A Parisian Spa's Mechanical Massage Experience - How to Operate a Massage Establishment with Less Therapists On Staff

Tucked away in the Passage Choisseul in the Heart of Paris lies a tiny 4-story spa called Zen Bar. I found this place because it was highly rated on Trip Advisor.  Zen Bar advertises to “treat yourself in an instant”, so I was excited to try.  Who doesn’t want an instant treat? They appear to offer a lot of automated massage services, so I wanted to see how they were providing this to the public in such a busy city.  

Upon entering the establishment, you’re offered refreshments and a service menu to choose from, and the receptionist explained that there was no massage therapist on duty that day, so my choices would be limited. They have maximized their income opportunities without staff, which includes retail products and paid refreshments.

The spa is made up of four separate floors. There is no elevator. Each floor looks like it could be around 13’ wide by 20’ long, so perhaps around 1,000 square feet for the total establishment's combined four floors. On the main entrance in a small reception area with a couch, chairs, retail, lockers and mechanical foot massagers.  The basement has a bathroom with tanks for a fish foot spa, plus nail polish and service stations for manicures and pedicures.  The second floor (known as the 1st floor in Paris) is equipped with 3 mechanical massage chairs which they also refer to as zero gravity.  And on the 4th floor are three mechanical massage beds which they claim provide shiatsu with heated stones.

Pictured immediately below this paragraph is the foot spa offered with fish to “clean" or exfoliate the feet.  The fish supposedly eat away dead skin; however, we do not advise adding this to your establishment given it can be seen as animal cruelty. Some have claimed that the fish are starved and not fed so that they will nibble on the feet or anything added to the tank. There's also a claim that one fish spa experience caused a woman to amputate her toe. And you could also have problems with PETA or other activists for offering such a service. I was offered the fish spa and refused for anthropomorphism reasons.

All of the offered services are less expensive than the cost of service with a real massage therapist and live, hands-on application.  The lower cost is because Zen Spa’s equipment is providing the massage appointments and services instead of a human being.  

After I chose the shiatsu massage with heated stones which is one of the mechanical appointments I was offered, she then had me remove my shoes and asked that I place all of my personal belongings in a locker which she locked, and then gave me a pair of elastic gritty botties to place over my socks so that I could walk without slipping. I first used the bathroom downstairs in the basement, which was smart of the receptionist to offer given my treatment station was on the 3rd floor, four flights of stairs away from their restroom facility.

After using the bathroom, she then escorted me up the winding staircase to the 3rd floor where there were 3 mechanical beds behind curtains with a corporate massage chair in the middle of the three staged curtain areas.  She had me lie down on the mechanical massage table and gave me headphones for music.  The headphones had disposable covering over them and the table was covered with a disposable cover, so it appeared they had good sanitary measures.  She also offered me a choice of music with the headphones too which is great customization for any massage appointment.

The shiatsu heated stone mechanical massage was poor at best for an experienced massage therapist.  I did not feel individual stones at all, and there was no heat.  Instead, there was this hard roller that slowly moved up and down my body vertically.  It felt like someone who was making pie crust with a rolling pin was rolling up and down my posterior backside instead, from the top of my cervical to my heels.  At one point, multiple rollers lifted my buttocks and heels at the same time which provided extreme hyperextension of my knees, and I couldn’t help but think someone with a previous knee injury might find that really uncomfortable.  I walked away reminded about how important it is to have a human provide manual massage therapy services instead of a machine that could possibly harm someone when they do not appropriately apply pressure or put a client in the wrong position due to some type of timing issue with different client’s body types and sizes. Pictured below are two of the three shiatsua table stations on the third floor. The room was very dark hence better relaxation but poorer photo quality. 

Overall, someone who’s unfamiliar with the wonder of licensed massage therapy services might be satisfied with that mechanical table, especially if they do not like the touch of another human being.  However, if you’re used to regular massages with a professional massage therapist, then this was not a great substitute.  The zero gravity massage chairs might be a better option than the mechanical massage table.

There’s some concern in the massage industry where some businesses are advertising massage or bodywork services without explicitly stating it will be executed by a machine. Pressotherapy is commonly advertised as lymphatic massage, lymphatic drainage or lymphatic drainage massage; but, what it really is are enveloped balloons fitted around extremities that inflate and deflate with air pressure.  Now we have another establishment claiming shiatsu is being practiced by this roller table, which couldn’t be anything further from real shiatsu application by a licensed bodyworker.

The receptionist told me when my session ended, to simply come downstairs to where more mechanical massage would be provided for free.  There are foot massagers on the first floor that are offered complimentary with their other services, where you can enjoy refreshments at the same time.  I ordered a strawberry drink while enjoying my foot massage which was quite good.  The mechanical foot massager compressed, vibrated and rolled the soft tissue of my feed in a wonderful way that felt really good. You put your feet in the foot machine with those gritty booties on which keeps solid sanitation. That part of their mechanical service was unexpected and excellent.

I believe this mechanical spa will be the way of our future, where machines are available when staff are not, although there should be a better balance between the two.  I think machine services are wonderful to supplement regular appointments, and great to use when a therapist is running behind or doesn’t have enough time for longer service when a client wants more.  Using them exclusively is a little impersonal, but can also be highly effective like how this establishment is operating here with just one staff member coordinating clients on four separate floors into machines.  

There was a mother daughter due on the first floor who had other mechanical services prior to enjoying the final mechanical foot massage with refreshments on the first floor.  They stayed there for almost an hour thoroughly enjoying it all.  Minor children may do better in a mechanical service environment where the services are shorter, and there’s no touch from another human involved which alleviates many liability issues too.  While the table massage itself left a lot to be desired, there are definite market opportunities and fun to be had here.

On a final point, I will say that the aqua massage tables might be my favorite mechanical massage, which spray high water pressure through jets onto a canvas that covers you while you lie horizontally inside their machine. They’re more modern, adjustable, sanitizable, look better and more. Unfortunately all mechanical massage tables are extremely heavy with the aqua jets perhaps being the heaviest, which is why they’re likely not used on the 3rd floor of this extremely old Parisian building.  Hoisting a heavy mechanical table to the 3rd floor on a winding staircase with no elevator must be challenging at best, which is too bad because the best of all is probably the heaviest of all which is likely prohibiting its use.