massage therapist

front desk agent

esthetician

spa associate

front desk receptionist

Massage Heights

The idea and concept of Massage Heights is great, but unfortunately the leaders at corporate don't have much to do with how owners treat their employees. I started as a massage therapist and was advanced quickly with stars in my eyes. When the smoke cleared (and what they don't tell you) is if you aren't a highly demanded therapist you are garbage. I received another promotion offer to Assistant Director, but was told I would no longer be allowed to massage AND I was going to have to take a $6,000 pay cut to take the job ROFL! They claim they are big on advancement and promoting within, but if you ask about taking a position at a new location for advancement they lie and say it has been filled and keep you like a piece of their property. There is no room for individuality and the training program is more like a brain wash to make you feel like you're a part of something special even though they are just another cheap massage chain. It's pulling teeth to get a raise and as a former lead therapist it was pulling teeth to give raises to any therapist not fully booked with a high request rate or member conversion rate regardless if the employee excelled in all other areas and/or had been there over one year. Therapists that were in high demand were allowed to scream and curse at other employees including management, show up late, not do soap notes, and bully other employees. If you couldn't give up your personal life and work ONLY nights and weekends when the massage demand was high you were also outcast. If you want to request time off be prepared to have to pay someone and/or work extra shifts after your time off because you are not allowed to take off work unless YOU get ALL your shifts covered. Be prepared to be harassed weekly if not daily to come in early, stay late, or pick up a shift because once again someone no called no showed to their shift. Owners refuse to pay for anyone to fold laundry or laundry service so even when you are fully booked in an 8 hour shift you still have to stay for up to an hour sometimes not only folding laundry, but mopping, and even cleaning bathrooms while the front desk sat at the front desk complaining "how long" the therapists were taking to close the store. Treatment room temperature ranged from scalding hot to ice cold. Front desk staff was lazy and often did not follow proper protocol for sales and MTs were forced to receive more "training" if members did not sign up for membership after their massage. Front desk consistently did not have client files available to therapists and/or would change appointments from therapists and not communicate. Owners through out the community hold grudges against each other and speak disrespectfully about other store owners. If you decide to take a position elsewhere you become non-rehirable at your former location even if you followed proper protocol. Anyone who gives a two weeks notice is never seen again as the owners think you will steal all their clients (clients are under contract and are not allowed to cancel) causing you loss of wages and financial distress for trying to do the right and honest thing. STAY AWAAAAAAAY!!!!

Myself and others never received our sign on bonus. The job description advertised health insurance and a 401k, however there is none. Health insurance has been “in the works” for over a year now.  All of the “benefits” listed in the job postings are exaggerated except for the PTO.

Some of the continuing education is a reimbursement, and not actually free. And not everyone has even been reimbursed, so it’s not really worth risking it.

They only provide 2 uniforms even to their full time employees. You’ll have to purchase more or do laundry every other day. The lead LMTs will encourage you to wash your dirty uniform in with the company’s laundry.

When the heat is on in the winter, the massage rooms regularly exceed safe temperatures. Any complaints are immediately dismissed by the owner. Myself and multiple coworkers have felt very ill (symptoms such as pre syncope, feverish, headache, blurred vision, nauseated, etc- the LMTs are getting heat sickness) from the heat. 

Multiple CLIENTS have even felt uncomfortable with the heat despite being disrobed and only under a thin sheet. 

Management disrespects the massage therapist’s and estheticians physical limitations on a regular basis. Exposure to unsafe levels of heat, not respecting any predetermined physical limitations, unexpectedly moving or even deleting breaks, etc. 

I have LOST CLIENTS due to the owner’s lack of tact. I had a client break down crying during a session due to their interactions with the owner. I have had multiple clients try to convince me to get a job elsewhere so they didn’t have to deal with the owner or with the company.

The new owner unilaterally decided that the weekly staff meetings that were in place are no longer necessary, much to the dismay of the LMTs. So there is very little communication amongst the staff. There is hardly any communication even among management. 

As of now, the owner is acting as the manager. This person has never even had a massage before, let alone managed a massage business. The only other managers are 2 LMT leads, who are always in session and impossible to get ahold of. So there are just 3 managers in total, including the franchisee… who’s never had a massage. 

It is very difficult to get meetings with a manager, or to have requests taken seriously. You have to constantly remind the management team of your needs in order for anything to happen. It took over 6 months after starting for my schedule to get situated. I waited over a month for my hours to be reduced despite having doctor's notes (which never even happened, I just quit instead). Everything is always backlogged, because something is always more important than you. 

