Carlos Calvo Rodriguez
Originally hired as the opening Spa Manager in 2012 at Four Seasons Hotel Toronto, Calvo-Rodriguez has since turned his energies and acumen from drumming up business to enhancing the Spa experience to satisfy the desires of hotel guests as well as local clientele as Senior Spa Director.
With its urban location in the heart of Yorkville, the Spa has a large and loyal following, thanks in no small part to the efforts of Calvo-Rodriguez, who spent his early days as Spa Manager leading a team “literally knocking on doors and inviting area businesses to get to know us.” The Spa is among the largest in Toronto as well as the largest city spa in the Four Seasons portfolio, with 30,000 square feet encompassing 17 treatment rooms, 5 spa suites, a relaxation pool, outdoor terrace, nail and hair bar and more.
Calvo-Rodriguez has long been drawn to wellness. Growing up in Costa Rica, he always wanted to be a doctor. Following high school, he turned his eyes to the health field: “I decided on physiotherapy because I wanted to have direct contact with the client. I went with manual therapy because I like to work with my hands.”
After five years in private physiotherapy practice and teaching at the university level, Calvo-Rodriguez decided it was time for a break. In 2007, he became a therapist at Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo, and four years later he was accepted into the company’s Spa Director in Training Program. “One of the best experiences in my career,” he recalls of the year-long intensive, which saw him travelling to seven Four Seasons properties from Doha to Paris, Bali
to the Maldives, Malaysia to Washington, DC. Upon completion, Calvo-Rodriguez set his sights on an opening, and Toronto came into view.
“Wellness and education are interconnected,” he says. “Whether it’s staff, students or guests, everybody needs coaching and direction to ensure a better well-being. Spa has become a lifestyle necessity for the modern individual, and I am lucky to be at the forefront of that realization.”