Bana Spa — Local services in New York

Simply, do not come here. This is 0 stars. Although experience is always subjective and can vary from person to person, one unmistakable fact is that the owner Alma has no genuine customer service skills. She was rough, inattentive and extremely unprofessional from start to finish. Additionally her appearance was not only worrisome but confusing. Her hair was barely combed and it truly looked like she had just rolled out of bed and landed at the front door of her spa.

Before I give my review let me just tell you a little about myself: I have gotten massages at many places throughout Astoria. Although I am an avid reader of Yelp reviews and reviews in general, I do not leave reviews. However this experience was so terrible I absolutely have to share it.

I called to make an appointment for 4 people. I spoke with Rose. I asked her if it would be a problem for all 4 to be attended at the same time and Rose assured me it would not be no problem and even recommended the sauna with the tissue massage for my mom. Her enthusiasm and interest made me excited for our spa day.

The night before another lady calls me to confirm. I clarify it is 4 people & run through what each person will get. I ask again if we will be attended at the same time and I was told yes. The next day we go in. They do not take your temperature for covid, you do not fill out a form for covid and there is no health form for the sauna. I was given my 1 hour massage and got transferred to the facial room which was cold, dirty and exposed. You can see the cars and sidewalk outside and the outside can see you. It's next to the waiting area and whoever sits there can see you through the bamboo separator. I waited for 20 minutes & then heard my sister come up to ask about her body wrap. She had been waiting in the sauna for an hour and now the owner was stating that the scrub & wrap are 2 separate services although on their website it's listed as 1. The owner was loud, rude and dismissive towards her. The owner then stomps in an out of the facial room 2 times. Then comes in, does not say hello & just starts working on me. Her phone went off twice and both times she stopped her service to attend to her phone. She scrubbed my face extremely and unpleasantly hard. I did not say anything but let her work. She applied a clay mask and left. 40 minutes later my sister and cousin are dressed in the waiting area & we're talking through the bamboo. I discover THEY BOTH WERE IN THE SAUNA FOR OVER AN HOUR WITH NO WORD OF ANYTHING AND DID NOT RECEIVE THEIR MASSAGE. I now just want to pay & leave & I ask the masseuse to take off the clay mask. The masseuse asks me how come the owner hasn't finished the facial which added to the terrible service. I get dressed in this exposed area and go to the front desk to pay. I ask for the owner so I can let her know that what I was told on the phone did not match the service and to possibly ask for a discount or gift certificate since 2 out of 4 people did not get their massage. The lady at the front tells me she is in the back with a client & can't come. At this point we decide we will not pay. We tipped the masseuse who was good and left. The owner then runs after us and calls the police. We go back to the spa and pay. While we pay she is taking pictures of us and LOCKED US INSIDE. She said whoever made the appointment "HAD NO BRAIN" that it's "1 person per hour". She told the police on the phone that she does not "want to catch a disease from us". The police comes. I tell them the above and we left. The owner was not interested in providing good service or talking to us at all. I BROUGHT IN A LOT OF BUSINESS & during these struggling times it is not for AN OWNER OF A SPA to behave the way she did. I am surprised this is still open for BUSINESS. Her crazy appearance matches her crazy mentality. She acted and spoke like an unwell person who is unfit to run a business.

I would advise you to save your money and take it to another business who is actually decent and kind and care about providing the best service to...

