Hot stone massage. Chocolate body scrub. Seaweed thalassotherapy wrap. All sound lusciously decadent and expensive.

Even the $10.9 billion spa industry admits prices are inching up, with some massages reaching $250 at the chicest of resorts. But you don’t have to pay full price. Just like the airlines and hotels, spas operate using yield management, meaning that when things are slow and the economy nosedives, prices drop. You can benefit if you learn when and what to book. Here are tips.

Weather your savings. If your destination has a particularly hot summer (Arizona) or cold winter (Maine), off-season specials may be only a thermometer away. Even five-star resorts have an off-season and a busy season. In the off-season, hotels use room discounts to attract guests, then toss in spa discounts to sweeten the deal.

Timing counts. Every spa has off-peak hours of operation: when it first opens, around noon and late in the day. Tuesdays and Wednesdays tend to be slow days. Check if services cost less at some days or times.

Ask and ye shall receive. If you’re a walk-in client, ask about daily specials. Say you’ll come early or are willing to use the newest employee. Many spas offer discounted services to fill unbooked time. Occasionally, day spas slash prices for any first-visit treatment, such as a manicure or facial, in the hope you’ll become a repeat customer.

Or, e-mail spas ahead of time and ask about discounts for business travelers. Julie Gallaher of ThingsYouShould Do.com suggests, “Write something like, ‘I’m going to be in your town next month, but I’m on a budget, so I’m looking for something affordable.’ ”

Also, check for special-occasion discounts. For example, Glen Ivy Hot Springs (www.glenivy.com) in southern California offers free spa admission on guests’ birthdays.

Less is more. Services that require extensive training (Thai massage, Shiatsu, cranio-facial, etc.) cost more. So will a spa’s signature treatments because of the more expensive products used. Among the most overpriced spa services, manicures and pedicures as much as triple what a typical nail salon charges.

Bundle up. Bundling several treatments on one day can reduce the cost 10 percent to 20 percent over à la carte services. If you don’t want a particular service in the package, some spas will substitute.

Cast your net wide. Look off-property or outside resort areas where the facilities are often equal in quality but far less in cost. Within a mile of Honolulu’s Waikiki is Aloha Lomilomi (www.aloha lomilomi.com), which specializes in the Hawaiian lomilomi massage with extra discounts for those older than 65. Ask your hotel concierge if any neighborhood spa offers discounts to hotel guests, advises Mary Hall, author of the Recessionista Blog.

Frequency pays. If you’re in a location for a couple of weeks or visit frequently, you may be able to buy a series of treatments – say, six for the price of five – to be used within a specified time. Some spas offer a frequent-user card. The Spa at Inverness (www.invernessspa.com) in Denver offers a Relaxation Rewards card. After 11 visits that rack up $95 or more each in services, you receive a free treatment of choice.

Show your loyalty. Most spas offer loyalty programs for local or repeat customers. The Relache spa at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine (817-778-1800; www.gaylord hotels.com/gaylord-texan) offers the Preferred Customer program. Participants get 20 percent off all services on Mondays through Thursdays. To make the PC list, share your e-mail address so the spa can send you information.

Maximize a mini. Consider express treatments such as a mini-facial or 30-minute massage. A shorter facial and half-hour spent in the relaxation area may just give you the boost you need. Plus, with most full-service spas, visitors who book a treatment are free to use the entire facility – saunas, steam rooms, swimming pool, relaxation lounge – for the day.

Surf the Internet.  For other spa savings options, search with city name and “spa discount.”

Go back to school. Cosmetology or massage-therapy schools charge a fraction of their spa counterparts. Most offer a student salon or clinic where treatments are performed under the supervision of instructors. Search for schools of the American Association of Cosmetology Schools (www.careersinbeauty.org) or the American Massage Therapy Association (www.amtamassage.org).

In Dallas, the Salon Professional Academy (214-222-2436) offers facials for $22. Manicures start at $11.

Shop Costco. Another great deal dug up by Consumer Reports’ Shop Smart magazine: Discount warehouse Costco sells two $50  gift certificates for $79.99 (a 20 percent savings). Use the certificates for treatments (even discounted ones) at any spa in the  network.  Make sure you have a local spa that accepts them ands use them right away.

Join the club. Consider a national or regional massage chain. The chains are prone to staffing turnover, and it may take a few visits to find the ideal masseuse, but savings can be significant. For example, Massage Envy has more than 500 storefront clinics nationwide and employs only certified therapists. Members get one massage for $49 to $59 per month (depending on location) with any extras $39 to $49 each.

Hiatus Spa and Retreat in Dallas (214-352-4111; www.hiatusspa.com) offers a similar membership program. Customers pay $59 a month for a 12-month platinum membership or $69 for a six-month gold membership, which gets them one core service such as massage, facial or wrap each month plus unlimited core services priced at the monthly fee. Memberships may be shared by four people in the same household.

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Recession blues are so not pretty, and increasingly, consumers have been cutting back on life’s little luxuries. That definitely includes spa visits and appointments for facials, massages, and manicures.

Well, here’s a treat for frugal fashionistas and budgeting beauties who want to stack paper and still look fabulous.

From April 13 to 19. Over 750 spas nationwide will be offering up to three spa services, normally $100 or more, for a discounted price of $50. And you need to book an appointment ASAP if you want to get in on this sweet deal! Trust me – speaking from personal experience, these spots get filled up fast.

All kinds of establishments will be offering the discounted deals — day spas, med spas, and fancy-pants resorts. This year’s list of participating venues ranges from West Palm Beach and Boca, Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale, to Miami Beach, Coral Gables, and downtown. Here are the local offerings, so all you need to do is pick up the phone and dial!

