New luxury day spa and wellness destination provides boost for Ilkley

Writers, artists and business leaders beat a path to ROH, a new luxury day spa and wellness destination at Crescent Court, for the unveiling of the festival’s programme.

Ilkley's reputation was built around its health-restoring properties, so it seemed fitting that the launch should be held in partnership with a business which encourages people to take time from the daily grind to focus on their wellbeing.

Emily Slater, the entrepreneur behind ROH, is no stranger to obstacles. After opening her first salon at the age of 20 and a second at 27, she has now closed both to focus on ROH, which is inside a former interior design showroom.

“My vision for ROH was to have a grand space; I wanted somewhere with a bit of the ‘wow’ factor as people walk in,’’ she said.

She opened her first Luxe salon in 2011 in Rawdon, near Leeds, after spotting a gap in the market. She had already built up a client base by running her own mobile business, However, taking the plunge and opening her own business was a bold move in the middle of a recession.

Her mother covered reception duties for six months while Ms Slater focused on providing facials, massage, manicures and waxing.

She opened her second salon in Ilkley in 2018 on the rear of The Grove, and in 2023, it picked up a Bronze award for “Best Marketing” in the British Hair & Beauty Awards 2023.

"I started my career working in a salon which was a one-woman band and it taught me so much,’’ Ms Slater recalled. “I then went on to work in a bigger, higher-end salon and got a different perspective.

"I wanted to create something that was taking the best bits of both. I thought no more about it until I saw an empty shop over the road from where we lived in Rawdon. I mentioned it to my dad and he said: ‘Write me a business plan’.

"To me that was ‘challenge set’,’’ she recalled. “I wrote the business plan and just went for it. It was scary to run my own business at just 20, but I did have a lot of support from my parents; they gave me the money initially to set it up. They said it needed to be paid back after five years and I gave myself the challenge of paying it back within a year, which I did.

"One of the best things I did was offer 50 per cent off everything for the first two months. From day one, the place was full. It was the best thing I ever did. The clients stayed with me and kept on coming. It got off to a flying start.”

"I feel like I know what the clients around here like and what they want. For me, there was a massive gap in the market for something that was a little bit more luxurious without necessarily having a large price tag.”

She has also reported a significant change in the types of clients visiting the business. In the previous salon, the client base had been 97 per cent female and three per cent male, she recalled. Today at ROH, it is 80 per cent female and 20 per cent male.

"In the first few weeks we were open, we had loads of guys coming in, just checking it out,’’ she said. “A lot of this is about the way the salon looks; it’s not overly feminine. I thought very carefully about the design and the whole experience; I even went to a factory in Milan to get the beds for the rooms.

"I am creative and always have a vision for the way the business will look. People asked if this area has been interior designed, in fact it’s just Pinterest and my brain!

Ms Slater studied marketing during lockdown because she wanted to learn how to communicate her values more effectively.

Above all, she aimed to make her interactions with clients more personalised.

"I became a completely different business person during lockdown,’’ she said. “I had time to stop and think about what I needed to do to develop the business, such as re-designing websites.

"There were so many courses available online and I just took full advantage of everything I could get my hands on.”

The business employs eight staff and there is scope for growth.

"Finding and retaining the right staff is so important,’’ she said. “I won’t take somebody on for the sake of it. They’ve got to be right. I can often tell within a few seconds of the interview if the person is a right fit for the business.”

She faced challenges in her early years. Ms Slater said she became a “shell of a person” after suffering panic attacks at school. As a result, her family decided to home school her.

"I was so painfully shy,’’ she said. “My mum once pulled up outside a sweet shop. She was a nutritional therapist so we very rarely got sweets.

"She was parked on a double yellow so she told me and my sister to just run into the shop and buy sweets.

"My sister was in the shop before my mum could finish her sentence. I chose not to because I daren’t go in due to my shyness.”

"Going to college after being home-schooled for so many years was a big challenge,’’ she added. “I just gained confidence from finding new friends and doing an apprenticeship with a lady who was a one-woman band.

"I loved it and I found it really easy to talk to people afterwards. I felt I couldn’t let my mum down, because she took a massive risk to home school me. Today, I have a massive attention to detail.”

This focus is providing an economic boost for a town which has always welcomed creative thinkers.