If I could give this place 0 star I would. The owner is very unprofessional and doesn’t provide good costumer service. She is rude, aggressive and very unprofessional. I’m surprise that she is still Open for business. The place was dirty and my experience in this establishment was horrible. The don’t follow any COVID rule. My temperature was never taken, They never asked or care to learn if I had any health related problem. I came here for girls day with my family and as soon we got there the environment was not welcoming, there was confusion about our reservation and what we were getting done. There was no place for us to leave our coats so it was offered to us to leave our belongings in the lobby and then walked to the sauna which is in a basement ( I felt like I was walked to the dungeon). The place was dusty and looked like it was under construction or unfinished. The curtains of the changing room was so dirty that every time I closed it I could see the dust coming out. We were left in the sauna for over an hour and every time we’d ask about our massages, the were no answer given because it was only the masseuse around and she was given a massage to one of my cousins. When the masseuse finally came down to get us, she took me to a very cold room towards the back of the place. The room was bright and very cold. They didn’t have a place to put my clothes so she told me to place it in a messy room with a chair. I waited in that room for more that 45 mins. So when I finally decided to go outside to ask about my service I find the owner and asked her but she didn’t care to address the situation or tell me that it might take a while because it’s only one person doing all of us ( which we didn’t know) but she just kept on walking and went straight to the room I was and started changing the towels. By then I was very tired, annoyed and hungry so I put on my clothes and went to the front desk to pay. I waited there for a while and nobody showed up. Neither my cousin or I ended up getting what we wanted. When it was time for all of us to pay we requested to talk to the owner because the little professionalism that we received from her was unacceptable. We were expecting a more welcoming environment. We wanted a discount or something for all the troubles and we do feel we should of gotten one but she refused to come out to talk to us because she was with another client but I bet she just didn’t want to confront us so we left without paying and it’s funny that’s when her other client is not so important that she decided to chaise us in the street and called the police. We went back to the place to pay but she refused to let us back in because she just wanted us to get arrested. While we were walking in that’s is when she was enforcing the COVID rule “6 feet” because she was “afraid” that we were contagious and had a disease but we didn’t listen and went in to pay and that’s when she locked us in and started taking pictures of us so I reminded her that we could sue her for that action so every time I turned around she would turn and hide her phone and would call us names. I don’t understand how this place is still open and I feel bad for their only masseuse cause her boss is really unprofessional and is driving business away from her. And by the way, an owner should be more presentable and behave like one. Your should dress more profesional and there is something called hair salon and a perm because having your hair look that crazy on a Saturday says a lot about your personality. If you don’t care about looking presentable for your clients and business tells me a lot about the woman you are and I’m not one to be putting another woman down but ma’am you need help! Just so you know you could of gotten arrested if you had the guts to repeat what you said to the...

In response to the owner’s response:

no one was tackled or forced back into the establishment by the police. It took the police a good 10 mins to arrive TO the establishment. They heard our side of what happened right outside of the building when they asked us to come outside because Alma Martinez, the owner, locked us inside. They dismissed us because we had a receipt of payment. The cop almost arrested you for calling in a false claim and for verbally attacking them after you didn’t get what you wanted: to get us arrested. To be clear, again, I did not schedule a massage, I scheduled a Body Wrap and Sauna. I only paid for the Sauna which was $15 for 20mins. I did not get the body wrap because You and your staff left half off my party waiting in the sauna for 2 hours.The staff brought us to the sauna and didn’t return. No one came to escort us out and redirect us to the so-called bohios. The owner, Alma Martinez, never came when called upon so we could discuss the matter amicably. Instead she LOCKED US IN THE LOBBY + Wouldn’t let us out. We had our receipt in hand. We have proof.

No waivers were administered for health issues either. No worries Alma Martinez, your business was reported to the city for violations of COVID regulations and health standards.

Zero Stars!! Horrible customer service, administration and NO COVID PRECAUTIONS WERE FOLLOWED (we realized this after we had left). From the moment we walked in (4 ladies excited for a girls/mommy’s day out) it was a movie. A bad one!From the moment we checked in, the lady seemed nervous. Looking back I now know that she knew what was about to happen. When 4 women go to a spa they schedule it so they can start and finish at the same time. But they scheduled us one after the other. my sister had a two hour appointment; my mom, cousin and I, 1.5 hours each. They placed the three of us in the sauna to wait until the 2 hour appointment was over. Naturally, we grew impatient and started asking questions and realized there was ONE lady for all of us. We made our appointment a week in advance and had two confirmations in between up to the day before. The establishment was well advices by us of the services and the amount of people coming and what was expected. Once there, the owner would not come out to talk to us and try to rectify. I was in the sauna for 1pm to 2:30pm when I decided to change into my clothes. I waited in the waiting area to pay for my sauna, and there was no one in sight. I left to get some coffee, returned and still no one came to check. When someone finally came, a lady named Grace, she asked me if I was still going to get my deep tissue massage. I was there for a body wrap + scrub (also the service I reserved was not what they advertised and that was an issue too to get clarification on that from the owner). The whole experience was stressful. None of us were happy. We walked out after paying the masseuse directly for services rendered to half the party. After leaving. We noticed the owner chasing us down the street. She finally had time for us after denying to come see us. She called the cops. We returned and got our receipt from the staff at which time she proceeded to LOCK THE FRONT DOORS, Insult us, and started to unlawfully record us.

We walked away upset that we ended up doing the right thing: showing up to a small business to support during these difficult times, and paying for...