livefromtuscany

Amanemu
(photos below; more pictures in the Flickr profile)

Very efficient and typical Aman arrival: At Kashikojima station, the last stop on the Kintetsu line, we were met at the train track by an Amanemu driver, who helped us with our luggage to the Lexus SUV waiting right outside the tiny station. The car dropped us at the arrival pavilion, where we were greeted by Yoshi, the hotel manager. We never met the new GM during our stay. This was followed by a short tour of the main building (with reception, lounge and restaurant) and then straight to the room for the formalities. A nice bottle of Gosset champagne was already waiting in the room.

The rooms in the 3 categories (Mori, Sora, Nagi) are all identical in layout, with just the views varying between them. The Sora suite have partial ocean views, we were very happy with the beautiful views of the bay and the changing fall foliage. Every single building houses 2 suites, which might create a noise issue if there is a baby or housekeeping is working next door. The suites are spacious, airy and timelessly elegant. Space is ample, and the highlight is the bathtub which can be supplied with natural thermal spring water from the local onsen.

In terms of facilities, there is a main building with a lap pool and sunbeds, a reception area, a lounge/bar pavilion where complimentary afternoon tea is served, and a restaurant pavilion, which is the only restaurant on property and used for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food was perfect throughout, from ample Western breakfast, beautiful Bento box lunches to excellent, interesting Japanese dinner specialties like Shabu-Shabu.

The bar/lounge pavilion felt more like a living room than a bar, so we did not use it for pre-dinner drinks like we would normally do.

We frequently used the spa with it’s multiple, different temperature onsen baths, steam room and sauna. Treatments were excellent. Beware of the lack of an indoor relaxation area though (see observations below).

All in all, we loved Amanemu, but it seemed that the once fabled Aman standards are falling here as well, and we are getting to a point where it is hard to justify the high room rates. See below for some observations and judge by yourself.

Observations/minor issues

• The public areas seem to be designed for a much warmer climate; during our visit, we had warm days and chilly evenings, with temperatures dropping to around 12° celsius. In winter, daytime temperatures apparently drop to around 0° celsius. Nevertheless, the corridors in the main building are open-air, requiring the need to put on a jacket when going from the lounge or restaurant to the bathroom. Same in the spa - there are tons of outdoor daybeds, but no indoor relaxation area; after a bath in the onsen at night when it was too cool to stay outside, we headed straight back to our room - and this was just autumn.
• Housekeeping was very loud - they clean the rooms in teams of 4, and chat and laugh loudly while doing so, completely disregarding the possibility that guests in the room next door might be disturbed.
• Along the pathway to our room, a housekeeping station was completely open and visible, providing views of garbage containers and dirty laundry bins when walking by - not very Zen, and not understandable why they wouldn’t hide this better.
• They have bicycles available for guests' use, but these are in awful conditions - rusty, gear shift broken, bad brakes, low tire pressure. We complained and they changed the bikes, which were marginally better, but still with broken gear shifts.
• Gone are they days of the multiple housekeeping touchups, not even when you’re out for a spa appointment or excursion; now it’s just a morning and evening service.
• Cleaning and maintenance: the carpet in the restaurant was stained all over, and really not a pretty sight; whatever motivated Kerry Hill to install beige carpeting in a restaurant is beyond me, but it clearly wasn’t a smart idea. In the room, the wall in the toilet had some unsightly stains (most likely from a cleaning product applied in the wrong way) which were there throughout our stay.
• Staff members use gasoline-powered try-wheel mopeds to move around the property; these vehicles are not only unnecessarily loud, staff members are also using them much too fast, zipping around the curves and not slowing down when passing guests
• Unlike at previous stays at other Amans, some things that were offered complimentary IRRC are now charged, like the yukata robes and flip-flops in the room, a sandwich to take on the train upon departure,
• Amanemu was the 20th Aman we visited, but there was no “Amanjunkie” recognition whatsoever; as I’ve said before, their CRM is non-existent, and the questions from senior staff whether we had been to other Amans felt a bit ridiculous.
• Management presence at previous Aman stays was much higher, usually checking-in on us proactively during a stay. At Amanmu, other than briefly meeting Yoshi, and the FO manager bidding us farewell, we had no management interaction, and nobody asked how our stay had been.

And here the not so nice ones:

Housekeeping station (entrance to suite on the right hand side)

Carpet in the restaurant (this is not limited to a certain area - looked like this all over)

Table outside:

Bathroom wall: