The Laurel House entrance hall — olive limewash walls, a long travertine bench, folded linen and olive branches in a ceramic urn

Day spa & wellness · Charleston

An hour that belongs to nobody else.

Laurel House is a small day spa on Cannon Street. Six treatment rooms, no music you have to endure, and an hour that starts when you sit down — not when the therapist is ready.

Book treatment

The house

We took the clock off the wall on purpose.

The building was a rowhouse before it was a spa, and we kept what that gave us: small rooms, thick walls, and windows that face away from the street. There is no relaxation lounge you have to sit in to prove you're relaxed. You arrive, you're shown to your room, and the hour starts.

Every treatment is booked with fifteen minutes of air on either side of it. That's not generosity, it's arithmetic — it's the only way a room stays quiet and a therapist stays unhurried. It also means we can't take a walk-in on a Saturday, and we'd rather tell you that honestly than keep you waiting in a robe.

A treatment room — a moss-green wall, a low bed dressed in unbleached linen, a brass side table

Treatments

Six things, done properly.

We do a short list well rather than a long one adequately. If you need something we don't offer, we'll tell you who in Charleston does it better than we would.

Massage

Deep tissue

A limestone slab with a brass bowl, a warm stone and a sprig of olive

Massage

Aromatherapy

Smooth warm stones and folded linen on pale limestone

Massage

Hot stone

The hydrotherapy room — a stone soaking tub against a moss-green tiled wall

Skin

The facial

Steam rising from a stone soaking tub in warm window light

Skin

Hydrotherapy

The manicure corner — a limestone counter, an olive velvet chair, a brass vase

Beauty

Hands & feet

Since 2016

The arithmetic of a quiet room.

15 Minutes of air between every booking

6 Treatment rooms, never more

72% Of guests book again before they leave

9 Therapists, all on staff, none rented

What we use

Unscented unless you ask for scent.

Most spa oil is perfumed because perfume is cheap to add and hard to argue with. Ours isn't. The base is a cold-pressed olive and sweet almond blend with nothing in it, and if you want lavender or eucalyptus or the bergamot everybody asks for in July, your therapist blends it in front of you before you lie down.

It matters more than it sounds. Scent is the part of a treatment that follows you home, into your car, onto your pillow. It should be a decision you made, not one made for you by a purchasing department.

A rough limestone slab with a rolled linen towel, a warm stone, a small brass bowl and fresh olive leaves

Prices

The hour is the product.

Every price below is the whole thing — the room, the fifteen minutes of air, the tea afterwards if you want it. There is no upsell at the end and no membership to escape.

The fifty

$120 50 min

One area, one hour, out the door on time. The booking most people keep coming back to.

Deep tissue or aromatherapy
Oil blended to your choice
Room held 15 min either side

Book the fifty

The eighty

$180 80 min

Long enough to work through a whole back and still finish slowly. The one we recommend first.

Any single treatment
Hot stone at no extra charge
Tea in the room afterwards

Book the eighty

The afternoon

$310 3 hrs

Hydrotherapy, a treatment of your choosing and the facial, taken in one unhurried run.

Hydrotherapy soak
80-minute treatment
The facial
Room for the full afternoon

Book the afternoon

The therapists

Nine pairs of hands, all different.

Everyone here is on staff, and everyone has something they're best at. Book the person, not the slot — and tell us if the fit is wrong, because it sometimes is.

Nadia Bekele

LMT · Founder, deep tissue

Twelve years of clinical massage before she opened the house, and the reason there are fifteen minutes between every booking. Works deep and explains what she finds. Swims at Sullivan's Island most mornings, all year, which she insists is not a personality.

Tomás Reyes

LMT · Hot stone & aromatherapy

Trained in Oaxaca and has the steadiest pace in the building — guests routinely fall asleep and apologise for it, which he considers the review. Blends his own oils and will happily take twenty minutes deciding on yours.

Harriet Vance

Esthetician · Skin

Fifteen years of facials and a flat refusal to sell anyone a product they don't need. If your skin needs a dermatologist rather than an hour with her, she will say so and give you two names.

Guests

What people say afterwards

I've been to spas where the hour starts fifteen minutes late and ends five minutes early. Here it starts when I sit down. That's the whole difference.

Priya RamanThe eighty, monthly

Tomás asked what I wanted the oil to smell like and then made it. Nobody has ever asked me that in my life.

Will HartiganAromatherapy

Harriet told me my skin didn't need the facial I'd booked and moved me to something cheaper. I've sent her four people since.

Danielle OseiThe facial

Before you come

The things people ask.

If yours isn't here, call — the phone is answered by someone in the building.

What do I wear, and what comes off?

Whatever you arrive in. In the room you undress to your own comfort level, under a sheet, and the therapist leaves while you do. Nothing is uncovered except the part being worked on. If you'd rather stay fully clothed we'll do a treatment that works that way.

Do I have to talk?

No. Tell your therapist at the start whether you'd like conversation or quiet and that's the end of it — nobody will make small talk at you to be polite.

Can I book a walk-in?

Rarely, and almost never on a Saturday. The fifteen minutes we leave between bookings is what keeps the house quiet, so we can't compress the day. Call and we'll tell you honestly what's free.

What if I fall asleep?

Good. That's the treatment working, not a waste of the hour, and every therapist here takes it as a compliment.

Can I buy this for someone else?

Yes — gift cards are by value rather than by treatment, so whoever receives it picks their own hour rather than being handed yours.

Book

Pick an hour and a pair of hands.

Choose your therapist and your time. Arrive five minutes early if you can — not because we'll start late otherwise, but because the walk in from Cannon Street is nicer slowly.

Visitors pick a therapist, a date and a time here, then leave their details.

Therapist: Nadia Bekele — deep tissue · Tomás Reyes — hot stone & aromatherapy · Harriet Vance — skin & facials
Open: Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun
Hours: 09:00–19:00
Slots: 09:00 · 10:00 · 11:00 · 12:00 · 13:00 · 14:00 …

Visit

The olive door on Cannon Street.

Cannon at Ashe, the rowhouse with the olive door and no sign in the window. Street parking is easier after six. Closed Mondays, and we mean it.

Email: hello@example.com
Phone: +1 843 555 0118
Address: Charleston, South Carolina
Hours: Tue–Sat 9–7 Sun 10–5 Mon Closed