Serenity Day Spa

I really enjoyed my massage and facial here. Someone got me a groupon here as a gift and it included a facial and aromatherapy message.

When I spoke to the receptionist (who was very nice and helpful), I mentioned the horrible reviews on Yelp and she informed me that the Spa was under new management and that it was a completely different staff.

The waiting area was nice and relaxing. And I liked the fact that you could change in the dressing room, which was really clean and well kept.

After changing into my robe, I went in to the waiting area, which is only made available to guest. My massage therapist, Drake, came and got me and took me to the room. He did a good job focusing on the areas with the most tension. He was gentle and I felt very comfortable with him.

Aziza did my facial and we had so much fun together. She has a great personality and explained everything she was doing, especially because that was my very first facial.

All in all, I would love to come here again. I am glad management was able to revamp this place.

Came down to DC from NJ for a Bachelorette Party and Serenity Spa was one of our spots. The MOH had coordinated with the Director for over a month so we had a nice spa day planned for 8 girls.

We arrived on Sunday morning at 11:45AM with the first batch of 4 girls to get started on their massages at 12PM. While the first two girls (not including the Bride) were taken in for their massages right at noon, while the other two girls including the bride were left to wait. Around 12:10PM, the receptionist came rushing in saying that one of the massage therapists would not be in due to an injury.

I have a lot of issues with this as it's super unprofessional of the massage therapist along with the spa for not informing us sooner that they would be short one therapist. Out of the 8 girls, only 6 received services as they would not have had time to accommodate us all for the time slot that we had. Such a bummer considering it was our time to hang with the bride.

Great service! I had the tension tamer massage and it was wonderful! I felt like I was in there for an hour when it was only half an hour service. I had Mrs. Angnes who was perfect. The massage was not to rough or to light. She put the right amount of pressure. She also greeted me with a cup of water after I left the massage room. I do recommend to come here for a group party such as a bachelorette party. They were accommodating and that was very important.

I went here a number of years ago and had a very bad experience involving an extremely uncomfortable and inappropriate masseuse, but when my boyfriend recently bought me a gift card to this place, I figured it had to have gotten better since I last went. Apparently they've managed to stay in business all this time and not improve at all. First call and get told they don't provide one of the services offered on the gift card, but they'll give me the monetary value to apply to a different service. I hem and ha a bit, and they basically say if I don't like what they're offering, I'm welcome to just go to another one of their locations. Decide to take the other service, but the person who provides it isn't in for a few weeks. Schedule it for three weeks in advance.

Get a call today. Turns out the person who was out three weeks ago...will also be out the day they scheduled me. Offers to extend the massage by a bit (I guess since that's the only service they offer) and then give me the value left over on the card to use at the spa at a later date. No thanks. Asks me if I have the gift card info (which I, unsurprisingly, didn't have on me at work), but I explain I gave the info to the person I booked the appointment with. Surprise, didn't write it down. The only reason I didn't give one star was I called the Alexandria location and they'd received a heads up from the Tenleytown location and were wonderful.

Although I've experienced some pretty amazing spa treatments at 5-star hotels in Singapore and Hawaii, nothing beats an un-massage at Serenity Day Spa--which is to say that I paid for a massage and did not get one. My "massage therapist" was some amateur who seemingly did not know what she was doing. Now I wish I could say that my standards are too high. Unfortunately, I've also been to average spas before. What I got at Serenity was not a massage but a back rub (as in very light friction and no discernable degree of pressure). Needless to say, I was rubbed the wrong way.

Later, I heard that you have to be licensed in Maryland but that practically anyone can give massages and get paid for it in D.C. Too bad I didn't know about Yelp back then.

I totally agree with Serena P. THE BRAZILIAN WAX IS TERRIBLE!!! I was left with wax all over the place, and the beautician (her name was Micky) left me with scabs from trying to pick out every little in grown. Ironically, she didn't even wax all of the hairs from places she could reach, so I was left with an unclean bikini line.

The salon is nice and clean, but bottom line, it was $75 and NOT WORTH IT.

UPDATE: I got store credit for my crappy brazilian because it sucked so much, so I went back to use the credit and get a pedicure. TERRIBLE PEDICURE. LIke, I might've well done it myself. And ppl pay $44 fo it? Omg....insanity. Just cut off your toes if you're going to go here. I'm using the rest of my credit on shampoo or something.

I have been to this spa quite a few times since it has opened, and am sorry to report the decline in service over the past few years.

I have called the Tenley spa three times recently, attempting to book an appointment. Each time, the phone has gone unanswered, rolled over to voicemail, and nobody called me back. This is particularly galling because I am attempting to use up the balance on a gift card, which they now tell me expired two weeks ago, although I was never advised that the balance had an expiration date, nor was I provided any documentation that reflected an expiration date. There is no manager on duty, and my voice mail message to the manager has gone unanswered. Based upon these recent experiences, I will be bringing my business (and buying gift cards) elsewhere.

Do not go here, there are plenty of places around the area to get a great facial. My experience at Serenity Day Spa was not completely terrible, but it was not good either. I should have read the reviews before going here with a gift certificate!!

The Spa
Not well kept or particularly comfortable. They try to make the waiting room comfortable and dimly lit...but really it looks like an out of date apartment where the lights are turned off. The pitcher for water was plastic. They can afford to invest in a nice pitcher of water at least if they do not invest in the ambiance.

The Facial
While the person giving me a facial was not, I did not find her to be very thurrough. I asked her to concentrate on cleaning around my nose area....she seemed to clean everything except for my nose, even where I did not have any skin issues. I also had little scabs on my forehead (where I have good skin usually and there was nothing to clean!!) for 5 days.

The table/chair that you lay on and blanket is not top notch either. I do not get facials or other such services often, so when being charged $100 and seeing what great places are available in the area, I expect much better!!!

I bought a Groupon for a one hour (50minute) massage at Serenity, which I redeemed this past weekend. This place is a true spa environment and I found it to be very relaxing. Admittedly, I am going into massage therapy myself so I may have been a bit critical, but overall the massage and experience went very well. My therapist, Berthe, gave me a full hour instead of 50 minutes, and really seemed to pay attention to my requests.

I would definitely like to go back and experience some of Serenity's other services, especially their hot stone massage. My only issue was that their entrance is not very straightforward.. there is a sign above Cafe Ole on Wisconsin, but I had to call them to figure out how to get indoors.

I went here for a manicure and facial, and I wish I could review the two separately. If I could review them separately, I'd give the manicure 2 stars and the facial either 4 or 5, so I'm going with an average of 3.

The manicure was pretty basic, and the manicurist was kind of awkward at small talk. The biggest problem with it though is that it started to peel really quickly. I had to remove what was left of the polish after only a week, because so much of it had come off anyway. I'm able to give myself a manicure that lasts longer than that.

The facial, on the other hand, was great. I told the esthetician that I sometimes break out after facials, and she used products specifically for sensitive skin, and it ended up being one of the best facials I've had. Another reviewer said that they extractions are not included with the Groupon, but I also used a Groupon and my esthetician did extractions. She was overall really friendly and did a great job.

A friend of mine got a massage and was really happy with it. So overall, I'll likely be back for another facial or to try their massage, but I'd skip the nail services.