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Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Royal Touch has gone mobile and will soon offer massage therapy services on-site in its recently converted bus. From left to right are Joselyn Paul, art director who helped design and paint the interior of the bus; Nicci Trieu, massage therapist who stenciled the bus' interior, and Royal Jacobs, owner of the Royal Touch.
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Royal Touch delivers '24/7 set' relief for aches, pains
By Nathan R. Huff
Take a dash of dot-com ingenuity, a sprinkle of the holistic health movement, and just a pinch of hippie, and you have Royal Touch's newest creation: the Massage Bus.
Set to hit the streets on Jan. 5, the bus is the brainchild of Royal Touch owner Royal Jacobs. Once completed, the massage-mobile will cruise from high-tech company to high-tech company, setting up shop in parking lots to offer full-body treatment on a delivery basis.
"Instead of taking two to three hours to get across town to get a massage, the bus just rolls up to the office," Jacobs said.
Jacobs said Royal Touch has already received interest from companies such as Intel, Cisco, Hewlett Packard and Adobe, just to name a few. Jacobs, who opened Royal Touch in Los Gatos seven years ago, said the Massage Bus is the first of its kind, and he anticipates a huge response.
The idea came to Jacobs during a trip to Spain more than a year ago. The company already contracts with a number of office businesses in the valley, but Jacobs said he wanted to figure out a way to get past the challenges of having to find a room in each company and haul equipment in and out of buildings. Jacobs knew of a mobile dentist and pet grooming business, and figured the same could be done with massage.
The actual vehicle is a 1966 GMC school bus that Jacobs bought off "a couple of hippies" in the Santa Cruz mountains. The bus was used as an RV most recently, meaning Jacobs had to pull out a stove and toilet, among other things.
Some $50,000 later, the old bus looks like something out of an Austin Powers movie. The exterior is painted a bright purple, and the inside has been converted into three rooms with enough space to set up tables for full-body massages.
Artist Joselyn Paul coordinated the artwork, and Jacobs' fiancé, Nicci Trieu, and massage therapist Matt Allen have done the majority of the interior work. The bus will include new lighting, heating, fountains, Persian rugs and a sound system when completed.
Jacobs said contracting details are still being worked out, but the plan is for companies to book a minimum of two hours--six massages--at a time. Royal Touch's fleet of company-trained therapists may also just pull up in front of some of the larger valley companies--much like a taco cart--and wait for customers to file out. "We're going to leave it flexible a lot of the time," Allen said.
According to Jacobs, the massage therapists on the bus will focus on typical workplace disorders, including back pain, migraines and carpal tunnel syndrome. Royal Touch hopes the bus will turn clients into regular massage customers.
The bus will be named "Ruth," after Jacobs' grandmother who passed away last year. Jacobs credits her for getting him interested in massage and encouraging him to start the Royal Touch business.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
