Nadine Book 7

30. Towels

"The packages are the 3rd part of the spa. It's going to include everything."

"How do you mean?"

Marcus gets out 2 pieces of paper. "Say Dipak takes Nadine to Tye's resort for a weekend. Tye how much is it to eat dinner in the fancy restaurant for 2?"

"100g."

"Ok. Now say it's 250g for an hour-long couples massage in the room. 50g for roses. 20g for chocolate covered strawberries. 200g for a bottle of wine. 100g for 2 wine glasses. 100g for 2 robes. I'm going to stop here. Add all this up. 820g. That is what this package is worth. Now, what Nadine will do is negotiate everything on this list. So that 100g for dinner for 2, say she gets 100 vouchers for dinner for 2 for 6000g. So what she's paying for those dinners is 60g instead. She can grow roses and strawberries. Buy the chocolate cheap. So roses cost nothing. Chocolate cost 5g. She gets the wine from her winery, so that's 25g her cost. The massage isn't going to cost anything, she owns the spa. 100g for 2 robes. She makes those. They are nothing at cost. Say she negotiates the wine glasses down to 10g for 2. She bought a lot. Hell I don't know. Ok. So this romance package is valued at 820g. Her cost is 100g." Everyone nods. "So she sells this package for 500g. That is a hell of a discount for anyone trying to buy all this separate. And she is still making 400g on each package sold."

"Damn. That is f*****g genius. So this is the romance package?"

"No. This is what I pulled out of my ass Tye. It's an example."

Tye laughs. "So what kinds of packages are you thinking babydoll?"

"Every kind. Relaxation packages, family packages, spa packages, I would make like 100% profit on those. I'm open to more ideas. That's all I got right now."

"That's a good start, angel. And you really understand the concept. Like the space you give her for the spa depends on what goes in it, the packages will depend on what goes in the inn. The more you put in, the more room for negotiation she has. The bigger and better the packages will get."

Elek looks at me. "What if someone didn't want the spa, they only wanted a massage. Would you go for that?"

"Yes. I would need a room though. I would still like to offer the masks. But I could push it down to only doing massaging in guest rooms and having no real area for the massages. I could take like 1 resort-sized room. Put my vacation packages in it. Then put a desk up for massages. The guests could only book them in the rooms though. And I would cut out the hairplace completely for that... It all depends on the resort. We had talked about it earlier. Not everywhere is going to do good with a spa. I think they would all let me try something small like that. But if the guests don't have time for it, then there would be no point in me being there. I don't want to waste everyone's time and money by trying to force it."

"That hair place needs to do the local styles too. Do a Chinese woman's hairstyle in China. Women do their hair differently. I bet they would pay to try that out."

Dipak nods. "That is true. The hair place might really take off at the coliseum inn. They are all about fancy hair. I bet the girls would get into that."

Thora comes in. "I'm done."

"How can you be done? We barely started. Tell me about the teen club."

"Teens want to be left alone. It will be a dance floor and bar with a bunch of couches. The bar won't serve alcohol. But it will have bar seats and those little coconut drinks at Tye's place and some other stuff and snacks. Music playing all the time. Some laser lights. Glow in the dark stuff. I'm going to make it look cool. Then it will have a little quiet area in the back. For the ones who want to chill and read or something. You could also put cots in them at night, if they can't sign themselves out and go to their room."

"What about the activities in the club for them?"

"I would put no activities in the teens club. Teens want to talk and sit around. Dance a bit, sit at a bar. Any activities in the club would be a waste."

"That is true."

"The activities outside the teens club. Every day would be a teen time at a pool. But we would have teen music and just let the teens take over a certain pool for an hour. A bon fire, ice cream party, dance lessons, nails done. I want to do something called bumper tubes once a week. Where we put the teens on water tubes in a pool and let them run into each other." I crack up laughing. "There's also horseback riding, archery, hiking, scavenger hunts. Depending on where the resort is, I can add in paddleboarding, fishing, shopping, outdoor cooking, hiking, Hell, skiing or sledding and I can let them take over the tube slides for an hour or 2 a week."

"What activities would be for the little kids activity club?"

"Kid pool, dance parties, easy crafts, scavenger hunts. My goal for that would be 2 things out of the club daily. But the club itself could do more. Where the teen club sits there and looks cool. The little kids club would have ice cream parties, magic shows, crafts, story time, painting, animal experiences. I can put that one on the teen list too." She writes it down. "That would depend on the animals in the area. In China, they do this thing called shadow puppets. They also have paper cutting. On the beach, we could do seashell necklaces. But the little's club would also have to have a lot of quiet time, definitely a cot room. Lots of toys and things they could be by themselves and play with if they wanted."

