What is a "Health Spa?"

The Act defines a health spa as "any person, firm, corporation, organization, club or association engaged in the sale of memberships in a program of physical exercise, which included the use of one or more of a sauna, whirlpool, weight-lifting room, massage, steam room, or exercising room or device."

Within the context of the Act, the term "health spa" does not include " bona fide nonprofit organizations, including, but not limited to, the Young Men's Christian Association, Young Women's Christian Association, or similar organizations whose functions as health spas are only incidental to their overall functions and purposes; any private club owned and operated by its members; any organization primarily operated for the purpose of teaching a particular form of self-defense such as judo or karate; any facility owned or operated by the United States; any facility owned or operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia or any of its political subdivisions; any nonprofit public or private school, college or university, and any club providing tennis or swimming facilities located in a residential planned community or subdivision, developed in conjunction with the development of such community or subdivision, and deriving at least eighty percent of its membership from residents of such community or subdivision; and any facility owned and operated by a private employer exclusively for the benefit of its employees, retirees, and family members and which facility is only incidental to the overall functions and purposes of the employer's business and is operated on a nonprofit basis."