We meet up with Angie Tai, spa associate director at One&Only Reethi Rah for a chat about keeping your mind and body on a healing path. She heads a team of 40 so you can imagine how important wellness is at the Reethi Rah. We talk about visiting practitioners, incorporating local ingredients and treatments to spa offerings and exciting things we can expect from One&Only in the future.
Hotel Insider: Let’s begin by telling us how central wellness is to the One&Only experience. What makes One&Only Reethi Rah special, in terms of location, people and experience?
Angie Tai: Surrounded by the crystal blue wonders of the Indian Ocean, One&Only Reethi Rah is a tranquil oasis of serenity, a place where guests can relax and rejuvenate, while experiencing the latest in holistic beauty, fitness and wellness. We are thrilled to encourage wellbeing throughout the resort and to shine a spotlight on the benefits of healthy living and the best ways to incorporate wellness into your everyday life. The One&Only Spa is insulated from the rest of the resort, enclosed within lush manicured gardens, it is a private haven where guests can escape and experience revitalising therapies from East to West; our Spa therapists guide guests on an invigorating journey of wellness as they disconnect from their busy lives and connect with the surrounding natural environment in one of the world’s most beautiful locations.
Hotel Insider: You’ve mentioned that you create person-specific wellness solutions. Can you talk about this a bit?
Angie Tai: At the One&Only Spa, we create tailormade wellness journeys for individual guests, so that they feel at their best during their vacation and beyond; focusing on aspects they wish to improve, whether it is their health, fitness or overall wellbeing. Our aim is for all our guests to depart the island feeling restored, energised and inspired.
Hotel Insider: Visiting practitioners are common in certain up-market properties, yours included. Do guests make bookings specifically because a certain practitioner is going to be on the property?
Angie Tai: The One&Only Spa is renowned for its unique visiting practitioners programme, with global industry leaders from around the world offering guests expert knowledge and signature practices from holistic beauty, Chinese Traditional Healing to targeted fitness sessions. Often repeater guests return to the resort during the time a certain Visiting Practitioner is on island. Our aim is for all of our guests to depart our island feeling restored, energized and inspired.
Founder and President of the Okinawa Watsu Center in Japan has trained our Spa staff in Watsu therapy, giving guests the opportunity to experience the ultimate Watsu experience in the first Watsu pool in the Maldives – exclusively at the One&Only Spa.
Hotel Insider: Your retreats and programmes are quite extensive and they include products for families, which is great. What do guests think of this?
Angie Tai: Family programmes and retreats are a growing market. At One&Only Spa, our guests love taking part in activities together as a family; this is especially important during their vacation as it is not something they are always able to do at home during their busy lives. This special feeling of coming together in our exquisite environment is what keeps our guests coming back year after year.
Hotel Insider: I notice that you include a locally inspired therapy with Maldivian ingredients. It’s encouraging to see that properties are tapping into local knowledge and techniques in regards to wellness. Can we talk about this? Do you see it becoming more mainstream?
Angie Tai: Locally inspired therapy is important to creating an overall culture-rich experience in the Spa. We aim to provide our guests at the resort with a sense of the Maldives and the best way to do so is by using natural locally sourced ingredients. This, combined with our lush tropical setting, provide guests with a genuine feel of the Maldives. One of our latest treatments is Island Bliss Coconut Journey. A luxurious island experience designed to awaken guest’s senses and leave them feeling totally refreshed and revived.
The secret behind this new treatment is the humble coconut thriving on Reethi Rah island. There is no shortage of fresh coconuts for the treatment as we have over twenty thousand coconut trees on the island.
Hotel Insider: I’d also like to know what you think of the future of wellness. What exciting innovations can we expect, especially at One&Only Reethi Rah?
Angie Tai: We are looking to optimize guest wellbeing by offering transformative Wellness which is no longer just experiential. The Spa journey has now become a story, designed to remove guests from their busy lives. By utilising all available space within the resort and designing a journey that at each step offers guests something unique and remains fluid, engaging and immersing the guest fully in their location. The aim is to allow the guest to soul search, which is so much more than a great massage, but a multi chapter story of change and transformation.
Probiotic Superfood skincare is a growing trend and at One&Only Reethi Rah we will be introducing new Anti-ageing skincare, moving towards a positive pro age approach. Healthy skin is the new measure of youth. Gut health and dietary modifications play a big role in skin health and this is done through the best in the health, beauty and fitness industry practitioners and gurus.