"You did think of everything."

"I know. I was also thinking. Some of these resorts are very area enclosed. Like the beach, you need a shop there that sells swimsuits, beach towels, maybe sandals. Tre you should do the same thing. Not everyone has that stuff and by sending people out into the community to buy it, you are losing money. Marcus, you would need the opposite for the snow."

"I could package that stuff. Hot weather clothes package, cold weather clothes package. Swimming clothes package. But I wouldn't do the sandals. We learned that on the ship. It's too hard to stock every size of shoe."

"Oh that's true, go for swimsuits in every size and then your towels, make them a little bigger and call them beach towels."

"Brain, can you make a towel 20% bigger and put designs on it? Like a palm tree on a purple towel, coconut drink on a tan towel, wave on a blue towel, boat on a white towel, pineapple on a green towel, dolphin on a pink towel, turtle on a dark blue towel."

"Yes."

"Make 1 of each and bring them here."

Nikolas smiles. "Those would be for Tye's island?"

"Yea."

Tre sits up. "What would you do for Egypt? You are good at this."

"Pyramid on White. Eye of Horus on light blue. Hieroglyphic symbol on tan. Sphinx on purple. Camel on green. Anubis outline on dark blue. A very royal looking cat on pink."

"China?" Tre is writing fast as hell.

"Building with the funny roof on white, panda on purple, lantern on pink, dragon on dark blue, bonsai tree on tan, an actual symbol or word on green. Ying Yang on light blue.

"Coliseum."

"A little coliseum on tan, crazy hairstyle on pink, pizza on white, weird shaped boat on light blue, olive on green, gladiator on dark blue, sunglasses on purple."

"Paris."

"A heart on pink. Paint brush on purple. On the white, I would put a little round table with 2 chairs that they have everywhere there, then I would put 2 cups of wine on the table. A croissant and coffee on the tan. A painting outline on light blue. Green would say Paris. That big windmill on the dark blue."

"Mountain."

"That's harder because I've never seen it. Examples though, ice skate, ski, that ski lift thing, sled, tube, a mountain symbol, a snow boot, snowflake, a unique animal if it's someplace that has that, I mean there's so much. Even those snow-google face things. A tree or cabin. A fire in the fireplace. Heart shaped hot tub." I look at Marcus. "I'm throwing that out there."

He starts laughing.

Johen jumps up. "Heart shaped hot tub. I love that idea."

"Could use it for Paris too."

"How are you so good at that?"

"I just ask myself what each place is for me. The island is all about relaxing and fun. A beach towel and pineapple. Egypt is about adventure. A bitey fish or pyramid. Italy is about entertainment, shopping and food. To most other people, gladiator stuff. China is about art to me. It's so easy for me to get inspired there. Paris is about love and art. The mountain could go either way. Relaxing by a fire, love, wine, massage, or it could go entertainment with skiing and tubing."

"What way do you want me to go?"

"I'm kind of hoping both. All that outdoor stuff was fun. But so is hiding in a room with a fire and a hot tub. Both would be perfect. I couldn't pick 1 way over the other."

Thora nods. "Yea, you never could pick 1 of anything." We laugh.

"Your towels."

"Thank you. It's perfect. Big enough to lay on. I like how the design is at the end."

"That is neat, and I like the idea that we would each have our own. If you wanted this design you would have to go to the island. I should make 1 that goes all the way through them though."

Thora nods. "Princess dress. Queen dress. OH. Gold tiara."

Elek nods. "Or a crown."

"You could write Nadine's Massage on it, or whatever you decide to call that place."

Dipak winks. "Red eyes."

My eyes about pop out. "Black towel with 2 red eyes. I love it."

"You have to do a red towel with 2 black eyes. Completely different meaning but still neat."

"I like them both."

"So who owns the towels? You or Tye?"

"We're going to agree that they are priced at 25g each. I'm going to use them in my packages to get money for them. Tye can sell them at the shop for 25g each. We're not going to argue over who gets to own the pool towels. But the towels in my soap shops are mine. They are different. However, Tye only gets to sell the pool towels with the island symbols on them. He can't sell the others. That way they each get their own."

"Let's go to dinner. I think everyone has enough to think about."

A couple of hours later, Dipak and Marcus bite into my marking spots at the same time and all is right with the world.