The Future Of Massage? Clothing On & $25 An Hour, Idea Borrowed From China

By Brad Kava | Last updated Feb 21, 2010, 12:34 pm

There’s a new business spreading quickly around California, and I’d bet it will hit the rest of the country soon: the $25 hour-long massage.

The sign on the local branch of Foot Massage in Santa Cruz offers a $25 foot massage, with head, back, neck, shoulders and legs thrown in for free. There are others now in cities around the Bay Area.

You sit in a group room on big fold-down lounge chairs, with either private televisions showing movies at each seat, or one big one shared by all. A masseuse dips your feet in hot water and soothingly rubs your head, arms shoulder… You know the drill. Then you get a foot massage, and then you turn on your stomach for a complete back massage.

The business model came straight from China, where I was earlier this month. There you could get a three-hour massage for $8, minus tips. And it seemed like everyone in Shenzhen got them many days a week. Why not? People there work hard for not enough money and an hour relief is much needed. Not so different than here.

We went to a massage spa there where we indulged in drinks, saunas, jacuzzis, hour-long massages for two and a hotel room for the night before heading to the airport– all for the staggering price of $40. No wonder the biz is taking off here. Masseuses make twice what they would make in China; customers pay a quarter of what they would pay for a massage elsewhere.

But here’s the rub: Because the clients don’t remove their clothes, the establishments aren’t subject to the same strict laws as regular therapeutic massage givers would be. The massage was good, better than many, but not as good as a well-trained masseuse can give. For the price, however, it was excellent and relieved stress without relieving much cash.

The negative side of the equation is that I’m told the workers receive room and board, but must live solely on tips. The establishment takes the rest. There was no pressure to give a tip, but at that price, who can’t afford to be generous?

These massages, by the way, are completely legit, and done in a room with as many as 100 others in China and a dozen people here.