Table of Contents
The short answer
Book 30 minutes for one area, 60 minutes for the whole body at a steady pace, and 90 minutes for the whole body with real time left over for the places that need it. That rule settles most decisions.
The lengths are tied to the treatments. On the pages of IHR Dream Cleaning the head and shoulder session is 30 minutes, foot reflexology is 30 to 60, and the full-body massages are 60 or 90. A 60-minute massage is AED 199 and a 90-minute massage is AED 279, so the extra half hour costs AED 80.
The mistake to avoid is choosing the length by price or by habit. The right length is the one that lets the therapist cover what you want covered without rushing, and that you can actually keep free, including the time to set up and to rest afterwards.
The lengths each treatment is offered in
Each service page gives the length of its session. The table collects them, with the price of each. Every price includes VAT. A figure marked 'from' is a starting price for a session with one therapist, confirmed before the session. Where the table says 'shown when booking', the current rate appears on the booking page before you confirm, and the massage prices are on our price list.
| Treatment | Length on its page | Published price |
|---|---|---|
| Head and shoulder relief | 30 minutes | From AED 99 |
| Foot reflexology | 30 to 60 minutes | From AED 199 for 60 minutes |
| Relaxation, Swedish, deep tissue, aromatherapy | 60 or 90 minutes | AED 199 or AED 279 |
| Couples massage | 60 or 90 minutes | Shown when booking |
| Facial | 45 to 60 minutes | From AED 149 for 60 minutes |
| Moroccan bath | 60 to 90 minutes | From AED 199 for 60 minutes |
Where the minutes go
A massage is a sequence, and each part of the body takes a certain time to do properly. A muscle has to be warmed with lighter strokes before any firmer work. Both sides of the body have to be covered, and you turn over once. A therapist plans the session backwards from the clock.
The split below is an illustration of how a full-body session is commonly divided. It is not a timetable. Every therapist works a little differently, and yours will move time towards the areas you ask for.
| Area | In 60 minutes | In 90 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Back and shoulders | About 20 | About 30 |
| Backs of the legs | About 10 | About 12 |
| Fronts of the legs, and the feet | About 10 | About 15 |
| Arms and hands | About 8 | About 10 |
| Neck, face and scalp | About 7 | About 10 |
| Free to spend where you need it | About 5 | About 13 |
What the split shows
Two things stand out. In 60 minutes there is very little slack: about five minutes that can be moved to wherever you need them. Ask for extra work on the shoulders in a 60-minute session and the time has to come from somewhere, usually the arms or the legs.
In 90 minutes every area gets a little longer, and there is a real block of more than ten minutes to spend on one or two places. That block is what you pay for when you choose the longer session. If you have no particular place to spend it, the extra half hour simply slows the whole sequence down, which is its own kind of luxury but not a necessity.
Thirty minutes: one area done properly
Thirty minutes is long enough to work one region thoroughly and too short for anything else. The session built for it is head and shoulder relief: the upper back, neck, shoulders and scalp, given while you sit on an upright chair. There is no table to set up and nothing to take off beyond loosening a collar, so nearly all of the half hour is spent with hands on the muscles.
It suits a desk day that has left your neck tight, a short gap in the day, or anyone who does not enjoy lying on a table. It is also a sensible first booking for someone wary of massage: short, clothed and aimed at the area where most people carry tension. Our guide to what a 30-minute head and shoulder massage can and cannot do for a stiff neck goes into the detail.
The other use for 30 minutes is the feet. Foot reflexology starts at that length, which is enough for both feet with focused pressure. A longer booking leaves more time for the lower legs and allows a slower pace.
What 30 minutes cannot do is the whole body. Divide half an hour across the back, legs, arms and neck and each gets a few minutes of gliding strokes and nothing more. If half an hour is all you have, choose one area and have it done well.
Sixty minutes: the standard full-body session
Sixty minutes is the standard length because it is the shortest time in which the whole body can be covered without hurry. It suits a first massage, a regular monthly session, and any booking where the aim is general: to relax, to loosen up, to mark the end of a hard week.
For a first booking, a 60-minute Swedish massage is the usual advice. An hour is long enough to find out how you respond to massage and what pressure you like, and short enough that lying still does not become an effort of its own. Some people find that their nose blocks when they lie face down, or that they grow restless after 40 minutes. It is better to discover that in a 60-minute session than in a longer one.
