Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa — Local services in Philadelphia

My wife has a membership with Hand and Stone. We generally get massages at the Locust Street and Flourtown locations and we've always received excellent service. Unfortunately, last Saturday both of those locations were booked, but we were able to get a couples massage at the 20th street location. The receptionists were friendly and we were immediately escorted to the back and to our room by our therapists. Once the massage began things went downhill. My wife's therapist apparently had a cold and sniffled the entire massage. Can you imagine lying face up on a table with someone standing over your face massaging your temples while looking down at you? We all know how gravity works so you can only imagine the horrifying thought of nasal mucus possibly dripping on your face or anywhere on your body for that matter. The constant sniffling made it impossible to relax for both of us. My wife because of the obvious and me suffering from misophonia, the constant sniffling was highly annoying. The therapist eventually left the room for about 10 seconds (I'm assuming to blow her nose because the sniffling stopped after she returned). However, the therapist wasn't gone long enough to have washed her hands after blowing her nose. I know this because the couples' private sanctuary is midway down the hall and the bathroom is all the way at the end of the hall and to the left. In hindsight, we should've immediately stopped the massage. I actually really wish we had. The massage ended about 15 minutes later just as I was beginning to relax. As we exited the room my wife politely declined the water since we're pretty sure the therapist's germs were still on her hands smh. Upon checkout, we informed the receptionists of our experience. They apologized and said they would consult a manager. Moments later, a woman came over and the receptionist whispered something to her. The woman then came to the computer where we were standing, pressed a couple of keys, and walked away having said nothing. The receptionist asked if we wanted to leave a tip. When we asked about the manager she said, "oh, that was her. She waived $10." I gave the receptionist my card to tip the therapists and we left to go to our next appointment. My wife has since called this location multiple times to address the issue. She spoke to Felicia on 11/13; Brittany on 11/14; and a third call on 11/12 that I, unfortunately, don't have a record of. Both women assured her they would relay the message to the manager and her phone call would be returned, and I'm sure they did. Our calls were never returned. Finally, my wife called the Locust Street location where we are familiar with to get advice and luckily the woman volunteered to call the Logan Square location to encourage the manager to contact us. Today, as I type this, the manager finally called, AFTER having to be contacted by another manager. Her tone was quite dismissive, condescending and she was unsympathetic. She eventually waived my wife's massage, but I assure you we will never return to this location again even though it is the closest to our home. What an inconvenience! I implore you to steer clear of this location and encourage you to visit the Locust Street or Flourtown locations where you will be treated with professionalism and where your business is...

I'm very familiar with this location and after reading some of the negative comments, I thought it would be useful to provide more information. The location employs 16 massage therapists and 4 estheticians, all educated at accredited schools and licensed in Pennsylvania as required by Hand & Stone and state regulations. They keep a notebook out front where you can see their current licenses and descriptions of their capabilities. They also receive national background checks, specialized Hand & Stone technical training and ethics education.

The therapists range in experience from about a year to well over ten years, but experience isn't always the best indication of who will be the best match for your preferences. If you encounter any disappointment with your first service, just let the manager on duty know why before you leave and you will be taken care of and set you up with a better match.

The membership program is a month to month program at a very economical rate. With this program, you are never obligated for more than the next month's service and if you don't make it in in a particular month, the credit carries forward even for three months after you cancel the membership.

If not a member, a deposit is needed to hold an appointment. They are happy to record your reservation and you can call back with the card when you have privacy. This is a necessary policy to protect the therapists who are paid based on services performed, and not paid for clients who casually reserve their time and do not show.

Clients are asked to come early on their first visit to complete intake paperwork that is necessary to ensure that the services can be done safely. Sometimes services get backed up a bit because the previous client is a bit late. The spa will call you if they are running more than 15 minutes late. The business is focused on relaxation. They try to be as flexible as possible with traffic, parking, personal issues, work delays, etc. If you are on an extremely tight schedule, let them know in advance. If you feel your service was a few minutes shorter than advertised, speak to someone at checkout and you will be taken care of.

This business has done over 100,000 services in nearly 9 years and very few complaints have been recorded. Many of these complaints are valid and are handled fairly when brought to the manager's attention. Most complaints on this site are about single circumstances ... a therapist who didn't meet a client's expectations once, a service being 5 minutes short, trouble finding parking, a computer error. The business wouldn't be around if 99.9% of services weren't flawless, and if it was perfect every time, you would not find it...

I’ve had a membership here since late last year and recently decided to cancel after my last massage. As you can see I usually book an hour massage, which H&S says is actually a 50 minute massage because they reserve 10 minutes for you to get undressed and dressed. I would show up early for my appointments which were usually at 5 pm. The masseuse would call me back usually on time and ask me the same questions, if I had any injuries or problem areas they should avoid. Then they leave the room so I can get changed and by the time they come back and start my massage it’s 5:10pm. And they stop the massage at 5:50 pm. So my massages were only lasting 40 minutes, sometimes 45 minutes. On top of that I usually tip the masseuse $10 or $15. With a tip and the cost of membership that came to around $90 or a 40 minute massage.

The last straw was my last appointment. I booked two back to back hour long massages and I was only on the table for about an hour and 45. I didn’t understand that because I was already changed and on the table so it’s not like the masseuse had to wait for me to change for the second hour of the massage. I hope that makes sense to who ever is reading this. And on top of that the masseuse called me to the back at 5:06 which took another 6 minutes off the massage.

And lastly I had trouble with them taking my membership fees off of my debit card. For the first few months of my membership I had to pay in person because something on their end was wrong on my account.

Long story short, the massages are great! And I loved the facials as well. The facility is nice and there is parking available. However I DON’T see the value in having a membership when the massages are so short. If it was a full 60 minutes for an $80 massage then that would be worth it! Even if it was 50 minute massages that would be more reasonable than 40 to 45 minutes. I don’t think it’s an employee issue, but rather a business practice issue. I spoke with the manager this morning who informed me she will send the paperwork to my email address so I can cancel my membership. I will be charge an additional month, which is fine. I plan on using my left over credits at a different location to see if there is any difference, though I believe all locations say it’s a 50 minutes massage when you clearly booked an hour. I just hope the Willow Grove H&S will give me the full 50 minutes instead...