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Hotel Spas

Ritz Carlton Spa and Others Not Associated with Clinique La Prairie

Where: 50 Central Park South, [map], New York, ny, United States, 10019

April 11, 2007 at 4:36 PM | 0 Comments

Watch out you hotel spa seekers. Just because a hotel spa carries the name La Prairie doesn't mean it's actually connected with the famous Clinique La Prairie in Switzerland.

The Clinique La Prairie is suing the Ritz-Carlton in New York for advertising it's a Clinique La Prairie spa, complete with a representation of the Switzerland clinic at the spa's check-in desk, when in reality the hotel spa is not affiliated with the original CLP at all. CLP is filing a lawsuit against the Ritz claiming:

Clinique La Prairie owner Armin Mattli said: "We believe the Ritz-Carlton is confusing consumers and degrading the reputation of Clinique La Prairie. We believe they are leading customers to think they are getting Clinique La Prairie's unique spa treatment and cellular therapy at a New York hotel. This is not acceptable. No relationship exists between Clinique La Prairie and the Ritz-Carlton spa."

A CLP pr rep confirmed for us that the Beverly Hills Hotel spa in California is also not an authentic CLP spa, nor is the one in the Observatory Hotel in Sydney or the one at the Ritz in the Cayman Islands. He says:

As you can see, while the lawsuit is focused on the Ritz in New York, it could have implications at other hotels.

Also interesting to notice is that the La Prairie spas like to hawk their La Prairie products which CLP reports has been evaluated by the Consumer Reports organization (as well as a "French counterpart") and both organizations proved them to be the most expensive and the least effective. CLP also says the La Prairie cellular products are a rip-off of their own anti-aging Cellular Therapy products. Some people who have used the La Prairie products claim they have received rashes.

Phew, it's a good thing we managed to say no when the La Prairie treatment specialists tried to get us to buy like $500 worth of products at the BH hotel.