EuropeanPete

I'm still curious to learn more about this Skittles Club. I'd have thought having a Premier League Football Club in your hotel would be more of an issue.

Peterpack

I know people who are rough as guts, as far from refined as you can get, but they could buy and sell everyone here (from a fortune earnt in the mining industry). You can never judge a book by it's cover.

RichardInSF

We are getting off topic, folks! Let's skip the discussion of the lives and mores of various billionaires and keep it to luxury hotel crowds.

RichardInSF, moderator, luxury hotels

DSI

Everyone seems to get annoyed with something, and there are luxury hotels that'll work for people with inherited money, people that made their money, partiers, gays, homophobes, people with children, uptight people, conventioneers, elderly, nice people, rude people, the dowdy, people that want to avoid people, people that will talk with others, etc.

Just plan accordingly to where you'll fit. Luxury hotels come in many flavors, with more flavors to come.

As for me, I like to avoid uptight people and people who inherited their money. But if I see those types, they don't bother me even I deem them to be "mediocre."

Lots of people on this forum would consider me to be mediocre and I'm fine with that.

MikeFromTokyo

I think perhaps we should dispense with the word mediocre, as it is condescending.

I think Four Seasons, for example, does an excellent job of keepng everyone happy. If I don't know where to stay I will often default to Four Seasons (or Peninsula), since I know I will be comfortable and well trated, regardless of who else is staying.

grumbler

OMG - that is funny. But the innermost circle of hell would have been Heartland next door, which unregrettably is no more.

Kagehitokiri

well said.

you might be surprised.

vuittonsofstyle

I just caught up with this thread, which is fascinating.

The English have a phrase 'very non-u' which, if you check Wikipedia means 'not upper class' - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English

This phrase was used considerably at one point to describe unwelcome guests at hotels. It was thought, on the whole, that Amanresorts was very 'U' - i.e. people like us - but this, of course, has changed recently, in line with the new ownership.

I know that the 'U' and 'non-U' descriptions are politically incorrect nowadays, but if you think about it, what we all desire is to journey to a place that is co-occupied by 'people like us'. The trouble is, the world is increasingly full of people who are not at all like us, and there's the rub.

Buster

I too have just caught up with this thread and found it very interesting. I'm probably what many of you would find to be "very non-u" in that I'm in my early 40s, typically wear jeans on vacation (although to be honest, I do still dress up to go to nice restaurants) and also wear comfortable shoes (although not sneakers). When we checked in to Ham Yard Hotel in January, we got a little tour around from the staff, and I got some extremely dirty looks from patrons of the restaurant (apparently since we had just checked in and I was carrying my carry-on, a Patagonia backpack, I was deemed very very non-u). My thought is that I'm on vacation, and although I try not to look like a slob, I'm not packing multiple suitcases of designer clothing and jewelry just to walk around a city. I want to be comfortable, especially because we have a tendency to walk for miles when sightseeing. Part of me does keep wondering when I'll "grow up" and start packing nicer items, but I'm just not there, and suspect I never will be.

I try to be polite and friendly to all staff, and to me, the big turnoffs are people (even wealthy people) who can't be bothered to do so. I've encountered loud, boorish people who, although dressed in designer clothes, feel compelled to do things like smoke right in front of a hotel entrance, or speak loudly on their mobile while holding up a check-in/out area, or who are loudly condescending and demanding of hotel staff. I find that there are certain luxury hotels that seem to attract these sorts of people like magnets. I prefer a more low-key luxury experience. Sadly, I haven't yet found the rosetta stone to decode when I might have one experience or the other.

ThudAndBlunder

I associate 'U- and non-U' with Hyacinth Bucket-type people; but to each their own. These are the type of guests I'd like to steer clear of; the baseless condescension and delusions of grandeur. Give me an honest vulgarian anyday.

Bear4Asian

Kegel exercises are best done away from the crowds. In this case it does t take a club. Or a village. 😇

And as for a mediocre crowd, one can find rude, insulting, narcissistic people from every strata of society. E.g. I'd much rather be sitting at the pool next to a fat, naive farmer from the provinces who's a bit giddy with his high class adventure than someone like this selfish princess

http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2015...opping-scandal

ysolde

So true. So true. I'll take someone who is naive and excited to be in a luxurious new place over someone who thinks everyone is their servant (in the classical Latin definition of the term, no less), and derives all their pleasure from more things, more bling, and from mistreating everyone around them. Ugh.

Bou-KAY, darling. Bou-KAY. Like a bouquet of flowers. And yes, I'll take the honest and straightforward vulgarian any day of the week. The condescension grows tiresome (of course, I do find British class distinctions amusing in themselves, but that is for another thread, I suppose).

MikeFromTokyo

I agree. I also do not mind being politically incorrect!

ridefar

At the risk of contradicting you, I think some of us (me) want to travel to places that are not occupied by us. I want different. I am fine if I don't speak their language. Or they mine. I travel (including to Amans) to be someplace different from home. From North America. From the same old same old. And on the rare occasion when I engage another guest in conversation, or the reverse, the more different their experience and perspective, the better. I am neither so enamored of myself or my social peers that I need to talk to them any more than I do in day to day life.

Rude is rude. No excuse for that. But other than that, I really don't care. Nor do I assume that tatoos and hair and public persona = the actual person. I sat next to Pauly D (Jersey Shore) on an airplane for 5 hours. He was exceptionally polite and kept to himself. If I had judged a book by its cover I would not have guessed that. But if he wanted to have a conversation at Amanwhatever I would be happy to based on what I saw of him on the plane.

Sorry, this thread strikes me as a bit "judge-ey" as a whole. No particular poster, but in general.

GUWonder

I am of a different sort than that. I prefer to experience, and appreciate, differences that validate that the world and its people is not entirely homogenous in every way and don't always fit into preconceived boxes. If I wanted to see "people like me/us", I wouldn't have such a great desire to travel to explore (and potentially learn from/about) the relatively unfamiliar/different. If I wanted a cookie-cutter and a cookie like myself, then I could stay in the kitchen.