Originally Posted by quitecontrary

Firstly thanks for posting 5khours - i haven't read all of it yet but it does look very nice and I can see that it suits you completely for a few days R&R as you're in the region anyway but I agree completely with Pausanias's post. Those of us in Europe (apart from the real Aman aficionados) probably wouldn't travel all the way to a remote area just to spend time at an admittedly very nice hotel - I can see that some will stay there for a few days just to relax at the end of a longer trip to Vietnam.

It will also suit those already living in the region who may be cash rich but time poor. I increasingly find that some people only spend only a day or 2 in a location which used to be the joke about our friends from the US - as in 'if it's Wednesday it must be Paris' (not any more of course as Americans now travel a lot more). I think this now applies to tourists from Asian countries - in particular those from Mainland China although I'm not sure how many of them stay at Aman hotels. Here in the UK you just have to go into the handbag hall at Harrods to see this phenomenal rise in spending in action - whereas it used to be mainly those from Japan who sought out the very expensive handbags you now get the young Chinese crowding around the luxury names and buying!

If you look at the reviews of the various Aman hotels on TA you'll find that we Europeans are the least represented reviewers and that doesn't take into account those reviews not in English. I remember one review of one of the Aman hotels here that mentioned that the other guests were mainly Japanese families which does rather bear out Pausanias's point about the core clientele of Aman hotels being Asian.