BAO Foot Spa — Local services in Santa Monica

Just received a call from the manager, Piron. It was a relief to speak with him to advise him of what happened last night per below. He was very concerned and spent a lot of time discussing with me what happened and how to rectify this with his staff and for future clients. I'm satisfied with his handling of the situation and have raised the rating back up to a 3. After I recover from the injuries suffered from last night, I will again try a female for a more gentle and much more healing massage. They will also speak to the masseuse, Lou, who injured me last night. So after I am able to receive another massage if it warrants it I will raise the rating level for this establishment. This is not likely to happen for a couple of weeks FYI.

After speaking with management at front desk I decided to give this place another try last night. I explained repeatedly before I went, at the front desk and spoke with a therapist in front of the receptionist about my delicate Health this year and being a disabled senior the need for being treated very carefully. Instead, the therapist named Lou, was very rough and very hard. I was squirming pushing his hand off of certain points and told him "not so hard" and ended up being terribly bruised and sore Beyond belief. I asked him why he kept working on me so hard and he said he thought I said to work on Me Harder. Obviously there is a need for better communication as he is not a primary English speaker. I said all of this in front of the receptionist and explain to him again what it happened and how horrible it was to be treated so roughly after being hospitalized and bed-bound most of this year simply because supposedly the therapist does not speak adequate English. I have contacted the manager to have a meeting so we will see how things go. I have 15 more treatments prepaid for treatment but I'm afraid to go in to even get worked on my legs and feet primarily as I had indicated I desired last night. When you are dealing with people whose language skills are not primarily good in English, and it concerns your health, I guess you just cannot be too careful unfortunately. Two very bad experiences compared to one that was okay. Not looking so good for this organization. I'll let you know what happens after I speak with the manager Piren.

I have purchased a series of the expensive body massages about 8 years ago and what I went to get massage last year found out that they had lowered all the prices by almost half so there was no value in getting their series of treatment. Along with that, everything is by rote and there is no finessing for finding any areas in your body even if you try to explain it's like Cookie Cutter body massage with no real therapeutic really experienced as at most other places. Although they have the strength, it would be great if they actually felt the tissues and listen to you. Perhaps language is a barrier as English is not their first language.

I upped the rating of star because the manager for the establishment read my review and offered suggestions to help make my future experiences more meaningful, helpful and beneficial. When I'm able to go back I will again revisit my review because I really appreciate input from the owner or manager of an establishment and who pays attention to the customers...

Literally would give 1 star if I could... paid for an hour combination massage and reflexology... what I got was a guy rubbing my foot downwards, contunually. It was all very fast and not fluid at all. I was out in under an hour (even though I paid for an hour... so I got roofed off there too, not that I wanted it to continue any longer). I brought up my concerns with the guy at the desk (which was unattended when I walked in so I stood there for 3 minutes waiting for a therapist to notice me you actually had to leave his message client to go get someone to help me out) who was not their when I walked in and he just said "ok... itll be $35" like "thanks for your feedback... now pay me". Its not like i was after a free massage or anything i was just truly confused as to the service id received. I could have said (and should have said) something during the service but they had a towel over my head (literally), the guy spoke little English, I didn't want to disturb the other customer laying 4 feet away from me and, to be honest, I was kind of hoping that at any moment it was going to get better... though it just didn't. If someone had have been there at reception when I had entered the premises I would have asked what the service entailed so as I knew what I was getting. I mean, I should be straight forward. It says 40 minutes reflexology, 20 minutes massage. It was a jumbled mess of rubbing my face (seriously, rubbing my face) to my shoulders (one at a time) to my arms to my feet to my legs then flipping me over to rub my spine (yep, my spine) then I was out the door. You can can under my confusion about the reflexology part, right? At one point I did question the guy as to what was going on when I removed the towel from my head and said after about 30 minutes of rubbing "when do we get to the reflexology?" This is reflexology too, right" to which his response was "It's combination. You turn over soon". Im certified massage therapist and I've been having reflexology done for the past 20 years for holistic reasons due to a car accident I was in as a kid (I'm in LA on business so I thought I'd try this place out...). So, I kinda know what im talking about and all I can say is that I'm not sure what type of a "combination" it was but it certainly wasn't a "massage" and it most definitely wasn't reflexology... it was litterally a guy rubbing different parts of my body with no fluidity or stroke process... as for the "reflexology" part? I'm not sure it even happened. The closest we came was him scratching the tops of my toes. Litterally the rest of the time it was very fast, rough downward "rubs". Now, please don't get me wrong, he was a nice guy, he just didn't give a very good massage (which, after all was what i was paying for) and certainly didn't even make an attempt at reflexology. "Disappointed" would be an...

Very disappointing experience. This has happened a few times where we receive a discount to come in, and then we come in are told we can’t use it. This time it was a 20% off. The lady at the desk then told us she’d call the owner to see if she could figure it out for us. After speaking with the owner, she then told us that we were in a blackout time because it was very busy (Monday evening with one other customer in the building), and the discount would normally have to be used another time. She said that this time though they would waive that as a courtesy and would apply the discount. 5 minutes later when we were about to go in for our massage she then told us the owner changed their mind and would actually only apply the 20% off to one of our two massages (me and my girlfriend both get the same emails). Then, I had to speak with the owner and the owner said I’d have to show him the second email from my girlfriend’s phone. She couldn’t find that exact one while sitting there but did find a 15% off one and we just accepted that she would only get 15% off and I’d get 20% off. The receptionist then called the owner back and he said no, he would only waive it if both the coupons were the exact same, which makes very little sense to me. After this whole ordeal we weren’t even in the mood for a massage anymore and told them we would be going elsewhere. For what is supposed to be a relaxing experience, BAO sure does a good job of stressing you out during your appointment. If you’re looking to raise your blood pressure, this is definitely the...