I'm on day 3 of 5 on my 5th Amanzoe visit and wanted to drop down some thoughts on it.

I last visited in 2015 and wrote, what I think was my first ever trip report, on these forums. I mentioned how I was disappointed at some of the minor service blips. Well, 2 years on and they're still there, but in abundance. It seems to me that Amanzoe is only worth visiting and experiencing the "true" Aman service if you do not go during full occupancy. Seeing that they are almost fully booked between June > September, that does not give you much choice in the matter. The resort is closed ~5 months of the year, so they should be used to dealing with full occupancy, but instead it seems they're staffing at off-peak levels.

So here's some thoughts just jotted down:

• 5th time visit, yet they still cannot get the stay list setup perfectly. The fruit bowl containing mostly bowl and a lack of fruit, would have looked suitable in a Holiday Inn. They also asked for my passport, credit card number and signature of yet another waiver on arrival, even though I've done it all before. I was in Park Hotel Vitznau about 2 weeks ago and they particularly impressed me when I offered my credit card and they declined it as it's a stay based on trust.
• There are still a lot of long-term staff here, which is always fantastic to see. Sven, the GM, is ever present and a very hospitable host.
• I always loved the food here, but the pastry chef has now gone and with him my glorious French toast and all the amazing desserts. I also always considered the food prices reasonable, but now the portions are tiny and the prices similar to Mayfair. In fairness, they did source the ingredients for my beef salad that I always loved, which is no longer on the menu.
• Housekeeping used to be a myth, as you'd never see them, but only once have we not bumped into them, even though breakfast takes hours to get through. They forgot to refill the minibar last night as well. I've stayed here before where housekeeping has been in 5 times a day, and whilst that may be excessive, setting your minibar always stocked is a beautiful thing. That's no longer the case. All these tiny points just add up to making an Aman experience simply the same as other, lesser properties.
• There are no preferences remembered. Gone are the days where I sat down on the first meal, asked for lemon with my water and every place I went thereafter it was there. Day 3 and no one can remember what type of water we want, even though we always ask the same and it's even written on our stay list. The same goes for every preference of what we ask for: butter, bread, types of drinks.
• Service is incredibly slow. I've always been lenient with Amanzoe, as there's not exactly much to do here and therefore why the rush? Yet there are limits. 20 minutes for a glass of water to arrive when we cycled down to the beach in 25C heat, just isn't acceptable. Ordering food and them bringing every meal together is just weird planning. With the fact that staff keep forgetting things, it's hard to know at what point to ask whether it's on the way or remind them about it.
• At breakfast it's so badly disorganised, with us counting 7 different waiters bringing things to us. How can you personalise service if you have that many interactions with staff? It's somehow organised chaos. The orders are frequently wrong and they bring things in such a weird order that it's clear they've just forgotten, such as bringing bread baskets nearly 30 minutes after sitting down. Missed orders has become the norm of the stay. Just ordering an apple juice and orange juice, they bring the apple juice, ask who it is for, then bring the other juice another 10 minutes later. It's like there's no management here.
• Down by the beach, no one has ever come and asked us if we wanted anything. When we did ask for some water and a juice, the water arrived and then when we went off hunting for it, the waitress just didn't understand so didn't bother asking and just ignored it.
• We cycled back from the beach to the resort, which for any of you who have been there, know it's nearly 6km and uphill, so is quite frankly a bit of a ........ They never supplied any water on the bikes for the trip.
• We found half a plastic lid in the yoghurt from the buffet - not exactly child friendly.

This is my girlfriends first Aman, with her having stayed at Iniala and Ani Villas in March, and she said that there is absolutely no comparison and would not consider another Aman based on this stay. DSI will be giddy with joy.

I still consider it an incredible property and I've no doubt I'll end up coming back, but I have been to enough other resorts to know that it can and should be better, especially at this price point. The hard product is what makes this place amazing, but it used to be the service as well.


I love the smell of plastic in the morning.