exhale Spa Bal Harbour — Attraction in Bal Harbour Village

Extremely disappointed about my recent experience at the Exhale spa at the Ritz. Where do I start:

1. I called 2 months in advance to reserve multiple spa appointments for my 5 girlfriends coming into town to celebrate a babymoon. We had confirmations of our appointments.

When we showed up the day of our appointments, to our horror, the spa had no record of our reservations.

When we told them “Barbie” was the person we booked them through, the ladies at the front desk looked at each other and said to themselves- “oh- that’s why”- inferring that Barbie must have had a poor reputation of booking appointments. We were devastated as we looked forward to these appointments for months now.

2. While the spa was able to accommodate most of our bookings, it failed to disclose that one of the massages was a back to back booking. Thus, my 60 minute massage was actually only 45 minutes and this was NOT disclosed to me at the time I accepted the service.

I had only found out it was going to be cut short because my masseuse had a piece of paper in my massage room that outlined her schedule for the day. As I looked at it, there was going to be NO way I would be done in time for her next scheduled massage.

When I asked my masseuse if there would there be time for my full 60 minute massage, she assured me that there would be time and so we proceeded. Of course: she ended my massage at the 45 minute mark (I had checked my watch immediately before and after). I did bring this to the attention of my masseuse, annoyed because I didn’t get the full 60 minutes as agreed upon.

Upon checking out of the spa, Kara, the lady working the front desk asked how my massage was, to which I replied “Great, but I only got a 45 minute massage”.

Kara then proceeded to unprofessionally argue with me about how sometimes some people will get a shorter massage and this was normal. For $180 dollars for 60 minutes, this is NOT normal. I am paying $180 for a 60 minute massage, so cutting 15 minutes of my massage time is significant given that I was not made aware of this before.

Kara refused to make any sort of discount for this mishap & suggested I take this out of my masseuse’s tip, which she said was a mandatory 20%. I asked where was a sign or any written agreement stating that a 20% tip is mandatory at the spa. She could not produce anything that said a 20% was mandatory.

She kept suggesting that I take this out of the masseuses tip. When I said, “OK, I tip 0%”, she said “you cannot tip 0%, I cannot ALLOW you” to tip 0%.

I again, asked her to show me where it says the spa doesn’t allow a zero percent tip. She couldn’t produce anything in writing.

I am completely appalled that: 1) the manager suggest I reduce a masseuses tip for an error the spa appointing service made; 2) the manager stated that a 20% tip was mandatory and demanded such and 3) no consessions were made due to my 60 minute massage being only 45 minutes.

Not to mention, the utter disorganization that resulted in the spa forgetting to schedule our massages in the first place, even after a confirmation.

When I asked Kara to speak to a manager, she responded “I am the manager”. She then continued to escalate the situation to the point where I was extremely uncomfortable arguing with her about in front of others.

This spa experience was supposed to relaxing and pleasant. We had looked forward to it for months.

This was by far the most UNpleasant and stressful spa checkout experience of my life.

I ended up tipping my masseuse 10% because I knew it was unfair that the manager of this spa suggest that I eliminate the masseuse’s entire tip because my massage time was cut short.

For the record, I spent $660 for the experience that day and $180 of it was my 60 min massage that was unexplainably cut short to 45 minutes.

It was an extremely disappointing spa experience all around- especially for the Ritz. I left feeling very stressed and upset. Would...

Disappointing at best, although the massage was nice, at least for one of us.

Planned a spa date with my boyfriend for the first weekend of Miami Spa Month(s). We are South Florida residents, in our mid-30s. Don’t frequent spas but go 3-5 times a year as a treat, all over the US.

Here is our honest review:

THE GOOD: they were able to book us on a same day notice spa wasn’t crowded at all promotional value $139 per person was good for the day pass and 60 mins deep tissue massage. We didn’t use our free fitness classes that were also included. were able to combine our single massages specials into one room for a couples experience. my massage therapist, Noel, was really good. She made sure the deep tissue treatment was adjusted to accommodate some sore back muscles for me, and added little extras (heating pillow around my neck) to make the massage wonderful. the views of the beach and channel were lovely.

THE BAD: this spa is literally falling apart! Considering that we are inside the Ritz-Carlton this was not the experience we imagined. Broken facilities (steam room at men’s locker), leaking faucets, dirty floors, etc. Robes and towels are in poor shape. the service was shockingly bad! I mean, we get it, it’s Miami and we didn’t expect much, but to have no towels, slippers and other supplies stocked for spa guests and having to go back to front desk to ask is kind of ridiculous. When we first arrived, the front desk person seemed super confused with our reservation but she may have been new. Still, this is in the Ritz! not cleaning throughout the day. Zen lounge felt filthy and literally no one cleaned anything as things got used. Not only a poor look for an already subpar facility, but really shocking that in 4 hours we were there, things were left untouched (used towels on floors, no clean towels, etc) and it wasn’t even busy no water stations anywhere, you have to ask front desk to bring you some. At least they had the tea area. facilities are NOT co-ed, except for the zen lounge and outdoor terrace. we asked about the pool access and were told it’s not included but can be added for $200/person. Don’t waste your money! The thing is, you can actually get to the pool deck from the spa. We looked at the lounge chairs and saw the shape they were in and so glad we didn’t add that on. Insane how poorly everything was maintained.

We managed to still enjoy our time together and laugh about it. We are just glad we didn’t pay the full price for this spa and came in during the special. We’ve been to much better places for less money, like the Maui Spa in Boca is one example. Carillon Miami is also great for all the amenities they offer in a day pass, but they are yet to fully reopen.

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This was the worst spa experience I've ever had and I've been to so many in my time! The facilities are pretty bare bones for a spa at a five-star resort. Pedicures are just done in regular chairs that are awkward and uncomfortable. The Zen room is just more plain chairs. Nothing else there that makes it Zen other than music.

Their locker rooms are incredibly small. There wasn't even room to change if more than one person was changing. They weren't very clean and not well maintained.

The staff was incredibly disappointing and unprofessional. Barely anyone there even acknowledged us or was polite for the short time we were there.

We paid for a luxury pedicure. This service was supposed to be an hour and be filled with various treatments. Instead, we got a technician that rolled her eyes, ignored us, and glared at us. Instead of the hour we were promised, we got 22 minutes, with part of that being her preparing the utensils.

When we went to the desk to inquire about what happened, nobody knew what was going on. The manager didn't come out for 15 minutes while she "spoke to the technician". The technician then came out while we were waiting to find out what was going on and glared at us for 10 minutes and then yelled at her co-worker in front of us. This was the most awkward and uncomfortable situation we've ever experienced.

It was so uncomfortable we canceled our second service we had that day. We were supposed to spend the rest of the day relaxing at the pool and the beach at the hotel, but instead we couldn't wait to get out of there. The manager had no explanation as to what was going on other than the technician was being "difficult". They then acted like comping our terrible 20-minute experience was somehow enough to make up for what we went through.

They apologize for not having another technician available to finish the service. To be honest though, there's nothing they could have done to get us to stay and do another service or finish the one we had already started. I would recommend you go literally anywhere else for your spa services, especially for the prices they try to charge here. Upon leaving the facility, we saw multiple security guards and police officers coming to the spa. So not sure what exactly happened there, but this was serious.

For the record, they give you a discount for writing a positive review. The manager said it at the desk to the person in front of me when I was checking in. She then required to see the review itself in order to provide the discount. So I wouldn't really trust these comments too much saying how wonderful the...