Platform · Reception
Everything happens in front of the guest.
Reception is the only place in a spa where the work is done while somebody watches. Every screen here is built for that — one action, one place, while a person stands at the counter.
She is already standing there
A walk-in is one screen, not six.
Somebody comes in off the street and asks whether there is anything free. In most systems that is a new customer record, a search, a booking, a check-in and a bill — five destinations in three modules, while she waits and watches you navigate.
- Create her, book her and check her in without leaving the screen. Who, what, when, in — in that order, because that is the order the conversation happens in.
- The times offered are times the booking will accept — sized against the room, the therapist and the turnaround, so nothing offered at the counter is refused a moment later.
- Her details are captured once and she is a returning guest from the next visit onward, rather than a walk-in every time.
- The awkward pause disappears. That pause is the guest’s first impression of how the spa is run.
The alternative was six screens and three modules, while she stood and waited.
The day, as it actually is
Three states, not one list.
Expected, arrived, checked out. They are three different jobs — chase, look after, take payment — and a single list of "today's guests" hides the one row that needs somebody to walk over right now.
- Check-in is one tap on a tile sized for a tablet at a standing desk, not a link inside a menu.
- A no-show is declared by the clock, after the grace period the property set — not by whoever remembers to mark it at four in the afternoon.
- The guest who finished an hour ago and has not paid is a row you can see, rather than a discovery made at closing.
- Late arrival is flagged before the treatment starts, so a shortened massage is explained kindly rather than discovered on the table.
The floor
Put the floor where somebody can act on it.
Guest flow, room occupancy and the alerts that need a person are usually built into a manager's dashboard — read once a week, by somebody not at the desk. They belong at reception, because reception is the only station that can do anything about them.
Rooms, live
Which are occupied, which are turning over, which are free and for how long — so the answer to "can you fit me in" is not a guess.
Nobody double-booked
Not the therapist, not the room, not the equipment, and not the guest.
Waiting too long
How long a guest has sat in the relaxation room before anybody touched her, while it can still be fixed.
Alerts that need a person
Raised at the desk, not filed in a report that is read on Monday.
A dashboard shows the manager what happened. This shows the desk what is happening, which is a different screen for a different purpose.
Recognition
She should not have to introduce herself again.
The desk sees who she is before she reaches it: her name, her tier, the language to greet her in, what she always books, and anything the property owes her today.
- What she always has, so the desk can confirm rather than interrogate.
- Her birthday, in the window the property celebrates, in time to actually do something — a card, a cake, an upgrade she did not ask for.
- A clinical routing badge and nothing more. It says hand this to somebody authorised. It never becomes a medical note on a front-desk screen.
- A complaint from last time is on this screen, so the person meeting her already knows.
From the room
The therapist already told you.
An upgrade agreed during the massage. A product recommended at the end. A return interval the therapist actually believes in. All three are waiting at the till before the guest walks out of the corridor.
The alternative is a receptionist asking a therapist, in front of the guest, what she was given — which is where the upgrade quietly stops being charged, and where the product recommendation dies.
- Add-ons agreed in the room arrive as charges, attributed to the therapist who sold them.
- The product she was told about is the product offered at the desk, not a guess from the shelf.
- The recommended interval becomes the rebooking prompt, so "see you in three weeks" is a booking rather than a pleasantry.
The receptionist should not have to ask the therapist what to charge.
Before the bill exists
What she already paid for, first.
Package sessions remaining, membership discounts owed, an entitlement she has forgotten about — shown above the bill rather than beside it, because it changes what the bill should say.
- Position is the whole point. Beside the bill, the desk composes it first and then voids and starts again. Above it, the bill is right the first time.
- She is told when a package would be cheaper than what she is about to pay — which is exactly why she believes the next recommendation.
- A membership about to lapse is raised at checkout, while she is standing there and renewing is easy.
Shown ABOVE the bill, not beside it — compose first and you have to void and start again.
Settling
One invoice per therapist. One receipt.
A visit seen by two therapists earns two invoices, because that is how the revenue is attributed. The guest still pays once.
- The bill is proposed from what was delivered, not from what was booked. A treatment that did not happen is shown as not charged, with its reason.
- Revenue posts to the therapist who earned it, in the ledger, not in a spreadsheet reconciled at month end.
- A discount needs a reason before it is accepted, so "why is our average spend falling" has an answer with names on it.
- Split across cash, card, wallet and package in one settlement, each invoice recording only its own share.
| Line | Earned by | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Deep Tissue 60 | Mariam | 36.000 |
| Scalp ritual · add-on | Mariam | 12.000 |
| Argan oil 100ml | Layla | 14.500 |
| Goodwill · service recovery | approved by manager | −8.000 |
| Total | 54.500 |
Facial declined in the room — not charged.
Twenty to ten at night
Three answers, then everybody goes home.
The end-of-day report is not a management document. It is read at 21:40 by a tired receptionist who wants to leave, so it answers only the questions that stop her leaving.
- Does the drawer agree with the rails? Counted against what the system says should be there.
- Has anybody gone home without paying? The single most expensive thing to discover tomorrow.
- Did the day’s tasks get done? Including the ones nobody answered, which stay open rather than disappearing.
| Check | Result |
|---|---|
| Drawer against the rails | Cash 412.000 · agrees |
| Anybody gone home unbilled | None outstanding |
| Tasks the system asked for | 14 of 16 done · 2 no answer |
| Rebooking prompts | 9 asked · 6 accepted |
Why it matters commercially
The desk is where the money is actually lost.
Not dramatically. In small amounts, all day: the upgrade nobody charged for, the product nobody mentioned, the rebooking nobody asked for, the discount nobody had to justify, the guest who walked out while the desk was busy with someone else.
None of that is a training problem. It is a screen problem — the information arriving after the moment it was needed. Sensa moves each of those facts to the point in the visit where somebody can still act on it, which is the only intervention that survives a busy Saturday.
Questions
Reception, answered.
Somebody walks in without an appointment. How long does that take?
One screen. Create the guest, find a time that is genuinely free, book it and check her in, without leaving reception. The alternative — and it is what most spas do — is six screens across three modules for a transaction that happens while a person stands at the counter waiting.
How does the desk know what to charge for something added in the room?
Because the therapist sent it out. An upgrade agreed mid-treatment, a product recommended at the end and a suggested return interval are all waiting at the till before the guest reaches it. The receptionist should not have to ask the therapist verbally what to charge.
What if the guest already paid for the treatment in a package?
Entitlements are shown above the bill, before it is composed — the package sessions she has left and the membership discount she is owed. Shown beside the bill instead, the desk composes it first and then has to void it and start again.
Can reception take a payment against several invoices at once?
Yes. A visit seen by two therapists produces one invoice each, and a single receipt can settle both. Each invoice records only its own share, so a bill that is genuinely still owed keeps showing as owed.
What happens if a guest booked three treatments and only received two?
The bill is proposed from what was actually delivered. The third is listed as not charged, with its reason, rather than silently dropped — so the desk and the guest can both see why the total is what it is.
How are no-shows handled?
Automatically, after a grace period you set per property — fifteen minutes by default. A guest who has been checked in is never marked absent, and the grace period frozen onto the booking is the one that applies, so changing the setting does not rewrite history.
Start
See a Saturday run through it.
A guided pilot at one property, with your treatments, your therapists and your price bands — not a demo dataset.