Luxury Goods: Spas

The intended heading for this piece was to have been ‘Spa Wars’, since the demand for luxury pampering in country-house-hotel surroundings seems insatiable. Three country-house-hotel spas have opened within half an hour’s drive of here (on the Wiltshire/Gloucestershire borders) in the last 18 months, and no expense spared. Even if you knew what thalassotherapy was, would you pay a pound a minute to get it? Or the same amount to reap the benefits of the Hammam bed? Apparently this last, being a sort of solid massage table, is butch enough to get men to agree to a pampering massage without feeling even a little bit gay.

But who are these customers? Who pays for a weekend in an incredibly luxurious hotel and never leaves the premises? Tim Haigh at Barnsley House says some of his customers stay in their rooms throughout, except for meals, and watch DVDs on the plasma screens and listen to CDs on the uber sound systems provided.