if the masseuse would get any of the service fee. I was told that it was not gratuity and if I wanted to leave gratuity. I did not care for how I was talked to or the reason. It just didn't make sense to me. For these reason, I don't think...