Spa On the Plaza — Local services in Monterey

Save yourself lots of money and disappointment… Monterey deserves better than this. I’ve been to countless spas in the last 10 years and this is definitely close to the bottom of the list. The only reason I’m not giving this 1 star is because the masseuse was changed last minute and I ended up with someone slightly better.

When I booked my massage I said I only want my arms massaged. Yes it’s not typical but I had my reasons. Then the day of the appointment, as I’m checking in, I’m told the masseuse wants to do full body and won’t just do my arms because it’s a long time to spend on just arms. Sorry but when I’m paying almost $200 I should get to decide where on my body the masseuse does and doesn’t work on. My body, my rules. It was so uncomfortable and awkward for this to be mentioned only while I’m checking in when other people were listening and not beforehand. Why didn’t they call me beforehand? Why did it come up at the last minute? The front desk staff needs training on this.

Just to reiterate how weird this is, I’ve been to close to 20 different spas across the price range and I’ve never once had a masseuse tell me they want to massage more than what I’m asking to be massaged. Yes I finally ended up with a masseuse who was much more accommodating (again this is the only reason I’m giving it an extra star) but the way the front desk/management handled this was really disappointing. It made me frustrated through the entire experience when I was there to relax. For example I shouldn’t have to explain that I have a skin issue on a large area of my body or that I’m uncomfortable with a stranger rubbing parts of my body, or maybe I have injuries I’m trying to avoid pressure on. Again, I’m paying hundreds of dollars, and it’s my body! I could have gone to any of the smaller non-hotel spas 3-4 times for the price I paid for one bad experience here.

Also factoring into my 2 star rating are the attached photos. Broken steam room, making the only amenity a shower. Dirty, worn out areas. Tiny little dressing room. One urinal. Weird bells they put on your key that makes noise every time you move. This is not anything close to luxury… there are much better options in Monterey. Here the spa has a captive audience a la the hotel and I’m here as an unofficial guide to spas in Northern California to tell you that this is one...

Came with my husband on a weekend getaway for our anniversary. Had heard great things and were excited to check this place out. From the beginning, it was rough. We arrived 20 mins in advance of our appointment time, to be told there were no lockers available. We had to wait in the lobby for 30 mins to even be taken back.

Next up, we had a couples massage and private bath. My therapist (Lulu) wore gloves. Nothing like a $500 treatment and being treated like you're dirty. I am not dirty, but when your therapist gloves up, it really wrecks the vibe.

Then came the checkout fiasco. They left some teenage kid behind the desk alone. He kept mentioning it was his first day and that he'd been "verbally assaulted" all day and how much he "hates weekends". He was so flustered, and we felt sorry for him. But he could not figure out how to check us out. Nothing like being held hostage for a solid 45 minutes for a service you are willing to pay for.

There were a lot of other issues. The steam room was broken. My husband‘s therapist kept yawning and sighing throughout his service. When we were stuck at the checkout, I asked if she could please help the young man so that we could be checked out and leave. She literally went behind the desk, made sure that she was getting credit and would be paid and then dipped out. No help whatsoever.

There are many other spas in the area. Do yourself a favor and give one of them your money. Will not be back.

Note: we called them repeatedly for the four days after our treatment to try to resolve this. They kept telling us a manager would call us back, which did not happen. They literally actively dodged taking any accountability. I thought that was also worth sharing.

One of the receptionists I spoke with also told me that my therapist was wearing gloves because she has eczema. That, in my opinion, for a high-end spa service should have been disclosed, and I should have been given a choice of whether or not I wanted to...

I had an absolutely horrific experience here with my wife over this past weekend for our anniversary. I have to start this review by saying that I literally never leave bad reviews for people. I’m the kind of person where if my food at a restaurant comes and it’s not what I ordered. I just eat it because I don’t like to stir the pot however I must voice my opinion here about my experience. From the beginning to the end, this is by far the worst massage Experience that we have ever had the front desk staff was completely rude and kept saying that he hates weekends because apparently they overbooked that day and couldn’t accommodate us by the time we walked in. My wife had a massage where her masseuse wore rubber gloves she said the whole massage reeks of latex, and you could hear the rubber gloves the whole time. I was wondering, even myself on the table next to her what was going on it sounded really weird. At the end, the front desk person could not figure out how to ring us out and kept us there for over 45 minutes. We had to leave to get our dog and come back and actually pay once he was able to get his bearings. The worst part about this is we tried to voice our concern to the staff and have had promises of a “manager” That was supposed to call us to rectify this situation however, at this point it’s been a few days and it does feel like they are just ducking us. We had high hopes of this spa as it was recommended to us by friends however it ended up being one of the worst experiences we’ve had at a spa. I understand that everyone has off nights, so I thought were the case and apology would be due and accepted however, they have just completely ignored us and such a bummer to see a spa praying on people like that That are there to celebrate such a...