SMILES SPA — Attraction in Hackensack

4/30/24 Update: Gave this place one last shot for the convenience. So glad I did, Mo Mo was aaaamazing. Sometimes you just get a bad seed anywhere you go. Will definitely be returning more frequently!

2/7/24 Update: 3rd time here, super disappointed. Have seen Wendy and Annie and they were spectacular. Unfortunately neither was in and when I called they said everyone was good so I was willing to try somebody new because the last two massages here were amazing. I was scheduled with Mary and I feel like I just wasted $75. It was the laziest massage I’ve ever had. No pressure whatsoever and there was a few times that I just felt like getting up and leaving. She didn’t make an effort at all. I am a hairstylist and spend all day on my feet and always get tension in my neck and shoulders and try to take care of myself and get a really good massage when I can and this did absolutely nothing. Didn’t work on my neck at all and literally just running her hands up and down, no massaging. The last 2 times the girls even stretched my body and she didn’t even do that. This experience alone makes me question if I will even go back here. So disappointed 😔

12/2023 1st time here, was going to a place in Paramus and Smile Spa definitely put them to shame. Walked in, was taken right away. Place was clean and welcoming. The tables were so comfortable, especially the face pillows. Wendy was amazing! She literally got every knot and kink out, and I didn’t even have to say anything and she just knew. She made me feel comfortable and I was beyond satisfied. This will definitely be my new massage spot for sure! So glad they opened this...

So I and my husband had a couple massage, which was okay I guess because he had a good massage therapist, but I guess I was not lucky enough that day to have one. #1 My therapist kept on giving me hard massage when I told her to keep it lighter (I think she’s new though as I see her colleague give her instructions) so I tried to understand that part. #2 The place wasn’t that quiet as you could hear people from the reception area talking #3 I was told by the receptionist that there will be additional $5 for using card as a payment eventhough I have cash for tip. I wish I’ve known that in advance, but what disappointed us more was #4 when we saw this sign saying to at least give $15 tip for medium pressure and $20 for hard pressure on each person. Our original price for the couple massage was $90, I just thought that 20% of that would be enough, I wasn’t trying to low ball, but I just think that they shouldn’t be posting that ‘cause unfortunately not all people can afford to tip that much. I know some people who will read this may say “don’t go for a massage then”, but no, everybody has the right to be pampered once in awhile, and if I know that person works hard to get one, why not?! Well, the point is I don’t think they have to tell people how much to tip, it’s embarassing and it doesn’t look good for the spa. So, just a heads up for people who don’t have too much budget for massage, their price is great, but consider how much tip they are asking. I saw good reviews for most of their therapists though so that’s one good thing...

I usually write positive reviews of the place I visit and try my best to be as honest and frank I can. Having said that, our recent visit to SMILES SPA was a mixed bag of some positives and negatives.

We had friends and family in our group. We had made advance appointments and reached the place on time but it took us about 10 minutes to get parking as the lot was full being a Saturday. We had to wait for a spot to park.

Upon arrival, the owner of the spa told us rudely told our group that we were late and she said that the massage would be only 60 minutes and she would take off the extra 10 minutes, promising us some coupons as a rain check. The massage was OK but it appeared that they were more concerned about the time than actually focusing on the massage. The worst part was that the owner started to argue about the tips we gave her for our group and demanded that we pay her more than what we initially paid plus the cost of the services.

To cut a long story short, better put your money somewhere else, if you need kind, courteous customer service where there is less hassle over finding a place to park, and then having to fight over how happy the parlor is with tips, than actually focusing on making the customer happy with...