When Oakwell Beer Spa opened in Denver, Colorado in 2021, its business model was one the first of its kind: a beer spa, where guests can sip a craft brew while soaking in a tub of beer (a blend of hops, barley, and herbs). The practice dates back to 921 in Europe, but in the United States, it’s still a novelty.
Co-owners Damien Zouaoui and Jessica French had the task of not only delivering a unique spa experience, but also translating it for American customers. They modeled Oakwell off a beer spa they visited in the mountains of Zakopane, Poland, and adapted it to appeal to a wider audience of first-time beer spa goers. And their approach succeeded—Oakwell now has so much demand that Damien and Jessica are considering franchising.
“It is important for us as business owners to make an impact. Whenever we promise that you’re going to have the ultimate relaxation experience, we must deliver it. That’s the way Jessica and I had built our own careers, and that’s how Oakwell Beer Spa was born,” Damien said.
When you’re blazing a trail with your business—whether you’re engaging an underserved audience or adapting a unique business idea—building customer confidence in your service is key. Below, Jessica and Damien share five steps to success that helped them educate first-timers and deliver on their promise to provide relaxation for all.
1. Define the mission
Damien: “The definition of wellness outside of the U.S. is actually a place, a common place, where people from different walks of life are coming to have a relaxing experience and a good time together, and sometimes separately. In America, we realized that [wellness] is very transactional, and the spa industry is really focused on a specific audience. You need to be healthy. You need to be wealthy. You need to have some sort of budget to be able to go to those places.”
2. Design with your audience in mind
Jessica: “We’re targeting a lot of first-time spa goers. We’re targeting men that maybe have not gone to spas before, and we didn’t want it to feel intimidating. Sometimes spas can feel very sterile: They’re very white and silent, and maybe there’s pink flowers everywhere. It’s just not something that’s inviting for all different types of people.
“So we wanted to make sure that our guests felt comfortable coming and hanging out in the space, whether they were dressed up to go out for the night or they were showing up in their hiking boots after hiking a fourteener [a mountain peak of at least 14,000 feet elevation]. We do not want to be pretentious. We don’t want to be stuffy. We want to be accessible in a place where everyone feels welcome and comfortable.”
3. Train employees in 5-star service
Damien: “ We have a three-week, intense training every time we bring in someone. And it is extremely important for us that whenever a guest comes in, we actually don’t call [them] customers. [They’re] a guest. This is, I think, the DNA of hospitality.
“We welcome you. We know your first name. We make sure that we confirm everything for your appointment because this is a big deal. You might be celebrating your anniversary here. We don’t want to mess up, so we confirm it. Then we escort you to the beer wall. We spend about five minutes going over all of the beer lineups because we do beer for a living, so we must convey all of our knowledge to the guests.
“We made a promise to ourselves: ‘Let’s make sure that we create an inclusive space where everyone is welcome. Let’s break the stigma that the day spa was meant to be for a specific audience, perhaps women, in America.’”
“This is a part of a 5-star standard of service [that] every single employee needs to agree to and sign [when they’re hired]. On the business side, we have only full-time employees, which makes a huge difference for us in order to make sure that we deliver the best service and the best experience.”
4. Share reviews online to set expectations
Jessica: “Reviews are extremely important to us. Most people are pretty apprehensive before coming to Oakwell Beer Spa. They have no idea what a beer spa is. [When] you hear ‘beer spa,’ the first thing that comes into people’s mind is this log cabin type of place, and there’s a vat of beer that’s Coors or PBR that you’re soaking in. And it does not convey the image that we offer.
“For us, reviews are an extremely important way for guests to know if this is an establishment that they want to visit or not. They look at pictures. They read reviews. It was really important to have these positive reviews from our guests as well as for them to take pictures and to share those online.”
5. Respond to every review
Damien: “Answering the reviews is very important—bad and good. We’re true believers. Some people just answer the good ones and skip the bad ones; some people only answer the bad ones and skip the good ones. We believe that answering reviews helps you educate the future guests who wonder, ‘What the heck is a beer spa?’
“We want reviews—good, bad, or mediocre, [they] help to make ourselves stronger and better as business owners because at the end of the day, we are a hospitality company and we should always strive to deliver the best, [most] hospitable experience to the guests.”
These lessons come from an episode of Behind the Review, Yelp & Entrepreneur Media’s weekly podcast. Listen below to hear from Damien and Jessica, or visit the episode page to read more, subscribe to the show, and explore other episodes.
Photos from Oakwell Beer Spa on Yelp
The information above is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice and may not be suitable for your circumstances. Unless stated otherwise, references to third-party links, services, or products do not constitute endorsement by Yelp.