Margaret Lora’s 20-year-career in spa truly mirrors the American spa movement—she was at the helm of some of the most forward-thinking spas and spa concepts of the time.
Margaret Lora’s Bergdorf days in the early 90s
Originally from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Lora moved to New York City in 1993, at the age of 18, to pursue her dream to become a ballet dancer. She realized very quickly that she “needed to get some employment going on,” so she started her first job at Bergdorf Goodman. Lora worked in the gift-wrap section and was soon promoted to the second floor where she worked in Chanel as an assistant to a buyer. “This is where I really got my taste for guest service, what the luxury guest experience looked like at that time, in the early nineties,” she says.
It was around that time that Frederic Fekkai was moving out of Bergdorf Goodman, and Lora was summoned to the hair salon to help with the transition. That’s where she met John Barrett, she recalls, who said, “We really love this Margaret, and I think she would be a great fit for the salon and our guests.” Lora remembers going from making $6 an hour to $10 an hour. “I hit the jackpot—and got free blow-drys!”
She spent a few years with Barrett. “This was when Susan Ciminelli moved to the Penthouse with John,” Lora recalls. “When they launched the Penthouse, I was a part of that move, and that was my introduction to spa.”
It gives me great pleasure to share Lora’s spa journey with you here, in her own words.
Crystals, Arden & Avon
In the nineties, Susan Ciminelli had these crystals and everyone thought she was strange . . . Susan’s team was nice enough to indulge me in a little education, which sparked my spa interest. After working for a few years with John and moving up the ranks, I went to the most amazing Elizabeth Arden on Fifth Avenue. That was my first true spa experience where I really immersed myself in the spa world.
The Avon Salon and Spa days, late 90s
This was around 1997, and it was also my first experience with the four-layer mask, the custom color foundations, and Arden’s proprietary wax. She was a pioneer. There were vats of wax and we were turning it in the back—you couldn’t do that now. Every facial was upgraded to her iconic four-layer facial, and every woman who left the spa after this facial, walked down Fifth Avenue holding her molded four-layer facial mask. It was a badge of honor.
I stayed for about a year and was recruited by Avon Salon and Spa in Trump Tower—that really changed the luxury spa scene in New York City. I was recruited as the salon and spa Assistant Manager and eventually became the Spa Director. I worked there for about six years. During that time, Avon sent me to the Aveda Institute in Soho, where I completed my required New York State license to become an esthetician. After one bikini wax in the school’s clinic, I knew I was destined to stay in management! The schooling really helped me relate to the technical team members and have a better understanding of ingredients, products, and technology.
Spa changed my life and really gave me purpose. I found something I was really good at.
The Medi-Spa Boom
Margaret Lora with her father at Ajune medi-spa, mid-2000s.
Then the medi-spa started to boom. I worked for one downtown, and then I worked for Ajune on the Upper East Side. I worked as Spa Director with Dr. Mauro Romita and his daughter, Dana, from 2004 to 2009. This is when dermatologist-run medical spas were all the rage. Guests started wanting more of a luxury dermatology experience—different peels, Endermologie, lasers—so the dermatologists and plastic surgeons really started moving toward the medical spa experience where they could combine results and luxury outside of their office. I learned so much at Ajune; Dr. Romita really allowed me to become more educated about these more advanced procedures.
The Seeds of the Wellness Living Concept
Hilton hired me in 2009 to create a concept spa for their first vacation ownership property on 57th Street in New York City. The spa was called Spa Merge, and the concept was the perfect merging of science and nature. They gave me a bare space and literally ninety days to hire a staff, create a concept, work with a designer, and create a spa space. We worked with Brad Carney and his amazing firm called b r e a d design. I was also working with Ryan Crabbe at the time.
They used Hilton spa and this wellness living concept to help sell their vacation rentals or timeshares. This was the first glimpse that wellbeing—and maintaining your wellbeing lifestyle—was important to maintain during travel. They were selling a timeshare, their sales pitch was selling you a piece of New York City, and they wanted to make you feel at home. That’s why they thought the spa element was so important, so that the guest could maintain their lifestyle.
It worked so well that they sold all the units—and closed the spa! The spa had served its purpose. It took three years. We were there for three years and checked the box.
From Urban Spa to Destination Spa
After Hilton, I went to Exhale in 2012, and I was there for almost nine years. I went back to my old stomping ground, the Upper East Side. I started as Spa Director, then I went to a Regional Director role, then finally, National Operations Director and oversaw 21 locations.
