I'm really sad to leave such a low rating for Aru, i love the place!
However one of their hair stylist, Jen, needs to brush up on her professionalism.. I always hear her either, sighing, talking about her last customer, or shooting dirty looks to the lovely girls paying to enjoy their experience in the relaxing environment.

I received Aru's Signature Facial for the first time last week. I wanted to share how great this service is. My Esthetician was kind, gentle, friendly and clearly knowledgeable about her profession. Overall the spa was clean and very nice in design and comfort. The actual facial was absolutely lovely. It was relaxing, as it was full of massage and definitely targeted my skinmy face has not looked as good as it did following my facial in along time! I will absolutely be back here.

Before arriving to Aru during the Halloween weekend (a couple of weeks ago), both my friend and I had been to Aru Spa before. Our previous experiences were excellent and we were always greeted with warm smiles and great service. Upon leaving Aru we always left feeling satisfied with either our hair or other spa treatments. This most recent experience, however, was completely different.



We were greeted with a friendly receptionist, but the friendliness ended there. My stylists seemed to not really understand how to achieve the style I wanted even though I brought in three pictures. She started taking out a curling iron to achieve the 'mermaid waves' that I wanted. I asked her if a curling iron would do the trick or if a three pronged clamp would work better and she said "oh yeah" and then went to go retrieve the three pronged clamp. Already, my confidence was dwindling since I had just told the stylist what to do even though I probably knew far less than her in terms of hair. She started clamping my hair but after a few minutes realized it wasn't going to achieve the results that I wanted which I deemed as fair enough. Afterwards, she switched back to the straightening iron to curl my hair and she promised that it would go into the 'mermaid waves' that I wanted. I waited patiently as I saw that the curls were just looking like barrel curls rather than waves as she had promised. I figured she was going to tousle my hair or separate the curls in order to achieve that 'wavy effect' but as she was doing the last finishing touches, my hair STILL looked like she had just curled it. This wouldn't have been that big of a problem if she had just said in the first place that she couldn't do the style. (Although Aru prides itself in being able to achieve ANY style possible so I suppose this is why she didn't say she couldn't). I said to my stylist that it didn't look anything like the picture I gave her and she said "yeah, we don't have tool for that". After realizing that I really was not going to get my hair the way I wanted it to be like, I decided to just work with what I had and make some minor adjustments. I wouldn't have minded her inability to create the style I wanted so much if she didn't seem like she just wanted to rush out of there. She barely peeped a word throughout the whole process and she continued to sigh and act mildly frustrated after every little change I wanted. I knew it was her last appointment of the day and she didn't exactly hide the fact that she wanted to leave. The two things that irked me most about my appointment was the fact that Aru actually did not have the tool to do the hairstyle I wanted. It seemed really ridiculous to me considering Aru is an upscale spa. The second thing that SHOCKED me about my appointment was the lack of good customer service. Aru's staff has always been so bubbly, nice and warm, but instead it seemed rushed and like my friend and I were a bother. No matter how friendly we tried to be, we did not receive the same friendliness in return.



My friend did not have any better luck with her hair appointment either. She wanted a half-up style, but was told by the hair stylist that she did not do "updos". I don't know of any salon where the hair stylist is only capable of straightening or curling hair, nevertheless, perhaps there is an art that we were not aware of. That theory became completely obselete, however, because the MAKEUP artist ended up doing half of my friend's hair. This was absolutely ludicrous to me that an upscale spa would charge 55 dollars so that we could get our hair done by the makeup artist. Although my friend liked the end product of her hair, she was upset that it was only by chance that it looked half decent.

The receptionist was excellent and remained friendly both at the beginning and end of our appointment.

All in all, the experience was absolutely treacherous. We were looking forward to a night out on the town with great hair, but ended up leaving dumbfounded by the experience we just had at a spa that we used to love and frequent regularly.

• By:

  LIL

  tell them.
  

  I have been going to Aru since last Mother's Day and one thing I can tell you for certain is that their customer service is fabulous. I have had a great experiences every time I have been to Aru with the exception of 1 minor issue. I received a pedicure and the polish was a little off on one of my feet. I wasn't going to mention anything until they sent me an email asking how my service was and if I had any feedback. I took that opportunity to just mention my polish and within a couple hours, i received a phone call from them asking me to come back in so that they could fix my polish to my liking. The girl told me it is their policy to do everything they can to assure that each customer leaves pleased with their service. I recommend that you let them know because in my experience with them, their customer service is one that many other companies can model after.

My husband and I are always so busy... life, kids, work etc. So for our anniversary we booked in for a couples massage. The ladies helped me by setting up a beautiful plate of cheese, crackers and fresh fruit. We had the most amazing service and felt like royalty. Then they even did my make-up and we went to dinner having an evening to remember. Thanks Aru!

I love this place sooo much I decided to ask my wife to marry me in the Japanese bathtub. Aru is very unique, great couples room, complimentary aromatherapy steam rooms and amazing staff! The kind of place you would expect in London or New York... but in White Rock! who would have thought!

Every service that I have had was a great experience. Very clean enviroment and extremely classy place. Japanese bath a must/

My boyfriend and I came in for 90 minute Relaxation Massages for our anniversary and it was absolutely AMAZING!We were treated like gold. I would definitely recommend Aru to all my friends!

