ngfan

Trying to collect info on the status of luxury resorts in the SE Asia region in the aftermath of the Tsunami desaster, here's a first statement by Six Senses:

Six Senses Resorts & Spas

Update on the Operational Status of our Resorts & Spas

Six Senses join with our friends, colleagues and partners in expressing our shock regarding the recent events resulting from the earthquake in Western Indonesia and our heartfelt sentiments and condolences to all those who are affected.

As you are aware, several of our Six Senses properties are located within this region, and we are very grateful to say that we were comparatively unaffected.

Several of our properties were outside this region and therefore remained totally unaffected. These properties include:

* Ana Mandara Resort & Six Senses Spa in Nha Trang, Vietnam
* Evason Hideaway & Six Senses Spa at Ninh Van Bay, Vietnam
* Sila Evason Hideaway & Spa at Samui Thailand
* Evason Hideaway & Six Senses Spa at Hua Hin, Thailand
* Evason Hua Hin & Six Senses Spa at Hua Hin, Thailand
* Six Senses Spa at the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai, UAE
* Six Senses Spa at Le Telfair in Mauritius

The three properties affected were:

Soneva Fushi Resort & Six Senses Spa in the Maldives

Only six villas on the south-east side of Soneva Fushi suffered some limited inundation which we expect to be repaired and fully operational before 30 December 2004.

Fortunately, there were no injuries to either guests or hosts.

Soneva Gili Resort & Six Senses Spa in the Maldives

Soneva Gili suffered the greatest damage of all our resorts, but happily no serious injuries to either guests or hosts.

For security reasons and because of the temporary suspension of water and electricity (which was back on line by the following day), we relocated our guests to hotels and guesthouses in Male' as well as on neighbouring unaffected resorts.

Soneva Gili is officially closed now, and it is our intention to reopen the resort by 1st February 2005. A firm re-opening date will be given as soon as we are very clear as of when we can accommodate guests again.

The Evason Phuket Resort & Six Senses Spa in Phuket, Thailand

The only physical damage was to the dive school and the jetty at the front of the property. The rest of the Resort suffered no impact and is fully operational. Transfers to the beach club at Bon Island will recommence on 29th December 2004.

At the time of this statement, whilst there have been no casualties on the property to either guests or hosts, we are trying to locate several hosts who were off-duty in order to ensure that they are safe, as well as two guests that were off the property at the time of the incident.

Any changes to the reopening times mentioned here will be posted on our website www.sixsenses.com

Whilst we were relatively unscathed, the communities which we operate in and other fellow hoteliers suffered much more. We will make available the funds from the social responsibility budget of each property to assist and support local community rebuilding efforts. Donations may be forwarded directly to each property at which special bank accounts have been established for these community projects.

As phone lines have been running very busy at all our offices and properties, we would like to encourage visits to our website for the most updated information and postings: www.sixsenses.com

personal note:
Please post more info about other properties when you get them.

And as most of us frequenting this board were lucky enough having enjoyed staying at one of those resorts in the area a donation to organisations trying to help the affected communities is highly appreciated.

Pickles

I wonder how the Amanpuri and the Chedi fared. They are both on the same beach. However, the Amanpuri infrastructure is mostly a steep climb from the beach (probably about 10 meters from a vertical), so it might have been spared. The Chedi is much lower to the ground, and likely sustained damage. Anybody know?

ngfan

Laguna District on Phuket seem to have suffered far less damage than reported early on, although no specific mentioning of the status of the Bayantree in this report: Phuket Gazette report

I saw some video footage of Soneva Gili last night on CNN which showed some extensive damage to the wooden bars leading to the overwater bungalows which looked to be intact though.

ngfan

Here's a good overview of the hotel status around Phuket:

Hotel Status on and around Phuket

Although no word yet on the new "The Racha".

Excerpts from the status list:

Amanpuri: the flooding destroyed the gym, beach and tour counters.

Banyan Tree: operating normally, except beach restaurant

Chedi: the swimming pool is damaged along with all the beach front bungalows and the beach restaurant.

Trisara: minor damage on beach pool and a few beachside sundeck lounges. Otherswise operating normally.

Evason Phuket: the pier was destroyed and the beach is ruined but the flood did not affect the hotel at all.