One of Mohonk’s many hand-hewn summerhouses
In May of 2021, I went to Mohonk Mountain House as Spa Director, where I stayed for nearly three years.This was my first experience at a destination spa. Coming out of Covid and realizing that I’ve always been in urban settings, even when I was the National Operations Director at Exhale—Exhale is an urban spa—understanding at this point in my career the power of wellbeing and the power of wellbeing in nature is what really attracted me to leave the city and learn how to live on a mountaintop.
Speaking from a purely work standpoint, looking at urban spas, bottom-line focused and budget-focused, I used to live and die by the numbers. I really believe that that is what most spa directors do, and in doing that we lose track of what we’re actually trying to accomplish. Honestly, we become the worst product of our environment. One of the challenges of working for a company like Mohonk was shifting my mindset. Mohonk said to me, “Yes we want to see great results, but your main focus is to focus on the guest experience.”
That was extremely exciting to me. I was able to focus on a guest experience surrounded by 85 miles of trail, a beautiful lake, forest, mountains—so truly the sky was the limit in regard to what I knew the potential was in regard to programming and continuing to leverage what Mohonk has stood for for over 153 years—wellbeing and nature. There was no better time for it, we were coming out of Covid, everyone needed it, and I understood the guest because that’s the guest I’ve worked with in the city for the last 20 years.
The Biggest Change in Spa in 20 Years
Accessibility. With accessibility comes advancement. As spa becomes more accessible to the public, as provider and directors, as the demand grows, then subsequently, our experience has to continue to become more sophisticated, more personalized, have more meaning.
Years ago, if you go back to the Susan Ciminelli days, it was strange to go into a room with a crystal and have a massage. Now, we’re taking those crystals and using them in gemstone masks, creating entire rooms out of crystals for salt therapy—it just progresses and opens up the acceptance and understanding of the importance of wellbeing. In turn, we have a much more educated consumer, and then again that turns into what we’re doing with our experiences.
We can no longer just offer massage. Everyone can get a massage. There has to be meaning, there has to be purpose, there has to be culture. All of these things are so important in understanding . . . to provide that sophisticated service. In day spa, hotel spa, resort spa, medical spa, day spa, there’s a level of expectation from your educated consumer that creates urgency for directors and providers to create a sophisticated meaningful experience.
No More Trends
Trends used to be all the rage. Our consumer is educated. They don’t want something trendy, they want something that speaks to them that is results-oriented. Spa used to be more of a beauty business focusing on trends—the hottest new gadget, new product, which wasn’t always the best, just flashy and new. Now our consumers are very educated and they’re not falling for trends anymore. They want something results-oriented that you can stand behind that forces us as spa directors to become accountable for the service we’re providing and the products we’re using and the ingredients in those products. Guess what, they understand them more than you think.
Spa as a Life-Changer
Margaret Lora at home in the mountains
I did not excel scholastically, and I knew I didn’t want to go to college. My dream was to become a ballet dancer. I didn’t’ want to be in a classroom unless I was dancing. When that fell through, this industry gave me purpose. I’m very passionate, and I do feel there are so many creative youth that do not understand this industry and all the potential it offers from management to sales to provider, from getting into a lab and creating product, getting into the green effort, design work, marketing!
Spa changed my life and really gave me purpose. I found something I was really good at. I always had a heart to serve, and I found a place where that was valued in this industry. That put me on a path and catapulted me to where I am now.
The spa industry is family, and we help each other and support each other. I never met anyone in my lifetime that feels that their colleagues within their industry truly have their best interest in mind and care for them as a whole person and support them. I have absolutely received that throughout my entire career in spa.
Mary Bemis
Mary Bemis is Founder & Editorial Director of InsidersGuidetoSpas.com. She is a pioneering spa journalist, most recently honored by Medika Life as one of the "Top 30 Influential Voices Transforming Wellness." She is an inaugural recipient of Folio's Top Women in Media Award, and was honored by ISPA with its distinguished ISPA Dedicated Contributor Award. In 1997, she launched American Spa magazine, and in 2007, Mary co-founded Organic Spa magazine. A pioneer in the sustainable spa and beauty worlds, Mary is co-curator of Cosmoprof North America's Discover Green Pavilion. She is a Global Wellness Day Advisor, and a co-founder of the Washington Spa Alliance.
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