• USA Today, Tuesday, September 26, 2006 12:15 PM

Big-city hotels are converting guest and meeting rooms into luxurious spas staffed by fitness and yoga instructors and other trained personnel. "Everybody's putting one in," says Joe McInerney, president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. "If you don't have one, you're not competitive." The spas often contain whirlpools, saunas, steam rooms and relaxation or treatment rooms to provide relief to stressed-out business travelers. Services include massages, facials, manicures, pedicures, and yoga and exercise instruction. Mobil Travel Guide ranks the spa at New York's high-end Mandarin Oriental as the nation's best for the kind of lodging frequented by business travelers: non-resort city hotels. The 14,500-square-foot spa is billed as "luxurious, Asian-influenced" and "a temple of serenity." But many hotels with lower room rates are also putting in high-quality spas. Some have "phenomenal facilities, and many provide good service," says Shane O'Flaherty, the guide's vice president of quality assurance. What sets the top 20 apart is the "heightened personal service," he says.

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