Rainspa - Place D'Armes at Place D'Armes Hotel 1.3 1 review

I was really looking forward to my facial and massage at the Rainspa Place D'Armes because the hotel itself is lovely. The room I stayed in was classic with nice hardwood floors, and the signage for the Rainspa looked promising. However, as soon as I stepped into the waiting room & reception area, the colour scheme was not quite right (lots of baby blue).

My facialist was running late, so I was led to a hallway through reception and to a closet where I was given a tattered robe which was hanging in the wardrobe (the robe was literally distressed and ripped in multiple places!!). I was then led to one of two toilets - no, not a changing room, but a toilet where I had to change into the robe, and then I had to take all of my clothes and shoes and put it into a bank of lockers that was in the hallway...and the lockers did not have keys! Good thing I left my valuables in my room, otherwise I would have been even more stressed during my treatments...but seriously, no locker rooms? no key locks on the lockers? Ripped and distressed bathrobes? Not a great start.

I was offered the chance to use the steam room upstairs since my therapist was runnning late, so I walked upstairs to a room that looked like a waiting room...sort of. The steam room was right there, but there were no visible hooks to put up my robe (where should I put it, i thought to myself...) And would I go in naked, or just in a towel, or both...but no place to leave anything, so I decided not to even attempt it. Went back to reception which had a lot of traffic, so I felt a bit weird sitting in my robe while people were popping in & out...not an ideal waiting area (I never understand why some spas do not separate reception from a treatment waiting area - it seems so straightforward!). Plus, when I initially walked in, the woman at reception announced loudly what treatments I was about to have, so all my new friends at reception knew I was having a massage and facial...good thing I was not having something more exotic, or potentially embarrassing.

My facial, when it finally came about, was OK. The therapist was from Morocco, and spoke no English so I spoke to her in my broken French. The treatment rooms felt unluxurious I must say...and the facial was forgettable, although my skin felt quite hydrated and the results were good. My massage was very weird...I had asked for a deep tissue massage, but the therapist who said although she typically gives deep tissue, she was not told my reception that it was to be a deep tissue massage, and that this would cost two Canadian dollars more...and she told me this 2 or 3 times. I believe her name was Isabelle or Isabella. She was a really nice woman who had some really interesting things to say, but in the end the massage was rushed and I had to change rooms after my facial which added some additional complexity to the matter. I guess the entire experience from start to end was just so haphazard and frayed (much like my robe), that in the end I was kind of happy it was over. Only because of the delays, it took a whole lot longer than I had hoped.

The prices are high, but the facilities and the overall experience felt not up to the expectations. Shame