Salamander Spa Washington DC — Local services in Washington

I will start by saying I have had a lot of massage / spa experiences over the years. I will also state that I am very hesitant to criticize any establishment unless I am truly displeased with the services. I have never posted a negative review to google or yelp.

I purchased the time rituals experience for wife and I as an anniversary gift. We arrived 15 minutes early as requested with all required forms. I must say that the staff was very kind and welcoming. We were given tea and taken to our rooms. I estimate that we were at least 15 minutes into our allotted time before my therapist begin any sort of treatment. I would expect that room and equipment prep would have been taken care of during our early arrival. When my treatment began, we started with massage. During pretreatment I described that my feet and back of scalp were the areas I desired focus on. My therapist spent minimal time on my scalp and almost no time on my feet. She spent excessive amounts of time prepping, or moving the towel, or tinkering with who-knows-what during my massage. She also spent excessive amounts of time simply holding my arms or legs or head and not actually providing massage therapy. Furthermore, she put me into stretching positions, which I am usually fine with, but she was less than gentle and actually left my right shoulder aching and sore still today. To her credit, I am not an extremely flexible person but she seemed to not recognize this and when she put my hips and thighs in pain, I had to inform her that I was not that pliable.

When it came time for my facial treatment, there was more excessive preparation and there were periods of 4 or 5 minutes where I was simply lying there. Then while my facial was between steps there was a halfhearted shoulder and neck massage provided. She spent much time simply holding my head and it truly seemed as if she were just stalling until the time was up. She ended our session about 5 minutes before our scheduled time slot expired, which I assume was to allow me time to dress and exit. As none of the amenities (hot tub, sauna, etc) are available this was the end of my treatment, which I understand is not the fault of the spa. I would at least think something additional would be offered as part of an extremely expensive package such as the time rituals.

As if to cap off our dismal experience we were served what was possibly the cheapest glass of champagne I have ever had. I am not a champagne connoisseur by any means but neither I nor my wife could take more than 1 or 2 sips before leaving the drink behind. Then upon leaving, the valet took our card and was gone for several minutes only to return not knowing which car ours was and had left our windows down with our belongings in plain view.

I will say my wife was somewhat please with her session. She requested only massage and declined the facial. Although, she had to request lighter pressure a few times and, similar to me, did not receive attention to her requested focus areas; she was overall pleased with her therapist.

At a price tag of $1,200 for less than (3) hours of treatment per person, I would expect the service and experience to be better. I was thoroughly disappointed and I think that other patrons who chose the Mandarin for a special occasion should think twice before spending such amounts of money on a...

Degrading, dismissive, and unhelpful receptionist. I was interested in staying at the hotel for its spa, so I called to inquire about it—specifically about what the website calls the spa’s “water therapy experiences.” She explained that the women’s side has a sauna, a steam room, and a “warm vitality pool.” I asked: “So is there not a hot tub or whirlpool feature?” “There’s a warm vitality pool.” “Well, I don’t know what a warm vitality pool is.” “It has warm water, not hot water, and some jets like a hot tub.” Cool . . .

Next question: “So is there not a cold plunge.” “No.” “Okay, many people want to do hot/cold contrast in a spa, so are there showers near the sauna where I can do a cold rinse?” “There are showers, but they’re a few steps away.” Weird, I thought to myself. If they’re actually a few steps away, why would she mention that?

So I asked: “Like, how far? Are they in another area or something?” “Just a few steps, like less than a minute walk.” A minute walk is, like, 100 steps, lady.

She followed up: “We do have an ice fountain.” I pause to contemplate what this means. And then ask in an incredulous (yet slightly amused) tone: “Is that, like, something where you stand underneath it and ice rains down on you?” “No, there are ice cubes, and you can pick some up and put them in a towel. And you rub them on your body to cool yourself down.” Me: “That’s not what a fountain is.”

Finally, we turned to massage. I’m a former massage therapist, and my mom ran a day spa for years. I know what I like. So I asked her if the therapist who was available was skilled in the modalities I like. (I named them.) She gave me BS non-responsive answers like “all of our therapists are exceptionally trained and skilled in everything” (literally cannot be true) and “all of our therapists follow the protocol for each of our massages.” The massage I was asking about is the customized one where you tell your therapist what you want—how in f’s sake is there a “protocol” for that?! Customization is literally the opposite of protocol.

She was painfully inept, embarrassingly transparent in her lack of knowledge or lack of care, and grossly rude. A spa of this supposed caliber needs service that aligns with it. Then again, I haven’t been inside, so...

UPDATE Salamander reached out to me and really made an effort. They have gone out of their way to have me return and experiment the spa. I will hopefully have an opportunity to return. Hopefully they can update their experience if I am not able to return before moving out of the area. There’s potential for a 5 star luxury experience. May have jumped the gun on the reopening with some things not functioning or haven’t been updated. Looking forward to visiting again, if possible. This is a one star rating for a reason. I spent $400+ on a 90 min facial. Expecting quite the service on the remodeled spa and was left in somewhat disbelief. The pros: When talking to the staff and the esthetician they are super nice and personable. Really sweet. The cons: The facial was subpar. There were no extractions. With 90 min there should have been time for some shoulder/neck massage. This in no way has to do with the esthetician it seems as though she was following a protocol. As for the location there were lockers that weren’t working and me and another guest were trying to figure it out which left me late to my facial and no one was in sight to help me. So I finally went to where I was supposed to meet the esthetician and had to have her help me with my locker. Now stressed I finally got in toy facial that ended on time so the time that made me late due to the old lockers was not made up. Also the sauna and hot tub area was ok. The sauna wasn’t that hot and the bucket to add water to the coals was empty and there was no eucalyptus added to the room which in other higher end resorts I have found to be very nice in a sauna. The steam room was closed. There was a cup left in the hot tub area that sat there for quite some time. I’d say for $400+ it was NOT WORTH it. That was maybe a $200 facial experience. Please try other places until they can get a $400+ experience under their belt. Now reading the other more recent reviews I should have never booked here....