Not to mention the blatant favoritism. It’s so bad that it’s just an unspoken rule that certain people don’t have to do chores, don’t have to clean their own rooms, don’t even have to TALK to their coworkers. Complain to management? They already know. They enable it- they REWARD it. 

The person who’s cleaned their room maybe once in the past year? Management rearranged the whole back storage area at their request, and even bought room dividers too. Yet I couldn’t get my hours reduced after over a month of asking despite having medical indication for it.  

Massage Heights is a business and that is their number one focus. The focus is not on the clients or the therapists. The people who work there are upbeat and positive for the most part, but there tends to be drama. Many of the therapists are overworked and underpaid, but the experience is vital. You have the opportunity to work on many many different people during employment there. Because of that you learn new techniques quickly and develop your own personal style in a short amount of time. It is easy to maintain a solid client base and the stress of booking appointments is taken off the shoulders of the therapist. However, there are certain guidelines that must be met or there is a possibility of loss of employment. These guidelines include how many people join their "Lifestyle programs", how many elevations (foot scrubs, hot stones, face massages, aromatherapy, etc.) you perform, and how many people come back to you as a therapist specifically.  This can be stressful for a new therapist who has never had to do these things before. A majority of my time at MH was enjoyable, but there were times when I was absolutely exhausted to the point of tears because I was extremely overworked. You are not paid per hour, but per massage hour you perform. This is typically a base of $15-18 per massage hour. You also get small additions if you get someone to sign up for the programs, sell an elevation, or sell merchandise. This is supposed to turn the pay into closer to $20-25. You are also supposed to receive an increase in pay once you reach a certain number of massages. However, if you do not reach the company goals you do not receive a pay increase. You are also not paid for any time that you might just be sitting in the back waiting for a client unless you don't clear what minimum wage requires for that day of work. I personally performed over 800 massages and never received a pay increase because my numbers were always off by one or two. You do get half off massage prices, but do not get free massages as advertised unless, as stated earlier, you reach the company goals. 
The best thing about Massage Heights are the people. Management was always willing to listen to any problems whether at work or at home that could be affecting your performance. Management was also very understanding if something at home came up and you had to call in. That was huge. It was very easy to call in sick and know that your job will be there. Obviously don't abuse this as you will eventually lose employment, but if you're actually sick or something happens they are extremely understanding. The co-workers are welcoming and kind. There is typically a positive atmosphere, but there can always be drama when a group of similar people are put together. The clients are all wonderful. I have only had a few negative experiences with clients and those are eclipsed by the positive. 
All in all Massage Heights isn't an awful place to start off, but I don't think I could work there for years and years like some therapists do.

If you are a light touch Swedish therapist or a beginner therapist. This would probably be a good job for you. It does stay very busy. As a deep tissue therapist. It wasn't worth the small base pay due to the fact that tips at these membership places are often smaller than they should be considering the amount of work we put into each session. I had a few golden tippers who were regulars and much appreciated, but as a general whole. I never felt I made the money I should have been making. Especially if there was a gift card or Groupon involved. There's also not a lot of deep tissue therapists so you end up doing pretty much all of those sessions that nobody else can or wants to do.  As a deep tissue therapist you end up working twice as hard as everyone else but there was never a differential pay for the extra effort and skills. There's literally no rhyme or reason in how they pay. Its not based off of service prices just whatever number they choose to pull out of a hat I suppose. I found out after I left. Which was only like 6 or 7 months ago that people who were newly hired were getting paid more than I was as their starting pay. I had been there 3yrs giving my time and hard work to this company. It made me sad. At that moment there was the realization that the owners and managers didn't value anything I did in the end. It was all about their own financial gains. There were so many problems on and off with management. This would be a long review if I went through it all. One of the main issues at one point was theft of cash tips. That's just one key point. After I got out and started looking I realized most jobs pay so much more. The job I ended up getting pays a differential for deep tissue work and the tips are where they should be for the services. I'm making a little more than double what I was at this company. My point being just make sure you do your homework and really look around. I'd hate to hear of anyone making the same mistake I made and settle for 3yrs and feel this regret later. If this is a good fit for you in the end. Then go for it. There are some slight perks. They do not fire for any reason. Once you got the job you can use as many sick days as you need and just go on breaks when u want to. If you have chronic illnesses they work with you well about not needing to work. Typical corporate structure. They require you to be on call on days you are not working and doing chair events on days you are not working when the world is normal. Highly sales driven. You are expected to get your clients to sign a membership. Never was my favorite part but every personality is different. Some thrive with micromanagement and some don't. If you work here you need to be ok being micromanaged though. 

