Dispatch / Tips /
Macau Sauna: Choose Your Series After You Arrive
The night before a trip, our front desk usually gets the same thing: three or four long messages, a screenshot of the price bands, and one question at the end. “Which one should I pick?” At The Excellent Sauna, inside the main building of the Grand Emperor Hotel, that question turns up most weeks, and the answer has never changed. The most expensive decision of the evening can wait until you are standing inside. The published programme puts “choose your package” at step 4, and the step before it is an attendant taking you through the day’s roster and the tiers on the board in person; this site’s own wording is that you see it before you decide (current as of August 2026). What genuinely has to leave your hands beforehand is the four items the booking panel asks for: date, arrival time, party size and pickup point.
The reply from the desk is short too: “Don’t lock it in yet. Someone will take you through it when you get here, and you decide after that.” It is not a brush-off. Who is working that day, and how the three series actually look tonight, is nowhere on any page at the moment you hit send. It exists only on the floor, on the day. A message can settle your logistics for you. It cannot settle your taste.
Why that step sits where it does
A Macau sauna price list can tell you names, durations and numbers. What it cannot tell you is the state of the floor tonight. A “tier” is the house’s way of grouping service styles, and this site lists them exactly as the board does — by band, never by any country or region. Between the bath zone and the choosing sits a step the site states quietly and means seriously: someone goes through the day’s roster and the tiers with you, one at a time, and only then do you commit. Fix the tier before you leave home and you are making the most expensive call of the night on half the information; wait, and the other half costs you nothing.
What to send before you go is logistics
So what travels ahead of you is not a judgement call, it is logistics — the same items in the same order the booking panel uses. With all four in hand, the desk can line up your arrival time, the car and the floor arrangements in one pass and send a confirmation back.
By all means add a preference while you are at it. The site’s quick-match tool exists for exactly that: pick a budget, a series and a time slot and it drafts the message for you, and the desk will note whatever you write. That series is a starting point rather than a contract: switching to another one after you arrive carries no change fee, and the bill follows whichever series you end up taking.
Booking through this site means something specific: the message reaches that same desk, we prioritise your arrival, and we plan the evening around it in advance. At the door you give your name and say you booked through this site — no voucher, no printout, no deposit and no handling fee. Booking through this site also brings no entrance fee, a high-end private car anywhere in Macau in both directions (as long as the pickup point was among those four items), and two free add-on services of your choice — “add-on” being the house’s name for its short extras. The messaging channels are on the book now page.
So the desk’s answer comes down to two lines: settle the four items before you leave, and leave the two decisions until the day’s briefing is done. The first half your phone can handle. The second half waits until you sit down.
Two separate decisions once you are inside
The tier comes first. As of September 2026 the bands run: entry-level Authentic Wellness Massage at MOP 1,988 for 90 minutes, Gentle Massage (green, white, silver) 2,988 to 3,788, Gentle Massage (purple, yellow, gold) 3,988 to 4,388 and Gentle Massage (black and the top step) 5,088 to 5,588, each 60 minutes, every figure already including 5% tourism tax and 5% service charge; the full breakdown sits on the price guide. The gaps between those numbers are the reason the question deserves to be asked out loud: the durations differ and so does the character, and choosing after the briefing beats guessing from a screenshot on your phone.
Only once the series is settled does the second decision arrive: whether to move the session into a scenario theme room. That is an optional extra, which is to say it is not inside the band price — you ask for it when you book if you want it, and nothing changes if you don’t. Keep them in that order: you need to know which series you took before you can judge whether a change of room is worth it.
The two free add-ons wait for the same reason
Which two to take has a single criterion: what the series turned out to be. The site lists eight of them, MOP 288 for 20 minutes each as of September 2026. A 60-minute series and the 90-minute package occupy different parts of you, so what you want topped up afterwards differs too; that is the whole distance between a back scrub and an ear cleaning. Which is why these also keep until the package is settled — a word at the desk is enough.
The decisions that wait for the floor, together with the four items that travel ahead of you, fit in one grid.
| Before you go | Once inside |
|---|---|
| Date | Tier: green/white/silver/purple, yellow/gold/black, or top tier |
| Arrival time | Whether to add the scenario theme room |
| Party size | Which two add-ons to take as the free ones that booking here brings |
| Pickup point | Fixed order: series first, then the room, then the add-ons |
| Optional: a package or room preference — a preference, not a decision | A preference is still changeable on the day |
Everything in the right-hand column is decided after the day’s arrangements have been explained to you.
Count the deciding itself
One honest caveat: the package is 60 or 90 minutes, with changing, the bath zone and the day’s briefing all on top of that, and the house opens at 12:00 and clears the floor at 04:00 with no overnight stay (current as of September 2026) — so the listening-and-deciding part needs a slot in the evening as well.
Frequently asked
Do I have to choose my package in advance?
No. An attendant runs through the day’s roster and the three series once you are inside, and you decide after that. If you would rather flag a preference first, we will note it, and you can still change it on the day.
Should I mention the scenario theme room when booking?
You can flag it as a preference; the actual decision belongs after the series is settled. It is an optional extra with no separate listed price, and you can look at the rooms first under interiors.
What do I show at the door, and is there a deposit?
Give your name, say you booked through this site, and that is it — nothing to show, no deposit and no handling fee.
How is the bill worked out?
On the band price, which already includes 5% tourism tax and 5% service charge — nothing is added at the till (current as of September 2026). The bath zone, entry and changing, and dining on the floor are already inside the package; only spirits and wine are charged separately. Cash, card, WeChat Pay and Alipay are all accepted, and the rest is on questions and answers.
The bands and hours quoted here follow what the house had published in August 2026; if anything shifts later, the desk will say so in the same message that answers yours.
The desk’s reply has always been one line: decide when you get here. What has to be settled before you leave is the logistics, not the enjoyment.
