The Manhattan spa has always been a status symbol, but a new crop of high-end sanctuaries is pushing the idea to extremes. Members-only clubs with marble steam rooms, salt caves, and multi-hour ritual menus are opening across the borough — and filling up fast.

The fictional Meridian House, tucked into a former bank building near Union Square, charges an initiation fee that rivals a country club and still keeps a waitlist. Its founders say the appeal isn't the treatments so much as the promise of silence in a city that rarely offers it.

Skeptics call it wellness for the one percent. But the operators argue they're selling something increasingly scarce in New York: time, quiet, and a phone-free room with the door closed.