If there is a place that harmonizes the dedication to health, body and spirit to the extreme, that is Bethel Spa, which in 2023 celebrates its 20th anniversary. The personal care center does so with constant innovation and, above all, with staff training and customer satisfaction as the centers of its efforts.
“Our focus is totally on training, preparing Human Resources, and not to mention customer care,” said Lourdes Rapalin, owner and director of Bethel together with her husband Álvaro Padin. “The greatest treasure we have is our work team; It is useless to have the best equipment if the staff is not trained or does not have the sensitivity to be able to interpret what the client wants when looking for a result”.
For Rapalin, this point has kept them at the “vanguard”, a key aspect to sustain a “service company” like this. “In our country, understanding what it is to provide a service has been lost a lot, and we have always had to prepare ourselves, train ourselves, but adapt to today’s reality,” he mentioned.
Specifically, Bethel Spa offers a wide range of services: Facial and body aesthetic treatments, Power Plate, Fitness, Devices, Spinning, E-Spinner, Pilates, Acrobatics on fabrics, Hairdressing, Disposable hair removal, Permanent progressive hair removal with pulsed light high intensity, Solar Bed, Sunless Tanning, Dance and Theater School, and School of Models.
Bethel Spa currently has five locations in the country, and since 2017 it has been present in Paraguay. The expansion has been affected by the pandemic, but at least it has not had to suppress any source of work despite the blow caused by the dynamics imposed by the health emergency. Currently, between all the centers an average of 90 people work, including outsourced services.
“We were not oblivious to the pandemic; quite the contrary, our sector was one of the hardest hit. But we have the satisfaction of not having lost a single source of work. We try to adapt to a lot of things, not having to do without any. It was a very challenging time. For example, in aesthetics and spas, we launched the first mobile spa in our country. We outfitted a van in the style of a massage parlor. We go to the home or office of each client, but we do not invade the privacy of the home. We bring the service to home ”, he indicated.
“As many companies work in corporate welfare, they call us to provide the service to their collaborators, and thus make them disconnect for a while, during working hours. It is a mime to the officials. In the gym area, I am president of the Chamber of Gyms and it was very complicated; to this day the sector has not recovered, we had many months closed by order of the government. That encouraged small groups outdoors and informality, which is our daily competition. But we work and we focus to get ahead and as a team we strengthen ourselves”, said Rapalin.
Camila Casas
Lourdes Rapalin, Álvaro Padin and Mariana Sapiro.
For the director of Bethel Spa, this 2023 is presented as a “hinge” year in relation to post-pandemic recovery. “We still haven’t recovered,” she stressed. “2020 was critical, 2021 terrible, in 2022 it began to improve,” she explained. Now, in aesthetics, the competition is located on the other side of the shore: the exchange difference with Argentina makes any type of service in that country attractive.
“People are traveling everywhere and that issue is affecting us a lot, but we are adapting and we know that this year is going to be the takeoff for everyone because the team is working for that,” he said. “It is believed that crossing into Argentina to shop affects those who sell clothes or in other areas, but not in aesthetics. In aesthetics today the competition is Argentina, which is very advanced. Even my titles are Argentine, I have been preparing in Argentina for 20 years, because it is the type of preparation that did not exist here, and that is why we formed the institute a few years ago; we turned to being able to transmit in Uruguay everything that I absorbed in other countries ”, he deepened.
The client
Bethel Spa emphasizes well-being and quality of life, for which there is permanent preparation to meet the needs of clients, which have varied over the years, according to Rapalin.
“At first they wanted something with quick results like losing a roll, or losing weight, or modeling. Nowadays, more lasting results are sought, so for that they know that we have to do a whole treatment that goes together with a good diet, with training, especially personalized ”, he explained.
“We work a lot with the vibration training system that is Power Plate, and that is combined with the aesthetic part,” he explained. In short, what those who attend Bethel Spa are looking for is to feel “Good”, “agile” and “comfortable”, and not so much to become that “model with 90-60-90”.
As for the ages that predominate in the aesthetic center, it depends on the services in question. “In the high school part, there are young people but today more and more older people come. There are many looking for professions or trades that have a quick job opportunity. We can prepare a person who in a year will have the tools to go out to work. It is surprising us that there are many women in their 40s, 50s, who have very good training, but who are looking for something different and who can count on a higher income,” said Rapalin.
Similarly, the director of Bethel Spa commented that “young people” join the gymnastics sector, although the “majority” public is between 30 and 70 years of age. “Luckily we are changing the mentality and we are understanding that doing physical activity is something important and working on it in prevention, which is better than when the doctor sends us to do something. In each of our classes, in our premises, we take great care of the person in any of the activities that he carries out. So, it has happened to us in the last period that we have had ladies and gentlemen over 60 years of age who feel cared for and who find their place”.
Lyra, the latest in hair removal
Last Tuesday, May 9, at Plaza Café, as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations, Bethel Spa launched the latest of its products and services: Lyra, “a totally innovative permanent hair removal system.” At that event, clients and friends such as Sara Perrone, Petru Valensky and Berch Rupenian were present.
Camila Casas
The evening at Plaza Café was enlivened by the violinist Silvana Lanfredi.
“We already handled the permanent hair removal part with pulsed light. We have tried different systems, pulsed light, laser, and now we are going back to high-intensity pulsed light. The equipment has just arrived in the country and it is the only one that exists with a cooling system that makes it impossible to burn the person,” Rapalin said.
“Anywhere they put a waxing team on you with someone without having preparation,” he continued. “And the issue of permanent hair removal goes much further because it forces you to have knowledge of the skin, to know about phototypes, the same happens with the sunbed. We always say that we are one of the few centers that are truly professional on the subject”.
The new technology that Bethel Spa brought, Lyra, is a refrigeration system that does not allow any type of burn on the person who applies it. Nor does it leave marks beyond if the person previously sunbathed. That “gives you peace of mind,” according to the director of the center.
“There will be no risks of any kind. In addition, our hair removal team works with facial rejuvenation and skin blemishes.” In this way, “Bethel Spa has always been characterized by providing a comprehensive service of body and spirit,” concluded Rapalin.