Beach beauties, check out:
Luca Spa (110 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, 305-534-7546)
Laser Cosmetica (400 Arthur Godfrey Rd., 888-341-9674)

 

 

The Standard (40 Island Ave., Miami Beach; 305-673-1717)

 

Uhma Spa (726 6th St., Miam Beach; 305-695-0996)

 

 

 

Downtown:

The Spa at the Sports Club/LA (in the Four Seasons Tower, 1441 Brickell Ave.)

 

 mySpa at the InterContinental (100 Chopin Plaza, 305-372-4444)

 

 

BodySense Holistic Spa and Wellness Center (2292 Coral Way, 305-854-3100)

 

Skin Therapie Spa (31 Almeria Ave., Coral Gables; 305-448-0555)

Up north in Aventura, there’s the Sleek MedSpa (19501 Biscayne Blvd., Aventura; 877-629-SLEEK)

If you’re new to the practice of pampering yourself, visit the website for tips on what to expect, how much to tip, and whether or not you should strip buck naked before entering the steam room or not.

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In late November, a couple of months after the global financial crisis leaped to the top of news reports, spa lovers browsing  were showing new interest in a concept fit for jittery times. Along with the usual search terms, like “day spas” and “massage,” a newly prominent word was typed into the site’s search engine three times more often than it had been in the summer. That word was “stress.”

Interest hasn’t waned since.   Not only is “stress” still showing up often in the site’s searches, but weekly traffic to “stress management”  has doubled since the summer months.

When the economy was good, taking a spa vacation was largely about pampering yourself. It didn’t matter that the afterglow of that $165 carrot-and-sesame body buff lasted only until your next shower. Now, with the sinking economy on most people’s minds, a trip to the spa has become something else — an investment of sorts, in well-being.

The shift in mood is not lost on spa owners, who have long been savvy marketers, convincing people of the purifying qualities of sweat lodges and persuading them that a nightingale cleansing mask, made from sanitized bird droppings, was truly worth $109.

 

Miraval, the spa resort company based in Tucson, Ariz., is offering a new De-Stress Me package designed for “these trying times,” according to Tracey Anne Latkovic, the vice president of sales and marketing.

 

 

The Eldorado Hotel and Spa in Santa Fe, N.M., is running a Stress Bailout promotion to attract travelers looking “to escape the non-stop coverage of the economy,” according to a press release.

 

 

And under the usual New Agey marketing jargon that flashes across the sleek home page of Canyon Ranch, the destination spa company that was luring guests for body poundings and weight-loss regimens before the modern spa proliferation was a gleam in marketers’ eyes, there is a new message straight from its founders, Enid and Mel Zuckerman. “Has there ever been a time when you could have used an escape to Canyon Ranch more?” it reads, under the caption “The Vacation You Need” and a proverb about health, hope and happiness.

“No?” the pitch continues. “Then book your healthy, revitalizing getaway today and let us help you re-establish your balance. In times like these, nothing — nothing at all — is more important than taking care of yourself and on focusing on what really matters: Health, hope, love and a tranquil mind.”

During past economic downturns, Zuckerman said in an interview, business had been “very strong, because people need to get away to deal with stress, deal with fear, go to behaviorists, do life management, protect their health.” So far, Canyon Ranch’s revenues are “holding up very nicely” this time, too, he said, despite a dip in occupancy of about 10 percent in Tucson and Lenox in 2008. And the company opened a new luxury spa in Miami in December, just when the recession was proving itself entrenched.

Of course, a little financial incentive also helps. To battle the uncertain economy’s dampening effect on leisure spending, spas are marrying their new emphasis on stress relief with a flood of discounts and deals.

Rancho La Puerta, just over the California border in Tecate, Mexico, explains its decision to keep prices at 2008 levels — starting at $2,795 a person for seven nights, double occupancy — this way on its Web site: “We feel that in these tumultuous times a destination spa vacation is more important than ever.” It has also run Bring a Friend promotions that allow a guests to double up and share $1,500 to $2,200 in savings.

Miraval’s Authentic Remedy package, which starts at $399 a person a night — more than 40 percent off regular rates — includes extras like organic wine tastings and cooking classes. Mii amo, at Enchantment Resort in Sedona, Ariz., is holding rates at 2008 levels and offering other discounts.

Not to be outdone, the Golden Door in Escondido has rolled back weekly rates to 2007 levels of $7,750 a person through May 24, down from $8,275 originally planned for this year, and is offering $500 savings if you bring a friend.

Even Canyon Ranch, which has never lowered its published rates — “I could never compromise our standards or cut our programs because we no longer could be who we are,” Zuckerman said — is tinkering with pricing.

Canyon Ranch in Tucson is offering credits of up to $350 for stays of at least four nights (which start at $3,770 a person, based on double occupancy) to out-of-towners, to help offset airfares. Its sister property in Lenox, Mass., has a fifth-night-free deal through April — in effect a discount of as much as $1,000 depending on accommodations and time of week — and is also offering 15 percent in savings when two guests who have never stayed at a Canyon Ranch resort share accommodations.

Last year, at the second-annual Global Spa Summit in New York, Ian Schrager, the trendsetting hotelier who is designing a new spa brand for Marriott, suggested another way spas could improve business — add spaces where spagoers can hang out. “These are places where people can meet and socialize before or after spa treatments,” he said in a keynote address. “People feel good when they come out of the spa and spas can take advantage of that.”

Spa owners have no more insight than anyone else into how long tough economic times will last. “I have no idea whether we got another year or two or three years ahead of us,” Zuckerman said. But recently, Canyon Ranch bookings have been picking up ever so slightly, he said, which he takes as “the message that people still want and need what we have to offer.”

For the nail-biting stress victim who still has enough money left to relax at a spa at all, this may not be entirely the worst of times.

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