Trilogy Spa Holdings, a boutique spa management firm serving the “four and five-star” hospitality markets, has purchased Trinity Spa Advisors, a boutique spa asset management firm, and the addition of Cheryl Sott, Trinity’s founder/CEO, to their team as VP asset management. Sott brings a unique combination of experience from Wall Street, particularly as an asset manager at Paine Webber (now UBS), and Main Street as a consultant to the spa and hospitality industry through the companies she founded. Sott will be overseeing the expansion of Trilogy’s Asset Management Division, which works with operating partners and on-site management teams in an advisory role to mitigate risk while maximizing growth. She will also spearhead the utilization of one of the tools that attracted Trilogy to the boutique firm, the patent-pending, proprietary Spa AuditTM Service.
The Spa AuditTM is not mystery shopping. Instead, the new diagnostic and analytical tool uses a 350-point, objective review of a resort or hotel spa business to map the spa’s DNA and pinpoint systemic and acute issues standing in the way of business objectives. Past Trinity Spa Audit clients in places as diverse as Texas and the Caribbean include a resort that realized a 725% return on investment from the Audit and a doubling of retail sales in subsequent months.
Trilogy’s purchase of Trinity Spa Advisors and Sott’s background will enable the company to diversify from full-service spa management contracts and offer a one-time diagnostic service to a wide range of spas. After receiving their assessment, Spa Audit clients can select from Trilogy’s menu of services to address their specific needs, whether in retail, finance, human resources, systems or operations. Another option for new Spa Audit clients is for Trilogy to provide ongoing monthly support for spas to execute agreed-upon strategy and tactics, acting as a “coach” to help clients achieve their individual goals. The Spa Audit could recommend initiatives that might include positioning, pricing, marketing strategy, operational efficiencies, revenue management, labor strategy and support, expense management, vendor support negotiation and guest experience.
Trilogy has charged Sott to apply her Wall Street Level financial analysis, creative tactics, strategies and six-sigma LEAN operational fixes to luxury resort spas to help break the cycle of needless reinvention to systematically attain profitability and achieve five-star level service standards. This new Spa Audit service will be advantageous to Trilogy’s long-term management clients as well, supporting the company’s mission to transform hotel and resort spas from necessary but unprofitable amenities into customer service-forward and financially healthy assets.
After graduating from NYU, Sott spent a decade on Wall Street, as an asset manager and strategist at Paine Webber with almost a half-billion dollars under management, working with such clients as British Airways Pension Trust, USPS Federal Credit Union, Candies’ Shoes aka Iconix Brand Group and billionaire Ty Warner.
She then gained expertise in spa brand development and operations in the hospitality industry as CEO of two product companies Aromapothecary, and It’s Intoxicating. Sott founded Trinity Spa Advisors, a boutique asset management firm focusing on non-performing and under-performing hotel and resort spa assets. White managing director of the firm, Sott also completed post-graduate work at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration.
“We are proud of our role as a disruptor in the hospitality/spa industry,” said John Grunbeck, SVP sales & business development, Trilogy Spa Holdings. “On an entrepreneurial level, Cheryl is a two-time disruptor, having created one of the first algorithm-based beauty customization apps 20 years ago and now a diagnostic audit tool for spas. By joining forces, we amplify our advisory services and become the premier asset management company in the world. Trilogy can also help take the Spa Audit tool to the next level by leveraging Sott’s know-how with our reputation as ‘spa fixers’ to achieve optimum market penetration and truly make a difference in the industry.”
“I was attracted to Trilogy because of the approach of their executive team,” Sott said. “They each have an entrepreneurial mindset, but they also know how to support each other to bring an idea to fruition and create a customized roadmap for each client’s success.”