The owner of the Buckhead location also owns Brookhaven and Sandy Springs. He is rarely around, and constantly runs Groupon specials. Groupon clients rarely return (which hurts your membership sales percentage), they rarely tip and they rarely purchase products.. Management will refer to your numbers when you inquire about a raise, but with constant Groupon clients who simply hop from deal to deal, your numbers will drop giving them a reason to deny your raise (how convenient). The owner does not care about or see the value in the skin department, so he is unwilling to repair or replace damaged equipment, retail or backbar, because it is not a priority to his (massage) business. You will always be a replaceable employee,  even if you stay with the company long term. The front desk is rarely a dependable bunch, because the company pays them poorly, yet put a lot of workload on them including membership sales. The employees who are really good don't stay long because the pay rate sucks. Broken or malfunctioning equipment is begrudgingly replaced, or completely ignored. There are electrical issues in most rooms and obvious leaking from the ceiling. The owner seems perfectly fine with moldy ceiling tiles, faulty light switches, broken equipment, and poorly functioning HVAC system and laundry machines. There are often paycheck discrepancies, as it falls on the front desk to properly document "no-shows" to allow the therapist to be paid for the time reserved for the client. This is a policy, but if they forget to list it in "the book", you lose that money. Recently there has been a very careless staff that is not properly sanitizing communal spaces hourly as required. They have even had employees test positive for COVID, yet continued business as usual. I do not recommend this franchise employer. Its hard to speak on the company as a whole, but services are deeply discounted for the client, which limits the amount of money coming into the Spa. Plenty of other Spas in the area. Unless you prefer to be on government assistance and live paycheck to paycheck while the owner scoots around town in his BMW and Audi. 

I have worked for 2 different Massage Heights retreats in San Antonio 
 - Bulverde Marketplace and Green Valley. Those 2 retreats are so different though that it felt like 2 different companies. But I have not worked for  Massage Heights in at least 4 years so my comments could be out-of-date.

The good at Bulverde Marketplace: Massage Heights allows flexible work scheduling. At Bulverde, with notice, I could pretty much work as often or as seldom as I wanted. I could change my schedule too with 2 weeks notice. Bulverde has adequately sized massage rooms and spacious hallways. Nice large lunch/break room. Two large bathrooms. Employees are treated like adults and not micromanaged or ever quizzed.

The good at Green Valley: Not much. I had to agree to their work schedule. I did like my co-workers at the time. But the entire retreat is way too tiny and noisy. Compared to other MH retreats, it felt like a slum. Tiny, narrow hallway and massage rooms. Microscopic lunch/break room. If there were 4 people in there, you could barely move. The interior walls were paper thin; you could hear voices at front reception room all the way to the lunch/break room in back. You could even hear the toilet flush from everywhere, and only one bathroom for everyone. Employees micromanaged: before you left your shift, you had to have someone inspect your room and sign you off before you could leave. You had to take and pass stupid surprise quizzes on company mission statement, products, services, etc. 

The bad (true of both Bulverde and Green Valley): No sinks in massage rooms! You have to transport your stone oven to/from your room to lunch room to clean oven, clean stones, get water. Cabinets in massage rooms too small, have no counter space, and are in corners so they're triangular. Bad design! (At least at Hand And Stone, every room has a sink and adequately sized cabinets and counter space). Jammed scheduling! You get NO TIME between clients! You massage a client, you leave room during which time you use bathroom, wash hands, get water for client, escort client to front reception area. Return to room, strip table, replace table linens, all linens, clean hot stones if you used them, get stones ready for next client. Then you get next client, escort them to room, interview them, explain everything to them, leave room, return to room. Oh! and you're supposed to up-sell; get the customer to buy MH retail. All this while taking NO TIME AT ALL!  This is why I HATE spas!

While I worked for Massage Heights, we gained and lost so many therapists throughout the years. It's a franchise and to be expected. I would recommend working here for 1 or 2 years to gain some experience and get used to being around people then dipping. I worked there for a long time out of comfort and being left alone for the most part.

The pay is some of the lowest in the industry. $20 to $25 per massage hour while many places are starting therapists at $30. Benefits are non-existent. You might get 1 to 2 weeks off and health care is 100% paid by you. They "allow" a company to come in and provide you insurance but they donate nothing towards it. 

Management at this franchise was to be desired. They don't give managers the proper tools to succeed but it doesn't matter because they pay them low as well. The location had new owners that didn't know how to run a business and were unpleasant. They acted like they cared but more or less they were corporate froth themselves behind the scenes. Lots of these franchise owners don't know anything about the massage industry. They just see income potential. 

As to be expected they desire you to work nights and weekends as it generates the most income for them. If you are talented you can generate clients anywhere and anytime. Trust me.