Always Flyin

ktp28

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...96#post3536096

Ericka

AMANRESORTS TSUNAMI RESPONSE (taken from home page)....

Amanresorts is greatly saddened by the tragic events resulting from the earthquake and tsunamis in Asia. Amanresorts in Indonesia were far removed from these events and are functioning normally. At Amanpuri, Thailand, guests were evacuated from the beach in good time and there was no loss of life or property. No Aman cruise boats were damaged. The resort is fully operational and access roads are open. At two yet-to-open Amanresorts in Sri Lanka, staff and structures are safe.

flamboyant 1

Interesting to read that the Amanpuri evacuated their guests and boats in time. Advance warning was a maximum of 1 hour in Phuket as far as I heard, but they did everything necessary it seems to safely evacuate staff and guests.

My favourite restaurant on the Beach near the Laguna complex has been washed out though. I fear there is not even hope.


How will the tidal wave disaster affect the prices in Phuket or Sri Lanka ?

Will the Amanpuri ever lower rates, because everthing surrounding the hotel has been washed out and towns such as Patong (which I in fact did not like too much) have been seriously damaged.

jeffreyt

Singapore Cos Report Damage To Resorts In Phuket, Thailand, and the Maldives


Hotel Properties Ltd., which owns the Four Seasons Maldives said the hotel had damage to electrical equipment, furniture, and mechanical equipment, but remained open.

Ericka

Amanpuri Hero

Floating in the ocean off Phuket are deckchairs and gym equipment from a Singapore-linked resort, the luxury Amanpuri. But thankfully for the boutique resort's 250 guests, these are all that was lost from the hotel, which overlooks the Andaman Sea where the waves rolled in.

Amanpuri - the name means 'peaceful place' in Sanskrit - lived up to its name in this instance.

Things could have been much worse for Amanpuri if not for a staffer called Ritchie, Aman Resorts' founder and director Anil Thadani said yesterday.

Mr Thadani, who was at the upmarket Amanpuri with his wife and two daughters when the big waves blasted the shore line, said: 'Our guests may not know it but we were all saved by this young Australian kid Ritchie, who we hired three weeks ago.

'I was supposed to go out to sea and sail to Krabi with Bill O'Leary, the CEO of Aman Cruises, when Ritchie called to say that all the water in front of the hotel had suddenly just disappeared in front of his eyes. Bill, who is the Crocodile Dundee of the ocean, said we had to get everyone off the beach and there wasn't even two minutes to get it done.

'Our gymnasium on the beach is wrecked, all the equipment and deckchairs have floated out to sea and the children's pool is also very badly damaged.

'But we're lucky there was no loss of life or injuries. The hotel deck is also built very high and you need to access the beach via a flight of steps. So we were lucky there was no damage to the hotel except for what was on the beach.'

Mr Thadani carried on with his trip to Krabi as he was advised it would be calmer farther out in the sea. 'The waves were ferocious,' he said. 'I've never seen anything like it before. It was like white-water rapids - but in the sea and much wilder. The waves came every two minutes or so, at least five metres high.'

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Hotel Properties Ltd said last night that its two Maldives resorts - the Four Seasons at Kuda Hurra on North Male Atoll and the Rehiveli Resort on South Male Atoll - suffered damage to electrical and mechanical equipment and furniture.

Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Kuda Hurra operates 106 bungalows and villas while Rehiveli Resort operates 48 villas.

HPL executive director Christopher Lim said the Kuda Hurra has been closed pending an assessment but that the Rehiveli is operating. Neither hotel has reported structural damage, he said.

Notwithstanding the obvious short-term impact of the tsunami tragedy, Mr Lim said he doesn't think regional tourism will be affected, because people realise that no one can foresee an an act of nature. 'It's different,' he said. 'It's not man-made and it hasn't happened for 40 years.'

HPL chartered a 300-seat plane from Qatar Airways yesterday morning to evacuate 200-plus guests from its two Maldives hotels to Dohar, Qatar.

The upmarket Banyan Tree group said its two properties in the Maldives suffered minimal damage. 'The surge of water and mud damaged the jetty at Banyan Tree Maldives Vabbinfaru,' the group said. 'But the jetty was repaired within 24 hours.'