An hour can also be used differently: as an upper-body session in depth. If your legs are fine and your back, neck and shoulders are the trouble, ask the therapist to spend the whole hour there. You give up the full-body sequence and gain twice the time where it matters. Say this at the start, because it changes how the therapist plans the session.
Where 60 minutes falls short is when you want two things at once: an even full-body massage and slow, firm work on a stubborn area. One of them will be cut short.
Ninety minutes: the whole body, and time for what needs more
Ninety minutes suits three kinds of booking. The first is deep tissue. Firm work is slow by nature, the muscle has to be warmed before the pressure goes in, and a therapist who is watching the clock must either skip areas or hurry the pressure. The second is any session where you have two or more areas that need attention, such as the shoulders and the calves. The third is a relaxation massage booked purely for rest, where the extra half hour is more of what you came for and the unhurried pace is the point.
The longer session costs AED 80 more. Per hour of massage that is AED 186 against AED 199, so the 90-minute session is the cheaper one by the minute. That matters only if you use the time. Ninety minutes of a session you wanted to end at 70 is not good value.
It is not the right first booking for most people. If you have never had a massage, you do not yet know whether you can lie comfortably for an hour and a half, how your skin takes to the oil, or how you feel the day after firm pressure. Start with 60 and lengthen it next time.
For deep tissue, longer does not mean harder. A 90-minute deep tissue session spreads the firm work across more areas, with gentler strokes in between. It should not be 90 minutes at full pressure. Our guide on how much a deep tissue massage should hurt explains where the line is.
Two hours and longer
People search for a two-hour massage, and some venues sell one. Our full-body massages are listed at 60 and 90 minutes. For many people an hour and a half is about as long as lying on a table stays comfortable. After that you grow stiff from the position itself, you need the bathroom, and more work on the same muscles adds little.
If you want a longer visit, the better way is to pair two different treatments, so that the body gets a change instead of more of the same. Reflexology added to a full-body session gives the feet their own time. A Moroccan bath can be followed by a relaxation or aromatherapy massage in the same visit, and its page asks you to confirm the total time when booking the two together.
Tell us when booking that you want both in one visit, so that the time and the therapist can be confirmed as one appointment. Do not assume that two bookings made separately will run back to back. The order in which treatments should follow one another is covered in our guide to planning a home spa day.
The session and the slot: how much time to keep free
The length you book is treatment time. At home there is also the therapist's arrival, a short conversation about pressure and health, setting up the table and linen, and packing away at the end. Our service pages say that arrival and table set-up are kept separate from the confirmed treatment time wherever possible, which is why more than the session length is set aside for each appointment.
As a working rule, allow about half an hour beyond the session: roughly an hour and a half for a 60-minute massage and two hours for a 90-minute one. A seated head and shoulder session needs far less setting up, because there is no table.
We work every day, 8 AM – 8 PM, and a visit has to finish by closing time. The last start of the day is therefore earlier for a 90-minute session than for a 60-minute one, and the booking page shows the times still open for the length you pick.
Then add time for yourself. Choose a slot with a clear half hour after it. A massage loses much of its value if you have to drive, cook or take a call the moment it ends. If your day is arranged around prayer times, school runs or a baby's sleep, start the session just after one of those fixed points, not just before the next. In a tower, remember the minutes a visitor needs to register at reception and reach your floor. Our guide to how a home massage session works covers the room and the building.
Choosing the length by what you want
The table turns the reasoning above into a quick reference. If you are still deciding on the technique and not only the length, our comparison of the different types of massage is the place to start.
| What you want | Length | Session to look at |
|---|---|---|
| Neck and shoulders eased after desk work | 30 minutes | Head and shoulder relief |
| Tired feet and legs | 30 to 60 minutes | Foot reflexology |
| A first massage | 60 minutes | Swedish |
| General relaxation, every month or so | 60 minutes | Relaxation or Swedish |
| Upper body only, in depth | 60 minutes | Swedish or deep tissue |
| Whole body plus one or two tight areas | 90 minutes | Swedish or deep tissue |
| Firm work on several areas | 90 minutes | Deep tissue |
| A long, slow rest | 90 minutes | Relaxation or aromatherapy |
Shorter and regular, or longer and occasional
Length and frequency trade off against each other. Someone who spends the working week at a screen will usually get more from a short session every week or two than from one long session every two months, because the tightness returns with the posture. Someone who books massage as a rest, around travel or at the end of a demanding month, gets more from a long session less often.