Job security is great as long as you don't critique management or the owners. But who wants to walk on eggshells? Advancement is nonexistent as you have to fight tooth and nail to get continuing education paid for by them. All these places already want you to know how to be a 20 year + therapist but pay you like you're a graduate.

Job Culture is highly dependent on management and the strategic partners. Where I was, however stunk. Management was quite xenophobic & homophobic proclaiming Christian values while engaging in lewd practices. 

Oh boy, where to begin? Unpaid, mandatory training. $30 uniforms, even the first one is not supplied to you. Sales, sales, sales. If you became a therapist to help people, this is not the job for you. I overheard our owner speaking with two of our therapists about an elderly couple that came in for a couples massage-they were from out of town so they couldn't sign up.

Owner "Did they upgrade at all?"
Therapists "No, they just wanted to relax."
Owner "Are they signing up?"
Therapists "No, they are from out of town."
Owner "Then WHY are they HERE?"

She acted as if the client wasn't going to get anything extra, they were wasting her time. And she did this often.
They wanted us to get a product and place it in the clients hands when they came out from their massage so that they'd buy it. If I were a client, this would really get on my nerves. Especially being sold to EVERY TIME they go in for a service.

Also, if your client doesn't show up, they do charge them, but it all goes to the retreat. Not to the therapist, which at least Massage Envy does.
You are either hourly or commission, but will most likely never get hourly. At the same time, they make you give FREE chair massages, to which you are not compensated and expect you to hand out business cards, grassroots sales, on your own time.
And lets say you have 5 massages and a 2 hour break in between, one of those hours will be blocked off for you to clean, i.e. scrubbing the baseboards of the retreat, every once in a while because the owner doesn't want people sitting around (even though they aren't getting paid!). I was forced to do it a handful of times in my 2 month employment there.

I was out of there as soon as I could be. And recommend the same to anyone else. Not to say that management will be the same at every location, but it won't be far from my experience.

I feel like there needs to be an honest take of what this job will be if you work there. It’ll start out good and like a zen place but then you’ll see the shadiness and pettiness of the place. Every week there is a new staff and I was the last employee to properly be trained in May 2019. The pay was incredibly unfair and if you talk about pay they threaten your job because it’s “illegal” which we all know is not true. They cut commission and payroll. They will push you out if they don’t like you by cutting hours or calling you off. The gossip is insane. You can’t say anything that won’t be repeated. And BE WARNED the cameras have microphones and they listen to everything. For the longest time they kept an employee who is a felon and on the run from other states that was stealing from the company and upsetting customers. Management will only pretend to care about you but if ur sales are bad then by default so are you. They will be nice only if it benefits them. It’s sad the potential this place has but it is being run to the ground. I’m waiting to post this until I get my last paycheck because they make you come in for a paper check and “exit interview” which is really them just harassing you and claiming they’re deducting $200 for training. They say “you signed a contract” but no one ever signed anything. Im not even sure it’s legal for them to change my pay from direct to paper without my consent. There’s a lot of miscommunication and just shadiness at Massage Heights that it’s truly sad. Everyone has this same belief that worked front of house and I’m just glad I got out finally. I met good people that obviously are gone too but work at your own risk. I say all this not because I hate the place but because I wish I would’ve known what i was walking in to.

the management is so so so bad and no one is communicating with anyone. The therapists, receptionists, and everyone at another location is on another page. SO ANNOYING! They dont really train you but when you do something wrong you get yelled at even though you didn't know in the first place. The owners are awful, I worked at the Omaha locations and they're both owned by the same owners. SO SO SO SO SO robotic. they have no idea whats its like to be behind the desk and whenever they're in the store they're asking stupid questions at peak times. (There are about 5 people at the front desk and two people calling, but instead of letting us do our jobs they'll pull one person away from the desk leaving the other person to deal with it all themselves). No one is aware of what the rules are, the manager will tell you one thing and then the owners will come in and yell at you for it, so bad wouldn't recommend it to anyone. You barely get a discount (like you would really need one on any of the stuff they sell), its a selling job which they dont tell you before and you barely get paid for the selling portion. They are so backwards with everything they have a paper system for their costumer information but things get lost so easily and then the customer gets mad at you when they have to refill out a paper even though you have nothing to do with it. Just not a good place overall, it definitely contributed to my poor mental health.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Massage therapist 92 salaries reported	$44.60 per hour
Front desk agent 7 salaries reported	$18.46 per hour
Esthetician 3 salaries reported	$35.83 per hour
Spa associate 28 salaries reported	$17.77 per hour
Front desk receptionist 4 salaries reported	$15.63 per hour

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