XpresSpa Group CEO Doug Satzman joins Yahoo Finance Live to talk about the wellness brand's pivot to dedicating space at its airport locations for COVID-19 testing prior to travel.

Video Transcript

- Airport COVID testing, the Holy Grail of travel? Well, where were you guys a year ago? But we have someone on now who's helping the situation. That is Doug Satzman. He is the XpresSpa Group CEO. And Doug, thank you for joining us here today.

I had to travel internationally a couple of months ago, and it was a pain getting the PCR test on the way out and then trying to get a private test on the way back in. You're doing this at US airport, repurposing your existing spa slots. Just tell me a little bit about what I would assume is the huge uptake for your business right now.

DOUGLAS SATZMAN: Sure. We have been the largest wellness provider in airports for about 15 years with our legacy XpresSpa business. And when the pandemic started, all 50 of our locations in 25 airports all closed, deemed non-essential uses. At that time, we shifted to COVID testing and offering airports the opportunity to provide the service on site, starting with their employees and airline employees as well, and then opening up to travelers. And it has gotten busier and busier for the last 18 months. The first one opened in June, 2020, and now we have 14.

- But Doug, I have to tell you, I haven't been to an airport on a flight in more than two years now, so I have no clue what it looks like. But I did love the spas that you have. But every time I tried to get an appointment for a manicure, you were always sold out. So business was definitely good. I'm wondering-- so you converted some of those spas into these centers that you have at various airports.

Where are your facilities at various airports? How many of them do you have, how many locations? And then the staffing that you had at the spas, are those the same people who are now carrying out these tests? Were they trained to do so, or is it a whole new crew? And then what happened to the staffing that you did have at the spas? I know you recently reopened them.

DOUGLAS SATZMAN: Yes. So we run our XpresCheck business completely separate from our XpresSpa business even though it's under the same corporate structure. The XpresCheck COVID testing centers we started by offering some of our real estate that we had with our spas. We did convert some. But more often than not, airports came to us and said, well, we actually have a better location that's more convenient for more people.

We have some post-security, but most of our XpresChecks are pre-security. Our legacy spa portfolio is mostly post-security. So in June, we started reopening our spas as well, and that business is starting to recover. But the XpresCheck COVID business has had huge demand. And it continues to grow, especially during peak periods when travelers are needing tests, often to get into countries or go on vacation. And getting it at the airport is very convenient. You come a little bit earlier before your flight. You know you've got the right one. And it's certainly stressful right now, knowing which tests that you need to get to where. And we take a lot of that stress away.