For one stubborn area, a common pattern is to start with sessions close together and then spread them out: a few sessions a week or a fortnight apart, then monthly once the area has eased. Leave at least a couple of days between firm sessions on the same muscles, so that any soreness has gone before the next.
The sums are simple enough to do before you decide. Two 60-minute sessions in a month come to AED 398, and one 90-minute session is AED 279. Neither is the correct spend. The comparison is there so that the choice is deliberate.
How to brief the therapist so the time is well used
The length decides how much time there is. What you say in the first two minutes decides how it is spent. A therapist who is given no direction divides the session evenly, which is right for a first massage and wasteful if you already know where the trouble is.
- Name your priorities, two at most, and rank them: 'shoulders first, then lower back'. A list of five is the same as no list.
- Say what can be skipped. 'Leave out the arms and feet' frees more time than any other sentence, and few people think to say it.
- Give the pressure area by area if it differs: 'firm on the shoulders, light on the calves'.
- If you have a view on the split, state it: 'half the session on my back'. In 60 minutes that is 30 minutes on the back and a quicker pass over everything else.
- Ask to be told at the halfway point if you like to know where you are. You can change the plan then.
- Say so as soon as an area has had enough. Time not spent there goes somewhere more useful.
Before the clock starts
Being ready matters more in a short session than in a long one. Have the room cleared, the household told and your phone on silent before the therapist comes in. Five minutes lost at the start of a 30-minute session is a sixth of it.
Common questions
Should I book 90 minutes, or 60 minutes with reflexology added?
It depends on where you want the extra time to go. In a 90-minute massage the feet share the session with everything else and get a few minutes. Reflexology booked alongside a full-body session gives the feet and lower legs a session of their own. If your feet and legs are what ache at the end of the day, the pairing is the better use of the time. If it is your back and shoulders, book the 90. Reflexology starts from AED 199 for 60 minutes, and the two should be requested as one appointment, so that the time and the price are confirmed together.
Is 60 minutes enough for a deep tissue massage?
It is, if you limit the area. An hour of deep tissue on the back, neck and shoulders is a full and worthwhile session. An hour of deep tissue over the whole body forces the therapist to choose between covering everything quickly and covering some of it properly. If you want the whole body and firm work, book 90 minutes. The deep tissue page lists both lengths.
Does the time of day change the length I should book?
It changes what you can enjoy. A 90-minute session works when nothing follows it: an evening at home, or a weekend morning with no plans. In the middle of a working day, 30 or 60 minutes is more realistic, and the seated head and shoulder session has you dressed and back at your desk within minutes of finishing. For a late slot, look at the booking page early, because the longer session needs an earlier start to finish by closing time.
Can I make the session longer once it has started?
Do not count on it. The therapist may have another appointment to reach, and the end of the working day may be close. A different length is best requested before the appointment, when it can be checked against availability and confirmed. If you think you may want 90 minutes, book 90 minutes.
How long should a couples massage be?
In a side-by-side session both people normally have the same length, because the two therapists start and finish together. Choose for the person who is newer to massage, which usually means 60 minutes. If one of you wants firm work on several areas and the other only wants to rest, 90 minutes serves both: the first gets the time needed and the second gets a longer rest. The couples massage page explains how the session is arranged.
How long do a facial and a Moroccan bath take?
Our facial is listed at 45 to 60 minutes and covers cleansing, gentle exfoliation, a hydrating mask and a facial massage. The Moroccan bath is listed at 60 to 90 minutes and covers steam preparation, black soap, exfoliation with a kessa glove, and a rinse and moisturising finish. Neither can sensibly be shortened, because each step needs its time on the skin.
How long before a massage should I eat?
A light meal an hour or two beforehand is fine, and so is a glass of water. Avoid a large meal in the hour before, and avoid arriving at the session very hungry, because an hour and a half is a long time to lie still with an empty stomach.
How to book the right length
If one area is the problem, start with the 30-minute head and shoulder session. If you want the whole body, choose a full-body massage on the spa and wellness page and pick 60 or 90 minutes using the table above.
Then book online or in the IHR Dream app with your address and preferred time. The rate is shown before you confirm, and payment is by card online once we confirm your booking. In the notes, name the treatment and say what you want the time spent on. A therapist who knows your two priorities before arriving can plan the session around them.
