My Spa Offers Different Treatments: Yogyakarta, Central Java

If you like to enjoy the refreshing and rejuvenating touches of a massage, but not greasy massage oil or cream, then My Spa at the four-star Novotel Yogyakarta hotel could be the answer. Launched earlier last week, the facility offers a 75-minute dry massage as one of its signature treatments. Using no oil, the treatment offers a subliminal body workout that is claimed to be able to release tension, increase vitality and flexibility, and create wholeness of body, mind and spirit.

“It (the dry massage) is aimed to help release toxins, stimulate blood circulation, realign the body and restore suppleness,” My Spa manager Maryati said during the launch ceremony last week.

My Spa also offers body temperature detection to determine what specific treatment particular customers need. That makes it easier for therapists to adjust their therapies according to need.
To help meet this aim, each of the therapists is equipped with skills to detect the body temperatures of customers, using a Yoga technique.

Yet, Maryati said, the whole inspiration for offering dry massage treatment came from traditional Javanese massage, explaining why thumb technique dominates the whole treatment.

“Only we have made it as professional as possible to meet with our international standard of treatment,” Maryati said.

Located on the second floor of the eight-story hotel, right across the hotel’s fitness center, My Spa is designed to offer a classic international spa technique that basically is a mixture between the essences of Javanese and Western traditions.

“Our being located right in the center of Javanese culture has required us to be bound by the surrounding culture, while at the same time maintaining our international standard,” Maryati said.

The blend between Javanese and Western traditions, according to Maryati, can be felt in all the treatments that My Spa offers, for body, hair and nail care.

In the Exotic Aroma Massage treatment, for example, a basic Javanese aromatic massage is blended with Hawaiian lomi-lomi and Japanese shiatsu massages to produce a therapeutic power of touch.

Offering four choices of natural essential oils — Novotel Harmony, Relaxing, Romantic and Island Spice — the treatment is mainly suggested to relax the muscles, stimulate blood circulation, release inner tensions and calm the mind.

The lavender-scented Relaxing aromatic oil, for example, is mostly suggested for jet-lagged travelers experiencing extreme tiredness after a long flight across time zones.

The Harmony massage oil, with the calming scent of poteholli wood, is suggested for those who want to revive the inner and outer balance of mind and body.

In other packages, Western Jacuzzi tradition is mixed with traditional massage techniques from Java or other regions in the world renowned for their massage techniques.

Among the other signature treatments offered at My Spa are Cocktail Odyssey aromatic therapy, seaweed body wrap and reflexology-like fancy foot work. All are offered with a 40 percent discount this month.

What is also noteworthy, according to Merry, is that all the formulas they use for the treatments come from the recipes of the Accor hotel chain, under which Novotel Yogyakarta is managed.

“All are basically prepared to answer customers’ needs for health, beauty and freshness,” Maryati added.

Accor’s regional public relations manager, Erny Kusmastuti, said the establishment of My Spa had been seen as an urgent need for Novotel Yogyakarta following its reopening in August last year.

Following the powerful earthquake that severely damaged Yogyakarta and parts of Central Java on May 27, 2006, Novotel Yogyakarta was closed for guests for two and a half months, mostly for refurbishments.

Structurally, according to Erny, the hotel building, which is the tallest on Jl. Sudirman, was OK as it was built as an earthquake-resistant structure. The interior, however, was messy and thus needed refurbishment.

“But we have been back to normal again ever since with an average occupancy rate of 80 percent, 20 percent of which are foreigners,” said Erny, adding that the hotel has 200 rooms available for guests.

With an 80 percent occupancy rate, said Erny, spa services are an inevitable need.

“Yes, we are a bit in a hurry in opening so that some of the treatment rooms are not yet ready to use by now. But everything will be in full operation next week,” said Erny at the opening ceremony last week.

Adopting a minimalist style of interior design, My Spa offers five treatment rooms and six well-trained therapists, who provide treatments that range in length from 60 to 150 minutes.

“We want to make them the best spa team in Yogyakarta,” My Spa general manager Fabrice Mini said.

Sri Wahyuni