Corporate gifting: wellness vouchers your team will love

Every office has a cupboard. In it are the branded drink bottles, the desk plants nobody watered, and forty-five notebooks from a conference in 2023. Corporate gifting has a delivery problem, and it is not about budget — it is that most gifts ask the recipient to find room for another object.

A spa voucher does the opposite. It gives them permission to stop, which for the sort of person who earns a thank-you at work is usually the thing they are worst at.

Who this works for

• End-of-year team thank-yous — particularly for teams that have carried something heavy
• Project completion — better timed and better received than the December version
• Client gifts — memorable in a way a bottle of wine is not, and appropriate across a wider range of people
• Long-service and milestone recognition
• A leaving gift for someone the team actually liked
• Referral thank-yous from one business to another

The common thread: it works best where you want the gesture to read as we noticed you were tired rather than we have a budget line for this.

What to budget per person

Work backwards from what things actually cost, so the voucher covers a whole treatment rather than part of one. This matters more than anything else in this article.

• $60–$65 — a 30-minute treatment. Fine as a small thank-you, and it covers something in full.
• $105–$115 — a full 60-minute massage. The best value-for-impact point, and the one we would recommend for most team gifting.
• $145–$175 — 90 minutes, or a 90-minute hot stone or herbal compress. For a significant thank-you.
• $225–$295 — a full spa package. For a milestone, a leaving gift, or a key client.
• $200–$320 — a 60- or 90-minute couples massage, which is a genuinely thoughtful gift for someone whose partner has also absorbed the overtime.

Viaduct prices sit a little above St Heliers, so if you are not sure which spa suits each person, budget from the Viaduct column. For the wider picture of what a massage costs in the city and why prices differ, see our guide to massage prices in Auckland.

"The vouchers that get used fastest are the ones that cover a whole treatment. A part-payment sits in a wallet for a year."

Siri therapist team

Value or treatment for a team?

For corporate gifting, value vouchers are almost always the better call. Preference in massage is personal — one person wants deep tissue, another wants to be left in a warm fog, and a third will only book reflexology because they do not want to undress. A value voucher lets each person choose the treatment, the duration and the day.

The exception is a single significant gift for one person you know well. Then a specific treatment — a 90-minute hot stone massage, or a full spa package — is the more considered gesture. Our general voucher guide covers that choice in more detail.

Two locations, which is useful

If your team is spread across the city, the two branches cover a lot of Auckland between them:

• Viaduct — 1B/124 Customs Street West, for anyone working in the central city. Handy for the CBD, and open until 8.00pm for after-work bookings.
• St Heliers — 417A Tamaki Drive, for the eastern bays and anyone who would rather not come into town on a Saturday.

Both are open seven days, 10.00am to 8.00pm. Our comparison of the two spas is a useful thing to include with the voucher.

Are spa vouchers for staff taxable?

Worth sorting out before you buy for employees rather than clients. Inland Revenue treats gift cards and vouchers given to staff as a benefit, and its guidance on gift cards and vouchers says that cards which can only be used with the business named on them — which is what a spa voucher is — come under the fringe benefit tax (FBT) rules.

There are limits below which FBT is not payable, so a modest one-off thank-you may not trigger it. But the limits apply per employee and across all your staff together, so a team-wide gift can add up faster than you expect — and once you go over, FBT is due on the full amount, not just the excess.

Gifts to clients are a separate question again. We are a spa, not an accountant: check with yours, or with Inland Revenue, before a large order. None of this is a reason not to give the voucher — it is just one more line to tick off before December.

Practical notes for buyers

1. Order early for December. Leave time to get vouchers to people before the office breaks up — many recipients will book in the new year anyway. Our Christmas spa gift guide covers the holiday closures.
2. Ask about terms at the time of purchase — validity and conditions are confirmed then, and it is worth passing that information on with the gift. The Commerce Commission's guide to gift cards and vouchers explains the rules that apply in New Zealand.
3. Buy whole treatments, not contributions. The single most important rule here.
4. Include the booking details. A voucher with a phone number and the opening hours on it gets used; one without gets filed.
5. Phone us to discuss numbers — Viaduct 027-722-6564 or St Heliers 027 654 6642, or email sirithaispa124@gmail.com. If you are buying for a whole team, talk to us rather than clicking through fifteen times.

One honest caveat

A spa voucher is a good thank-you. It is not a substitute for a workload conversation, and a team that is genuinely burnt out will notice if the massage arrives instead of the fix. Give it as a thank-you for work that is finished, not as an apology for work that is still going.

Handled that way, it is one of the few corporate gifts people actually talk about afterwards — and, unlike the drink bottles, one that is gone from the cupboard within a month. Buy online through the Viaduct gift voucher page or the St Heliers gift voucher page.

Common questions