Welcome to Luxury Lifestyle Awards’ exclusive interview with Izabela Przybyla, the owner of Royal Salt Cave & Spa in Illinois, USA. With its recent recognition as the Best Luxury Wellness Spa in Illinois, Royal Salt Cave & Spa has solidified its position as a premier destination for holistic healing and relaxation. Since its establishment in 2017, the spa has been dedicated to offering a wide range of natural therapies, including halotherapy and infrared heat therapy, to promote balance and well-being for clients of all ages. Now, let’s delve deeper into the philosophy and success of Royal Salt Cave & Spa as we speak with its visionary owner, Izabela Przybyla. 

LLA: Congratulations on being named the Best Luxury Wellness Spa in Illinois by Luxury Lifestyle Awards. How does this recognition reflect the philosophy and mission of Royal Salt Cave & Spa? 

Izabela Przybyla: Thank you so much! I feel extremely honored to know that my business is recognized and appreciated! Our goal is to provide a world-class experience for both our guests and employees; a place where health, comfort, knowledge, and personalized attention combine to create a memorable and rejuvenating experience. Receiving this reward is a reflection of our mission as we focus on treating our clients like royalty as they relax and heal. We take pride in our customer service, quality of services, cleanliness, and décor style as we help our clients shift from imbalance to balance. 

LLA: What inspired you to establish Royal Salt Cave & Spa, and how have you seen it evolve since its opening in 2017? 

Izabela Przybyla: My main inspiration for opening the spa was my daughter. When she was younger, she struggled with her asthma and allergies. We tried a number of different medications, inhalers, nebulizers, etc. that were recommended by doctors, but nothing really helped her. At most, the treatments were able to temporarily reduce her symptoms. That’s when I felt it was best to take matters into my own hands and start a business that can not only help my daughter, but also others who struggle with the same issues. Since opening in 2017, we have evolved through our hard work and dedication and have recently expanded our spa. We are now double our original size, which has allowed us to increase the services we offer, as well as provide additional retail space for natural products. 

LLA: Can you tell us more about the unique therapies and treatments offered at Royal Salt Cave & Spa? How do they contribute to the overall well-being of your clients? 

Izabela Przybyla: Of course! At our spa, we offer our main  salt cave, Graduation Tower, full-spectrum infrared saunas, massage therapy, facials, and a Vitality Booth. Our main salt cave offers halotherapy, which is a dry salt therapy and has a wide range of benefits for your respiratory system and skin. The Graduation Tower is a moist salt therapy that specifically focuses on the respiratory system and sinuses. Our Vitality Booth is another treatment of ours that offers halotherapy. This room has 20-minute sessions, versus the 45-minute treatments in the Salt Cave and Graduation Tower, that can be combined with red light therapy for a 2 in 1 health boost! Our salt therapies are a natural and non-invasive way to heal your respiratory system and skin, improve sleep patterns, and promote mental health.  

Our massages are therapeutic massages consisting of  a wide variety of massage techniques as well as options of various durations (30 minute, 60 minute, 90 minute, and 2 hours). Having different durations and types of massages allows our clients to choose exactly what they think will fit their needs, whether they are looking for relaxation, pain relief, help with sleep patterns, or simply improving their quality of life by reducing stress and anxiety.  

Our infrared sauna works wonders for our client’s health  through dry heat therapy and chromotherapy. The infrared heat of the sauna penetrates the body deeper, increasing one’s metabolism and processes of internal organs, detoxifying the body from the inside. It also provides skin purification, pain relief, anti-aging benefits, and helps to improve mental health!  

LLA: Halotherapy is one of the prominent services provided at your spa. Could you explain its benefits and how it sets Royal Salt Cave & Spa apart from other wellness spas in Illinois? 

Izabela Przybyla: Halotherapy is an all-natural, drug-free, and non-invasive treatment that provides relief from respiratory ailments, helps improve skin conditions, improves sleep patterns, and aids in the reduction of stress and pain. Having this natural treatment at our spa sets us apart from other spas considering salt therapy in general is still new to the United States. We are one of the few spas in Illinois that offer this therapy, while also offering other complementary medical treatments. Typically, spas that offer halotherapy only offer a “dry” variant of the therapy called halotherapy in a “salt cave”. At our spa, we wanted the therapy to be more meaningful and versatile, which is why we also offer our Graduation Tower (a moist salt treatment).  

LLA: The Graduation Tower is a distinctive feature of your spa. Could you elaborate on its significance and how it enhances the therapy experience for your clients? 