Banyan Tree said that in Sri Lanka - which bore the brunt of the tidal surges - it will have to delay the opening of its beachfront Swanee Hotel from the first half of this year to the second half.

Banyan Tree also has a major presence in in Thailand - where its Phuket properties were hit hard on Sunday. Some 50 rooms were damaged at the 1,100-room Laguna Phuket resort and one guest is missing. Laguna Phuket comprises five hotels - Banyan Tree Phuket, Sheraton Grande Laguna Phuket, Dusit Laguna, Allamanda Laguna Phuket and Laguna Beach Resort. All five are still open.

Davidob

From Le Meridien website

Le Royal Méridien Phuket Yacht Club guests sustained no serious injuries and there is no major structural damage to the property. The hotel expects to remain operational.

Le Méridien Beach Resort, Phuket evacuated guests to safe areas. Arrangements are now underway with the help of tour operators for them to be flown home. A full inspection of the hotel will then take place to ascertain the damage to the property.

Le Méridien Khao Lak, Thailand, communication with Khao Lak has been difficult, but we can confirm that guests were evacuated from the hotel. Staff at the hotel are working with the authorities and major tour operators to arrange to transport guests to Bangkok. A detailed inspection of the hotel will then be carried out.

Le Méridien Baan Taling Ngam, Koh Samui is unaffected.

At Le Méridien Nirwana Golf & Spa Resort, Bali and Le Méridien Fishermans Cove, Seychelles guests are safe and no damage to the hotels has been reported. (Le Méridien Barbarons, also in Seychelles, is closed for refurbishment.)

Le Méridien Ile Maurice, Mauritius also reports no injuries to guests and no serious damage to the hotel. Le Méridien properties in India have not been affected.

The management and staff at Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts extend their condolences to all those throughout the South East Asia region who have lost family and friends as a result of this disaster.

DrivingRain

Sadly, the FS Maldives is closed indefintiely.

http://www.fourseasons.com/maldives/index.html

jsmeeker

Are the luxury resorts in areas that are less likely to be damaged by something like this? Based on the video I have seen, I would expect there to be a lot of damage at a lot of these properties.

I know it's not a luxury hotel, but it's not exactly a total dump....

(From CNN)

"Two-hundred tourists are missing from one hotel alone, the Sofitel hotel in Khao Lak, just north of Phuket island. The hotel was destroyed by the waves, which were nearly three stories high."

ngfan

Info on the Datai, Langkawi by hotel's e-mail:

"Dear Friends of the Datai!

I'm sure all of you have been following the tragedy caused by the recent tsunami. Langkawi was lucky having been spared the brunt of the wave and all hotels, shops, the airport and tourist sites are operational. At The Datai we were very fortunate indeed. Several hobie cats and some sunbeds were broken however these have now been replaced. There was no other damage to the hotel and no injuries to guests and staff. Our beach was cleaned the same day and to be honest if you were to visit today you would see no trace of the tsunami."

MegatopLover

My partner and I were at the Peninsula Bangkok on the morning of December 26th when the earthquake off Sumatra struck. The rolling tremors awakened us, as the Peninsula's slender tower swayed quite noticeably. The wood panelling in the rooms creaked and doors swayed, but the hotel experienced no visible damage. We were surprised to note that none of the windows broke, since the shaking was so strong.

At first I thought it was a very strong wind causing the building to sway, but the clear skies and trees outside indicated no storm. A terrorist attack crossed my mind, but we heard no explosion. That left only an earthquake as a possible explanation. Hotel staff, with no experience in earthquakes, understandably had no idea what was happening. Many guests evacuated the hotel on their own initiative and stood outside, which, as a former Southern California resident I later realized, was exactly the wrong place to be, in danger of falling glass. Things returned to normal swiftly, and hotel staff shared what little information they had promptly. Management distributed notes to everyone promptly informing us of the cause of the mysterious shaking and assuring us that the hotel was design to endure earthquakes, which it did.

The news from the South of Thailand trickled in very slowly. Hours after the shaking, CNN, the BBC, and local Thai media had next to no information about the earthquake itself (just snippets to the effect that an earthquake had been felt in Indonesia), so it comes as little surprise that those in Phuket had no meaningful warning of the oncoming tsunami.