I'm so glad I was referred to come to this place for a Massage. I suffer from chronic pain and back problems so I visit with the RMT's. I enjoy the steam rooms and the spa environment as opposed to the cold clinic environment. I have been seeing an RMT here for over a year and my body thanks me for it.

• By:

  LIL

  RMT
  

  Is this covered on my Medical plan?

• By:

  CHING

  RMT
  

  From what I understand, most benefit plans cover RMT Massage. My plan covers 100% but you may want to check with your provider before booking.

I am one of those ladies who frequent spa's and having been to over my fair share of spa and salons I have to say I LOVE Aru! It's one of those places you can go and always count on quality. They have the best team of estheticans and stylists I have ever come across. What makes this place special is the staff, from the front desk girls, stylists, body workers to valet attendants all of them thoughtful and genuine people. One of my favorite services to get is a full body exfoliation followed by a 90 min relaxation massage. If a seasoned spa goer like me says it's good. It's darn good. Come try it!

I recently had a family emergency to attend in Toronto. I made a last minute appointment at Aru Spa and Salon in Surrey, before I left. I have been coming to Aru for a couple of years and my time there has always been great. This recent appointment made me realize how special these people are and the reason I am writing this review. I really needed the support and I cannot tell you how important it was for me to be treated so nice at this moment. I will be recommending Aru to all of my friends. http://www.aruspa.com

We recently had the pleasure of going to Aru for Mother's Day and absolutely loved the place and the services we received. I have a group of 4 other women that get together every Mother's Day and go to the spa to get massages or our nails done, it's our little treat to ourselves. It was the first time that any of us have been to Aru as we usually try new places.

We each treated ourselves to manis & pedis this year and had such a great time. We were able to sit together during our services and catch up, they also brought us a glass of wine (nice touch! ;) ). We had such a great time with the girls doing our services, they were so friendly, professional and funny. I can't say enough about our experience with Aru except that we absolutely loved or time there and all of my friends agreed to make this our annual Mother's Day treat.

I wanted to treat my wife with a mothers day gift from the kids and I, and we decided on a spa treatment. I found Aru online and it looked nice. I knew my wife wanted a pedicure, so I decided on the "Aru Signature Manicure and Pedicure Package". It looked good and it included a manicure too, as well as shoulder, arm, leg massage. My wife has fibromyalgia so a full massage is no good for her, but she was complaining about her upper back and shoulders hurting for the last couple days and I thought this package would be perfect, and at $125 it fit my budget. So I called ahead, sunday was booked, so I booked saturday and paid in advance over the phone by giving my credit card.

When she came home, we asked her how it went. She said "It was good, but don't send me there again". I asked her to explain, but she was reluctant and said "don't ask, I don't want to make you feel bad" since it was a gift. I finally convinced her to tell me and she said that it was in a hair salon and there were blow dryers and all other devices going on for the whole 2 hours. I was shocked. This was supposed to be a relaxing 2 hour spa treatment and she sat in a hair salon?!? And she had to listen to hair dryers for 2 hours? She went on to say that she was so surprised at the atmosphere that she asked one of the people doing the treatment about it and they mentioned that "the Spa is in the back". This was supposed to be "A true spa Manicure and Pedicure!", which is right off the website. But as the staff told my wife, "the spa is in the back". She said "next time, send me to one of the other places you have since they take you into a room with relaxing music etc...".

When I decided on the package for my wife, and on your website it is listed under the "spa" menu. On the pedicure page, where the package was listed, there is a nice picture of a group of ladies sitting in what appears to be a nice area looking a lot more relaxed that what my wife indicated she got. Why she was not in the Spa I have no idea, but I certainly felt mislead. I know it's naive to think that the pictures on the website are what to expect, but, it certainly had me misguided as to what I thought I was getting her.

And to add to that, after it was all done, they held my wife back to pay. She called me at home and asked me about how I paid as the clerk was asking if I got her a gift certificate or something. I asked her to pass the phone to the clerk. When the clerk got on the phone, I told her that I paid in advance and asked why she was keeping my wife there. She looked it up, and sure enough, it in the computer system. She then asked me if I wanted to pay with that credit card. Well of course I did, I asked to pay in advance days ago to avoid all of this. But clearly that was not noted.

I e-mailed the Spa twice at the only e-mail address listed on the website and I never got any response. I guess that means unsatisfied customers get ignored.

• By:

  LIL

  Disagree
  

  I have to disagree with your post. I went here with a group of women and we had an amazing time. The place was exactly as described and as pictured. We have been to many spas and really loved the social environment here.

• By:

  AVALDSTYN

  Sounds like they were a little unorganized the day your wife went in. Hopefully she still had a great Mothers Day though!

My husband and I tried Aru for our 10th Anniversary and I think this was the most romantic and memorable anniversary to date. We had full body exfoliations, massages and a soak in their Japanese bath, so romantic and relaxing! Thank you Aru, we will be back.

I received a Japanese Bath, massage and facial for my birthday. I was completely pampered by their wonderful staff, from beginning to end this was a fabulous experience. Highly recommended!

• By:	DANIELLEMA

  Japanese Bath!
  

  I completely agree. The Japanese Bath is amazing!