Izabela Przybyla: Certainly! We are the FIRST in the US to have a Graduation Tower that uses an exclusive moist salt therapy generator. This unique generator diffuses an aerosol or spray that possesses a significant ability to penetrate the mucous membrane of the respiratory system and skin. In turn, this allows clients to get relief from their respiratory and sinus ailments in a soothing and relaxing environment! 

LLA: Education and personalization seem to be key aspects of Royal Salt Cave & Spa. How do you educate your clients about alternative health treatments, and how do you customize each client’s experience? 

Izabela Przybyla: Education is a key aspect for our entire spa. The majority of our employees have higher education degrees. All our massage therapists are fully licensed and we even have a few who have their master’s degree in Physical Therapy. We also require our spa associates to complete a halotherapy certification course.  All of these aspects allow our staff to be fully knowledgeable of all our services enabling us to provide poignant information to our clients to meet their needs. Our website also provides detailed information on all our services, including research and history. The more educated our clients are the easier they can maintain and improve their health!  

LLA: What role does the spa’s environment play in creating a peaceful and rejuvenating experience for your clients? How do you ensure a safe and comfortable space for them? 

Izabela Przybyla: The environment plays a large role in our clients’ experience. One comment we hear often is that our clients feel relaxed from “the moment they walk in.” This is greatly due to our elegant décor, calming colors, lighting, staff, and general cleanliness. We also have meditative music throughout the spa enhancing the quiet, serene atmosphere. Our staff escorts each client to their service, explaining what they can expect during their session. During a massage session or facial, our clients are continually asked if they are comfortable and if the pressure is to their satisfaction. We also have cameras in our  public areas ensuring the safety of our guests and employees. 

LLA: How do you select and train your staff to maintain the high standards of service at Royal Salt Cave & Spa? 

Izabela Przybyla: Having the correct staff is of the utmost importance to us. We don’t just hire anyone who can work the hours on the schedule. We look for staff who will enhance the services we offer as well as someone who is a good fit with our philosophy and other team members. We have monthly meetings with staff to “check-in” and also to provide new or updated information. We have a mentor for our new employees and provide “on-the-job” training for our employees. 

LLA: Can you share any memorable success stories or testimonials from clients who have experienced significant health improvements through the therapies offered at your spa?  

Izabela Przybyla: Two success stories come to mind; our very own manager and one other client. Our manager began working with me 8 months after our doors opened. She suffered from allergies and asthma and was looking for something other than “medicine.” She began coming regularly after I opened as she was experiencing relief from her symptoms. At one point she joked that she should work here since she was there so often so I offered her a job. Since working at Royal Salt Cave, she is off all of her allergy medicine and no longer has an asthma steroid inhaler. She only has a “rescue inhaler” in case of emergency, but she says she hasn’t had to use it in years. 

Our second success story is very similar. We have a long-time client who was on the maximum dosage for her asthma inhaler and her doctor wanted to put her on a second, additional inhaler. Our client began to research alternative respiratory therapies and found us. She came to us regularly for a month after which she had to check in with her doctor. At that point, her doctor gave her the “breathing test” and he asked her what she had been doing for the previous month as her numbers had never been better. She was never put on the second steroid inhaler and was able to decrease her daily inhaler dosage.  

We cannot guarantee these results, but we are very proud to be part of their health journey. 

LLA: As the owner of Royal Salt Cave & Spa, what challenges have you faced in the luxury wellness industry, and how have you overcome them? 

Izabela Przybyla: The biggest challenge I have had to face is the acceptance of salt therapy as something other than a fad. Halotherapy is well known in Europe, but to this day it is still not well known in the U.S. Daily we receive phone calls asking us what salt therapy is, what does it do, etc. We continually educate our clients on the many physical and mental health benefits of salt therapy. 

Another challenge was COVID. Many spas were not able to remain open during and after the U.S. “shut-down”; however I am proud to say that not only were we able to sustain and remain viable, we actually flourished. We were able to do this by changing how we provided services to our clients. We wanted to provide respiratory benefits to as many people while still allowing them, and our staff, to feel safe and comfortable. We enhanced our sanitization processes and provided private sessions for all our clients, not mixing any parties. Our staff was comfortable coming to work and our clients continued to attend sessions. 

LLA: Looking ahead, what are your plans for the future of Royal Salt Cave & Spa? Do you have any new therapies or expansions in mind to further enhance the spa’s offerings? 

Izabela Przybyla: We have just recently completed our expansion this past May, doubling the size of our spa. We have added an additional, larger infrared sauna, a facial room, our new Vitality booth, a party room, a shower, and two additional treatment rooms where we will be offering new services soon. We are constantly seeking to expand our services and knowledge to offer the best, unique, most beneficial services to our community.