Hanamitsu Hotel Spa pivots toward residents

Hanamitsu Hotel Spa is located at the Paseo de Marianas in the heart of Garapan, a stone’s throw away from Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan and across Kinpachi Restaurant and ABC Store. (Photos by MARK RABAGO)

Hanamitsu Hotel Spa is reinventing itself as place where residents can enjoy a relaxing massage after a stressful and busy day at work.

Tracy Yang, who manages the spa, said they have 10 masseuses who are well versed in traditional massages, with majority of them having more than six years of experience.

Currently, Hanamitsu Hotel Spa is offering special promotions, including a 2 1/2-hour spa package for $80 that will pamper you with a foot spa and massage, your choice of body massage, body treatment or facial, and a flower bath.

Their $25-an-hour body massage or facial treatment is still available and ditto for their $20 pedicure, calluses cleaning, or coloring packages.

Aside from their skilled masseuses, Hanamitsu Hotel Spa has also become a landmark of sorts in Garapan and Paseo de Marianas for its Bali-style architecture that immediately brings to mind the Indonesian tourist hotspot and its serene aura.

Hanamitsu Hotel Spa is the largest Bali-style spa on Saipan with a spacious relaxing area in the ground floor and four spa suits, each with massage beds, rest chairs, shower room, restroom, and also spa facility on the second floor.

“We are the biggest Bali-style spa on Saipan. We have a spacious relaxing area in the ground floor and on the second floor we have four spa suits, each with massage beds, rest chairs, shower room, restroom, and also spa facility. You will enjoy a true relaxing spa experience here at Hanamitsu,” said Yang.

When asked about Hanamitsu Hotel Spa’s most popular massages, Yang said customers seem to enjoy their back pain relief sports massage, aromatherapy message, Thai massage, and hot stone massage.

Hanamitsu Hotel Spa first opened in August 2010 and initially catered mostly to tourists—Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese. Before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all flights from the CNMI’s tourist markets, their clientele was made up of 80%-95% off-islands customers, Yang said.

To comply with health directives and help curb the spread of the coronavirus and due to the continued lack of tourists, Yang said their business closed their doors last March 20 and only reopened last June 1. “We had to close the spa at the beginning of the pandemic. Since most of our customers are tourists before the pandemic, after we reopened the business, we have seen a huge decline in customers since there are no tourists. We have a lot of longtime local customers before, and now we are trying to have more local friends try our massages.”

Since reopening, Yang said they’ve seen a steady flow of 10 or more resident customers a day.

As far as following the guidelines of the Governor’s COVID-19 Task Force, Yang said all customers and staff need to have their temperatures checked before entering the facility, write their names and telephone numbers for contact tracing, wear face masks all time, use hand sanitizers placed at the entrance, and strictly follow the directional arrows inside.

Hanamitsu Hotel Spa is located at the Paseo de Marianas in the heart of Garapan, a stone’s throw away from Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan and across Kinpachi Restaurant and ABC Store. Customer parking is located at the back besides GIG Discotheque. For more information or to book a massage, call (670) 788-6658 or contact them through their Facebook page.

Hanamitsu Hotel Spa has10 masseuses who are well versed in traditional massages, with majority of them having more than six years of experience.