Emotion Spa Magazine: Nymphéa, the software for optimising hotel spas

Sequoiasoft provides its expertise to hotel spas, thalassotherapy, and hydrotherapy professionals with its management software Nymphéa. The French pioneer has assisted in the growth of the most beautiful European hotel spas, including the Cinq Mondes spas at the Dolce la Hulpe in Brussels and the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort; the U-Spa at Le Fouquet’s in Paris; La Réserve Ramatuelle and La Réserve Geneva; and just recently the Spa My Blend by Clarins at the Royal Monceau hotel, which is managed by Deep Nature. Hervé Colly, Managing Director at Sequoiasoft, tells us how Nymphéa brings real added value to the managers of these establishments.

Your Nymphéa software is highly acclaimed by hotel spas and thalassotherapy centres. What are the reasons for this success?
Hervé Colly: Spas and the hotel business are in our DNA! With our Nymphéa software, and with our centralised management solutions for hotel and wellness complexes, we're cultivating technological expertise in these two industries. The complementarity of our expertise has won over many key players in the sector, such as Thalazur and Le Fer à Cheval, a 5-star hotel-spa in Megève, who were looking for a solution capable of managing their spa, hotel, and customer relations as well.
Hoteliers are highly demanding managers who want operational management solutions to ensure that their establishment is profitable. Our software is designed with this goal in mind. In fact, many of our team members come from the hotel industry and fully understand their expectations.

Nymphéa is known for its wealth of features. Which are the key ones for hotel spa managers?
H.C.: Without doubt the interface between the hotel software and the spa software. Being able to transfer spa services onto the hotel bill is crucial when you're running a hotel spa. Nymphéa is interfaced with our PMS software, but also with other PMS on the market. Our software can share customer files, reservations, loyalty programmes and gift vouchers between the hotel and the spa.
In terms of the spa, the software must be able to manage all the manager’s needs: reservations, scheduling, stock, client files, statistics, etc. The last two are essential. They make it possible, in line with the hotel’s commercial service, to roll out package stays and other commercial offers which promote the spa and its leading products. Managers have to be certain they're keeping a close eye on business by optimising occupancy while damping the costs at the same time.

What new features have been added to Nymphéa recently to optimise the management of hotel spas and other resorts?
H.C.: We have just equipped Le Domaine Thermal de Mondorf in Luxembourg, a hydrotherapy resort dedicated to wellness, covering over 40 hectares, with a control system providing access to all of its facilities.
The problem with such a large resort was facilitating access to various areas, while at the same time providing hotel clients and day clients with autonomy and freedom. With a pass, clients can access the spa, thermal pool, the fitness area, guest rooms in the two hotels (three- and four-star) on site, and even open their locker depending on the package they have chosen.
The pass comes as a bracelet, which can be customised to reflect the image of the establishment, and works without contact. You just need to hold it in front of the reader to gain access: nothing could be quicker. The pass can also come as a card, but the bracelet is very practical for the pool areas.
These passes can also be used as a virtual wallet in the three restaurants, the bars, and in the resort’s boutiques. Purchased services are either transferred automatically onto the client’s hotel bill, paid when the client leaves if they are a day client, or charged to the Nymphéa accounts of member clients or clients who have credit points to use.

You give special prominence to the partnership you have with each of your clients. Can you tell us more about that?
H.C.: We have a strong partnership with our clients who renew their confidence in us each time they set up their new establishments. Cinq Mondes, Deep Nature, Nuxe and many others come to mind. This confidence is based on the quality of our services. We manage all of our developments and our support desk, which is available seven days a week, in-house; nothing is outsourced to third parties.
Our trainers assist each client throughout the installation. They train them on the settings and how to operate Nymphéa. 98% of those who participate in our training programme are highly satisfied or satisfied with the quality of our training and 99% with the quality of interaction with our trainers.
In tandem with ‘specific’ training courses, we have launched shared training courses which allow you to train throughout the year by sharing the cost of training with other establishments. More than 50 users have participated in these training courses. All our training courses can be financially covered by training organisations.

By Isabelle Charrier, EmotionSpa Magazine