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James Sinclair

Founder & Editor, Spa Hotel Finder

James Sinclair

Covers Spa Hotels · Spa Pricing and Resort Fees · Wellness Travel · Hot Springs and Bathing Traditions

I created the SpaRator method and help spa travelers see what a spa hotel really delivers, and what it costs, before they book.

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On Spa Hotel Finder

  • 87Hotels scored with SpaRatoras of October 2026
  • 4,202Sourced, dated facts on record
  • 12Destinations coveredin 3 states, 12 with scored hotels
  • 17Guides published
  • 0Hosted staysand no paid scores

From the SpaRator library, updated October 5, 2026

My Background

I spent more than twenty years inside publishing, on all three sides of it: strategy, commercial and editorial, at titles including The Telegraph, Condé Nast International and Time Out Group. Much of that work sat in travel media and digital publishing, and the internet technology side is a big part of how this site is built.

In 2019 I founded Blue Astoria Media Group, the publishing company behind Spa Hotel Finder. That career had already taken me to hundreds of spa hotels across six continents; I have lived and traveled across the United States and Europe, and explored much of Asia and Australasia along the way.

Spa Hotel Finder launched in March 2025 because I wanted the scores here to be answerable: a written method, not a reviewer's mood. SpaRator is that method, and every analysis on this site is built to it.

I've stayed at incredible spa hotels that transformed how I think about travel and wellness. But I've also wasted time and money on properties that promised spa excellence and delivered mediocrity. Spa Hotel Finder exists so travelers never have to experience that disappointment.

James Sinclair, Founder & Editor

What I Cover

I cover spa-led, whole-hotel analyses across 12 US destinations so far, worked one market at a time, plus guides on treatments, bathing traditions and wellness travel.

Destinations

Guide topics

All guides

The method I built

SpaRator

Version 9.9 · 87 hotels scored · 40+ data points · six categories

  • Spa Treatments
  • Spa Facilities
  • Wellness Programs
  • Staff & Service
  • Experience
  • Value for Money

Why SpaRator ExistsHow SpaRator worksEditorial CodeCorrections

  1. Past the marketing SpaRator scores come from evidence: published spa menus, facility checks, dated prices and guest reviews, never from a hotel's own claims about itself.
  2. Past inflated averages Review sites average guest stars, and those averages run high. SpaRator scores the spa, stay and price separately, so a beautiful pool cannot hide a weak spa.
  3. Strengths and trade-offs Every analysis names what a hotel does well and the conditions attached, so spa and wellness travelers can choose the right spa break or getaway with confidence.

In My Own Words

Why did you start Spa Hotel Finder?

I started Spa Hotel Finder because wellness travel kept growing while the tools for choosing a spa hotel did not. Booking sites list a spa beside parking, and guest reviews blur the spa into the room, so the spa itself was rarely compared on consistent rules. I built one written method that judges the spa first and the whole stay with it.

What frustrates you most about booking a spa hotel?

The gap between the advertised price and the real bill. A treatment price looks simple, and then a median spa service charge of 20% lands on top of it. Across the hotels we have measured, 66 of 84 charge a resort fee, with a median of $50. Menus, extras, gratuities and jargon pile on from there, and the amount you actually pay sits buried under all of it.

What do you love about the spa world?

The mix of ancient and modern sitting in the same building. A hotel can run a hammam ritual born centuries ago next to a modern cold plunge or contrast therapy, and both belong. That combination is what keeps the category interesting to me, and why the method here looks at treatments, facilities and programs as one picture rather than a single menu.

Where are your favorite spa destinations?

Sedona, Kyoto and Finland. They are very different places, but they all put the ancient and the modern side by side in a way I keep coming back to.

Do you stay at every hotel you score?

No. Every analysis is desk research built from the record: published prices and terms, spa menus and dated guest reviews, counted on every page. No hotel hosts or pays for any of it. A page says I stayed only when it carries a dated "Visited by James" badge. The method works without a stay because it applies the same written rules and the same sourced evidence to every hotel, so one resort is not graded on a lucky afternoon and the next on a cold read.

How I Work on Spa Hotel Finder

I edit Spa Hotel Finder and I write for it. I design the SpaRator method and its ranking rules, brief every analysis and guide, analyze the data and the method's output, write and edit prose, and review and approve everything before it publishes. I answer for every score and every correction.

I use a range of AI tools and systems to support the work: they handle routine workflows, organize and analyze large datasets, brainstorm, research each hotel into a sourced, dated fact ledger on the current method (older analyses get one when they are scored again), and draft copy from that ledger and my brief, to a style guide built from my own writing. Those drafts then get my oversight and a full editorial review, and the tools never set a score; scores come from the written SpaRator rules. The full account is in How This Site Is Made, and the method is in How SpaRator works.

  1. ResearchAI toolsEvery figure goes into a fact ledger with its source and the date it was captured.
  2. ScoreThe SpaRator rulesThe written SpaRator rules turn the ledger into six category scores and one overall, never tuned by hand.
  3. WriteJames, with AI writing toolsEach analysis is written from the ledger in plain English, to the house style.
  4. Check and sign offJames SinclairEvery figure, title and description is checked against its source before James signs it off.

Latest analyses

Every scored hotel, by destination

Find Me Elsewhere

For journalists and partners, here is where to check my career and reach me as a source.

Get in Touch

For editorial inquiries and press, write to james@spahotelfinder.com. If you have spotted an error in an analysis, send it through the corrections page, which lists every update and fix.

Email James

Short bio for press

James Sinclair is the founder and editor of Spa Hotel Finder and creator of the SpaRator methodology; in 2019 he founded Blue Astoria Media Group, which publishes the site. He has spent more than 20 years at leading media and travel publications, including The Telegraph, Condé Nast International and Time Out Group, across strategy, commercial and editorial roles, and visited hundreds of spa hotels across six continents.