famous quote by Adrian Zecha, founder of the world-famous Amanresorts: “The reason we are big is because we choose to remain small.”

first of the Amanresorts was started in Phuket, Thailand in December 1987

Amanresorts’ corporate strategy and hence its branding strategy has been built on four main pillars:
• Keeping the resorts non-institutional
• Providing guests with a luxury private home and not a mere hotel
• Offering its visitors a holistic holiday experience by combining luxury with the unique heritage and culture of the resort location
• Maintaining a very high level of exclusivity.

The owners’ aversion towards corporatization of the hotel industry has led to a very unique work culture and atmosphere within Amanresorts. With an objective of providing an excellent personalized service to all its guests, the staff members are constantly urged to be as innovative and creative in their service as possible to make every interaction with the guests a memorable experience. Most of the managerial and other staff that Amanresorts recruits are primarily people who have had no experience in the hotel industry but possess the right attitude

there is no written manual describing Standard Operating Procedures nor are there any set ways of doing things.

blending comfort, personalized service and luxury with the culture and heritage of the local place. One of the main characteristics of any Amanresorts is the fact that the location of all resorts has some historical background and importance.

Amanresorts offers special guided tours to the surrounding areas of the resorts to explore the local traditions and cultures through interactions with the local population.

Before the opening of Aman-i-Khŕs in India, the French manager spent 6 month exploring the neighborhood in a radius of some 20 kilometer around the resort on a motorbike. He showed Anil Thadini, the co-founder of Amanresorts and himself a native Indian from the region, an abandoned village from the 12th century that everyone had forgotten about.

employees act as brand ambassadors. It has managed to do this not through any brand manuals (by and large Amanresorts does not use manuals), but by being a very responsive and caring employer

affluent guests at Amanresorts are used to all sorts of haute cuisine in their daily lives and most travel extensively on business while staying at hotels and eating at restaurants everywhere all year round. Therefore, Amanresorts provides no fancy food, but instead simple local cuisines prepared with fresh ingredients served by local cooks to maintain the authenticity of the local place – and to great satisfaction of the guests who finally get a “home-cooked” meal. Most guests do not leave the resorts to eat outside.

Adrian Zecha once said: "The whole point is to keep things as not institutional as possible."

Every customer is treated the same, regardless of star, VIP, or any other status. Ordinary people's dreams of luxury and mingling with the stars are fulfilled by Amanresorts as comfortably as the VIPs' desire to travel discreetly and incognito, and be treated like anyone else. This is often difficult to provide with other large chain hotels.

If you measure success in room numbers, Amanresorts hasn’t achieved all that much. We have never focused on being the biggest. We prefer to think small. Intimate. Involving. It’s not that we are better than big hotels because we are small. We are different, that’s all. Amanresorts responds to a contemporary lifestyle. That’s what we offer – a lifestyle experience, without limitations.

There are people with a shared lifestyle the world over. Whether in Europe, Asia, the Americas, they have one thing in common, something that brings them to Amanresorts.

That ‘lifestyle’ is about shared values, a lust for faraway cultures, for the world around that excites, shapes and nourishes. It is an appetite for pampering and a deep appreciation of the creative and elegant – the way an Aman responds to the environment, the way light falls on the table or water fills a pool.

Each of our resorts is quite different in location, look, mood and guest experience. Yet each leaves an impression, an indelible mark. At Amanresorts we have discovered there is an alternate path. That it is possible to build environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing resorts. That small is good for business as well as guests. That less is more.

We do not believe we are perfect. The perfect resort has never been built, nor will it. To paraphrase Gandhi, “Many ideas never get started because of the fear that they cannot be achieved.”

Says founder Adrian Zecha, “I would like to express my admiration for and heartfelt thanks to our staff – our chambermaids, drivers, cooks, cleaners, gardeners and guides. Most have been with us since the beginning. In the end, performing their invaluable small roles, pleasing you, they are the true Amanresorts.”

We continue to relish the exploration of new directions. Come journey with us.

Indonesian food, which is fresh, authentic and very well prepared...best meal I had is easily the duck (Bebek Bukaka) in coconut curry source, a local Balinese delicacy...I suddenly craved for fried chicken wings wasn’t in the menu. The staff at the beach club was nice enough to get the kitchen to make for me. It goes without saying that it’s very delicious.