The Hammam

This is the best place for a couples massage. The room is large and quiet. The therapists do a wonderful job, and leave you wanting more.

I paid for a friend and I to go Hammam's ""pamper the bride"" open house recently, and I was very disappointed. The event was horribly organized. There were no signs, no sign up sheets, and we spent more time standing in line than we enjoyed their services. We were told we couldn't use the hot tub or sauna because they were having a plumbing problem. To top everything off, they wouldn't validate our parking, so we both had to pay $7 to get out of their parking lot.

I paid for a friend and I to go Hammam's "pamper the bride" open house recently, and I was very disappointed.

The event was horribly organized. There were no signs, no sign up sheets, and we spent more time standing in line than we enjoyed their services.

We were told we couldn't use the hot tub or sauna because they were having a plumbing problem.

To top everything off, they wouldn't validate our parking, so we both had to pay $7 to get out of their parking lot.

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First off, they do not validate your parking. Which is annoying when you are charging $150 for a facial. Once I arrived the girl at the reception desk was dressed extremely sloppily and unprofessionally. Not good in a visual industry. \r\rWhile changing I could hear men working on the sauna or something, which made me feel extremely uncomfortable like I was going to get busted in on by some man while changing. It gets worse. My technician is possibly the rudest woman I have ever encountered. She told me all about herself, her travels, how wonderfully smart and wealthy all of her children are, how she hates Atlanta compared to the other cities she has lived in (turns out she doesn't live in Atlanta - like I DO, but rather in a remote suburb). As if that wasn't rude enough she went on to tell me how terrible my skin was. I might as well give up because apparently my face is on the fast track to hideousness. Unlike her, she was blessed with her complexion (I am not making this up, I have been cracking up my friends with this story for weeks) ""I was lucky, I got my mother's lovely coloring and my father's thick skin. You have very thin skin, you are likely to have red splotches and burst capillaries"" Just what you want to hear for $150 bucks when you are already panicked about turning 30, but I digress. \r\rBasically I spent a ton of money to be insulted. I decided to write this review when talking with one of my girlfriends last night about the horrible experience SHE had. So clearly my experience was not an anomaly.

This spa tries to be something it's not, especially based on the advertisements. Granted, it is a medical spa, so the whole place has a clinical feel to it -- sterile decorations, bright lights, no music, no nourishment for the soul. Upon entering, the desk staff was talking loudly on the phone. This was not condusive to relaxation. It was like a doctor's office. The staff was friendly, the place was clean, but it did not measure up.\r\rFor example, the shower, the steam room, and the hot tub were just warm, not hot. On a 30 degree day, I was looking forward to heat therapy. I asked a staff member to please adjust the hot tub from 95 degrees to 104. She did, but the monitor never reached 104. The hot tubs were very small. Two people could fit into one and would bump legs while sitting. The whole spa area was the size of a locker room and very cramped. They advertise a cool mist pool, but I never saw it.\r\rA sign states that guests are to not touch the sauna controls, so I had to dry off, put on my robe, and go to the front desk to ask that the sauna be turned on for me. They were quick, but the sauna never heated up to a nice, hot temperature, even after dousing the coals. \r\rThe most food and beverage they had to offer was a lukewarm glass of water and a bag of sweet potato chips loaded with preservatives and artificial ingredients.\r\rMy hand treatment was not worth $20. It lasted 20 minutes, and 15 of it was laying with my hands in heating pads. Again, no music was playing to engage me, the room had no warm, ambient lighting, just gloomy, filtered light from the window amongst shadows from looming skyscrapers.\r\rI was shocked that without a service, they charge $50 just to use their spa facilities. Chateau Elan offers warm service, ambient lighting, ambient rooms and music, an attentive staff, complimentary hot tea, citrus water, trail mix, and apples, all for $25-$35 to use the spa facilities as a day guest. \r\rNothing would make me return to the Hammam.