THAI SPA PAVILION Farmington Hills — Attraction in Farmington Hills

Having a Thai Spa Pavillion staff member tell me "the default massage we give to most customers [without telling them] is not a thai massage" with "Thai Spa Pavillion" in giant human-sized letters directly behind them as they say this to me, is kind of a surreal experience, and not in a good way.

We visited here today, booking was very easy and the staff were kind, but that's it. We booked a couples' massage and were excited to try this place based on the reviews. The atmosphere seemed more premium than a similar thai massage place that gives great thai massages not far from this location. We were hoping to get a great atmosphere plus a great thai massage, but that didn't happen for us.

This wasn't a Thai massage like we expected. Nor like other thai massage places we've visited nearby or in Thailand. It was mainly light touching and gliding. When asked if the massage received was a thai massage, because it felt more like a light Swedish massage, we were told the default massage they give is not a thai massage... So what we received was a swedish massage or combination massage of some kind (it was never fully explained what we actually got and no receipt due to an upcharge if you didn't pay with cash, zelle, or venmo). It was never explained to us that we would not receive a thai massage when we booked nor told to us when we checked in.

My partner said the effort given on his massage was ok, for mine I felt minimal effort was given. Maybe they're having an off day and we're not experiencing them at their best but me and my partner agreed that even if it was a Swedish massage, it wasn't a good Swedish massage either. My partner was never asked about his points of pain nor what pressure he'd prefer. I was asked by my masseuse. After the massages, we were not asked if our massages were ok, they just asked for payment straight away. We had to proactively give respectful feedback that we thought we were supposed to get a thai massage, and the staff member seemed unphased that our reasonable expectations weren't met.

We still tipped, on top of our service, but it wasn't because they did a good job. That's just general service etiquette we try to honor. We'd be open to revisiting if the staff took more accountability on ensuring we're getting what we were expecting, but based on the reaction we got from providing feedback, we're not hopeful that will happen. Very disappointed with their service, but we wish them well.

They may give great thai massages, but we'll never know. We do know that they don't give good swedish/combination massages for our tastes. If you do want a thai massage from here, make sure you specifically...

We purchased a couple’s massage package with salt cave therapy.

Pros- ambiance of the location. Massage of hands arms, feet and legs. Non talkative masseuses.

Cons- significant language barrier, we did not understand each other well. I have no problem with heavy accents, but I was concerned that they didn’t understand that my husband has an injured hip. There was no questions about areas of concern before we started and my husband’s hip could have been injured because of the weight of the masseuse, who spends the first few minutes completely on you with their entire bodies. I had to speak up when I heard him grunting.

I’m not sure if they are trained in how to massage back and shoulders. In the past I can tell when a Massuese clearly knows the anatomy of these muscles, this was not my experience here. My husband and I both agreed that our massages felt very amateur.

My masseuse abruptly left right in the middle of my massage for at least 3 minutes, which disrupted the calm feeling, and the time was not added to the end of the massage.

They didn’t look at our order and had not realized we had paid for the salt cave. So the heat had not been turned on, as we were the first ones in the building. The cave was extremely cold. The cold was horrible, we didn’t even want to stay in there, but we pushed through for the therapeutic benefits. I suffer from allergies and am congested and the salt therapy did seem to alleviate some of my symptoms. The cave has potential to be an amazing zen location, but the wall needs to be repaired and a good clean up of the seats prior to having paying customers come in.

I brought cash and wanted to pay the rest of the tip on credit card. My masseuse kept acting like she did not understand the amount of my tip, and kept trying to up it. I had to tell her several times the amount to charge my card. She did not hide her look of disappointment. I was leaving more than 15% tip, which I thought was very generous, especially since we weren’t given the care and consideration we should have been to begin with.

I would not come...

I had an honestly traumatizing experience here. I do not believe my massage therapist was in any way trained or licensed. I've been getting massages for several years from many different places, and I have never experienced anything as painful or violating as this. If I hadn't been in such a state of shock over what happened I would have left after less than 10 minutes.

The massage started with my feet being rubbed down with a wet cloth, which was odd, but I was dealing with severe back pain so I tried to keep an open mind. The next thing that happened was the woman giving me the massage climbed on top of me, on her hands and knees. I was absolutely shocked. She gave no warning or indication about what she was going to do, and she did not ask if I was okay with her climbing onto me, which I absolutely was not. I specifically did not book their Thai massage option, so even if that is a normal part of Thai massage, I did not request that service.

The rest of the massage was extremely rough. The woman put her full body weight on me while using her elbow, and spent the rest of the massage either applying little to no pressure, or agonizing amounts to the point that I think I'm going to have bruises. At one point, when using hot stones, she left one in the crevice of my buttocks, which was extremely unsettling. At multiple points she rubbed me down with wet washcloths, which left me shivering and damp. When the massage was over she left me in the dark and I had to feel my way across the room to find the light.

I am speechless over this experience. I wish I would have complained when I was there and refused to pay, but I was honestly completely aghast at what I experienced and I wanted to leave as quickly...