The darker side of luxury

The resort has 14 guest suites at the spa. Only two were occupied -- one by me. There's also an inn, which is a more conventional hotel with 275 rooms. There was a hotel/motel convention being held there, so many of those rooms were filled. In addition to conventioneers there were couples vacationing who were as interested in golf or wine tasting as the spa, and they moved from the spa to the winery to the course. So I can't know for sure that things are slower and less lucrative than during my visit last year.

But I saw signs. For example, the gift shops were all closed. Of course you could buy things, but folks were doing double duty. At the winery, it was the restaurant maitre d' who also handled the register, at the spa it's the woman's locker room attendant, at the inn it was the concierge. So that's three jobs gone from last year.

The exercise classes at the spa were all held before noon, as opposed to all day long last year. I assume it's so they only have to pay the trainer for half days.

I realize that as we all look for places to cut, a spa stay is probably one of the first things to go. After all, as much as I loved, LOVED my vacation, I know it's not a necessity. But it makes me sad for the personal trainers whose workload is cut in half, or the three retail clerks who lost their jobs altogether.