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Simmers can enjoy the tranquil peace of yoga, massages, manicures, and pedicures withThe Sims 4: Spa Day, and with the launch of The Sims 4: Businesses & Hobbies, they’re also now able to buy and run a spa themselves. Are you ready to run the beauty spa of your dreams?
Cross-pack integration means that your Sims can run every aspect of a spa, either from the comfort of their own home or on a bespoke lot. Here’s everything you need to know about opening and running a spa.
How To Set Up Your Sim’s Spa
You can run a spafrom your Sim’s home or a community lot. If you have Simoleons to burn (Or arehappy to cheat), it’s probably easiest toopen your Spa on a community lot, thanks to the prebuilt lots Maxis added to the library/gallery.
You have to own both Businesses & Hobbies andthe Spa Day game packto be able to run a spa as a small business.
How To Buy A Spa
Firstly,head into ‘Manage Worlds’and choose which World you want to open your Sim’s spa in. Then,open your libraryor the gallery. Filter it to show only Maxis content. You can also set the filter to only show lots with the spa lot type.
99,497
114,271
Perfect Balance Spa
125,089
Since these spas are all quite expensive, you could always considerbuying a starter home and converting itinto a spa by adding the right items. Or, you could dedicate an area of your Sim’s home to their business.
Place your chosen spaon an empty lot and confirm.Head back into Live Modewith whichever household you want to run your spa from and select a computer or phone. Then,use theBuy Small Business Venue Lotinteraction.
If you’re using a computer, this interaction is tucked away under the Small Business menu. On the phone, it’s on the Business menu in general, as shown by the golden briefcase icon.
Find andselect the spayou placed earlier and purchase it. Make sure you buy it furnished andtick the box underneath the lot previewto automatically register the business. This will help you later with applying the correct business settings.
How To Run A Spa From Home
Sims cansave money by running a spa from homeinstead. To do so, you need to follow the steps you usually would tostart a home business, then buy the correct items and maybe hire some Sims.
To start a home business, you can skip the property-buying steps and cut straight to registering your business. You canregister your businessby doing the following:
This is a much cheaper way of opening a spa than the other method, but you’ll still have to have750 Simoleons to register your business. You’ll also have to make sure you have savings ready to buy any gear you might want, like massage tables or yoga mats.
How To Choose Business Activities For A Spa
The next stage to setting up your new business is all in the details. You’ll need to be ready to:
If you bought acommunity lot with the spa typeapplied then a lot of the heavy lifting will have been done for you here. But, don’t worry if you didn’t - you’re able to still easily customise everything manually.
Open the ‘Owned Businesses Panel’in Live Mode while playing as the Sim who registered the business. Then, head to the ‘Manage Businesses’ menu. This will give you an overview of your business.
A spa with automatic registration willhave the spa preset applied. This means that it’ll be named ‘Spa’, be given a serene leafy logo, and have the ‘Do Spa Activities’ business activityapplied. Do Spa Activities include using:
So, if you’re customising your business manually, this is amust-have business activityfor your spa. you’re able to add it byselecting one of the plus iconsin the business activities section or you canselect the Spa presetfrom the drop-down menu above it.
There are some other activities that can fit right in too, depending on what DLC you have:
The name’s a little misleading, but Use Hot Tubs also covers Sims using hot spring items. Just be sure to add some showers and lockers so they can follow proper etiquette, or else the onsen will get murky.
Some of these activities, like Do Yoga and Meditate, are already covered by the Do Spa Activities option, so youdon’t have to add them again. However, if you feel like fine-tuning which spa activities they do, then they give you the option.
How To Hire Staff For Your Spa
Although it’s entirely possible for a single Sim to run a spa, they’d have a hard time doing so. Especially if you decide to have a lot of differentfacilities available that need to be tended. Items like the massage tables and chairs, for example, need tohave a Sim running themfor them to be functional.
Re-open the ‘Owned Businesses’ panel andselect ‘Manage Employee Tasks’. This will show the Sim who owns the business plus a further three empty slots.Select the empty slotstohire some new employees.
Now that you have some employees, you can pick what tasks they have at work.Select the plus iconand navigate to ‘Do Massages’ so they tend a table or chairin your spa.
Manicures and pedicuresare offered at massage chairs, so this task should cover those too.
Make sure you also have staff ready tohandle any other business activities you might have. For example, if you choose Bathe and Shower, you’ll need anemployee with the Clean taskto keep on top of any grimy plumbing.
Your employees will show up fortheir shifts the next time you openyour spa. Also, there are options in the ‘Owned Businesses’ panel that will let you decide roughly how much you pay them per hour and what their uniform looks like.
There doesn’t currently seem to be a task that would specifically get an employee to lead yoga classes at the moment.
This might be something for your own Sim to handle, or you could hire a yoga instructor by clicking on a mat.
Tips For Running A Successful Spa
With your spa up and running, you can move on to worrying about making it good andearning your first few Simoleons. You can do this by hiring skilled staff, picking out some good items, and giving your business model some thought.
Approach Customers Directly
When a customer arrives, select themas though you were going to introduce yourself to them. Then, if you have the right equipment available at your spa, you should be able tooffer them a service directly.
This interaction is useful because customers can take a while to spend Simoleons sometimes, whereas this willspeed the process up. Doing this will also make it clear exactly how much you’re going to earn from offering a service.
They might say no at the time, but this doesn’t mean they won’t spend money later anyway.
Choose Staff With A High Wellness Skill
It’s best to try andhire the most skilled Simsyou can. This can be challenging, considering that your Sim canonly hire Sims they’ve metbefore, and there aren’t premadeSims with the Wellness skill.
A decent workaround for this isvisiting a spa community lotthat your Sim doesn’t own andsocialising with the staff. Then, you can snipe them for your own business by hiring them. Thankfully, you don’t have to worry about no-compete clauses in The Sims 4.
Customers who are happy with the services they receive give tips.
Another way is byinteracting with spa equipment and hiring staff. At first, they’ll effectively be there as a freelancer, offering their services to any of your clients. Introduce yourself to them and then they’ll show up as a new potential staff member.
Decorate And Furnish Your Spa Well
attempt to furnish your spa as well as your Sims can afford to withfancy baths, massage tables, and yoga equipment. The better the range of items your customers have available, themore satisfied they’ll bewith their visit. Plus, it gives more chances for them to part with their Simoleons.
The corner jet baths add an element of luxury that could fit right in at a spa. There’s one with the base game, plus a couple that come with Fitness Stuff and Get Famous.
You also might want to try buying some other items for your spa that are less directly related to encourage them to spend money.Customers will buy food from vendors, or you couldset up a mini gift shopwithluxurious face masks, crystals, and candles.
Mood-boosting items are also an underrated way of managing your business. Placing andlighting incense influences your customers’ emotions, or you could place crystals around the property for a similar effect.
If you have The Sims 4: Crystal Creations, you cancharge your crystals upoutside for an extra boost.
Set Entry Fees For Extra Simoleons
Ticket kiosks are another new function added with Business & Hobbies that can bolster your income. You canadd them from Buy Mode, and then you canset prices from the Manage Business menu.
You cancharge customers one flat rateto enter your spa, or you can charge themfor each hourthey spend there. This can be a useful way of getting some extra money out of your customers to help cover those overhead fees like your staff’s salaries and other outgoings.
Charging a Sim for entry will make them spend less when they interact with other items around the business since it was effectively already covered by their entrance fee.
Play around with how much you charge if you use this method to maximise your income as much as possible.
