DavidO

The following hotels are no longer part of Virtuoso for 2018. (Note: I have left off the list several hotels for which amenities are available through other Preferred Partner programs). Some of these hotels declined to renew while others were dropped by Virtuoso for various issues.

Asia & Pacific
Hayman Island
Jumeirah Dhevanafushi
Saffire Freycinet
Amanusa

Bermuda & Caribbean
Carlisle Bay
W Hotel Vieques Island - Hotel is closed indefinately due to severe structural damage brought on by Hurricane Maria

Canada & United States
Hotel Plaza Athenee, New York
La Valencia Hotel
The American Club Resort
Old Edwards Inn & Spa

Mexico, Central & South America
La Lancha

Europe
The Lancaster
Le Meridien Lav, Split
Amanruya
Clinique La Prairie

MikeFromTokyo

Amanusa will cease to exist. I believe ‘Ruya also is unlikely to reopen under Aman management.

scented

I think there was a thread here on Ruya and its potential re-opening, but we had some conflicting info. Aman website says resort remains closed for the whole year (2018) for 'refurbishment', which is a lousy excuse... considering it's virtually new. Even if they planned to build the Aman Spa, which I doubt.

MacMyDay

Saffire Freycinet is interesting. With us going in March and my natural inclination to constantly move dates around, we did not have a massive issue in ever doing so even though they only have 20 rooms. On the other hand, Southern Ocean Lodge (21 rooms), their main competitor, is almost impossible to get into and we were restricted to 3 days at the beginning of April - almost a month after our requested dates. I guess Saffire still somehow felt Virtuoso wasn't worth their while.

MikeFromTokyo

RichardInSF

If the La Valencia hotel being dropped refers to the one in La Jolla, California, it should have been dropped years ago. Been an overpriced dump for a long time.

jiaotze

I don't recall the exact amenities that Virtuoso provided for Saffire, but I negotiated our stay directly with the hotel and they quite readily offered a confirmed upgrade and free massages. Breakfast or F&B credit is kind of a moot point as it is all-inclusive to begin with. They also had no problem with our early check-in.

SanDiego1K

How many nights did you stay?

jiaotze

We stayed two evenings.

pewpew

that's a shame. I stayed here once and loved the property, especially with the $100 F&B credit from virtuoso

MacMyDay

My point was more that Virtuoso is an advertising platform for them, yet even though they are not fully booked during their peak periods, they still consider no need for it. Being part of somewhere like AMEX/Virtuoso is far more than just offering benefits to the clients, it is getting their name out to people who would never have known about it in the first place. I was introduced to properties like La Reserve Ramatuelle from AMEX posting me some targeted brochure, as I was with Aman (although some of that was a combination of The Connaught too). Even all-inclusive, ultra luxury properties like Laucala are part of AMEX/LHW/Virtuoso, so they clearly see some benefit to it. I just find it interesting that for Saffire it was clearly more cost effective to no longer be a member.

Isochronous

Is there a consolidated list of Virtuoso hotels somewhere?

DavidO

Yes, check out this... https://www.virtuoso.com/hotels

behuman

Saffire is a big player and claims to represent THE luxury in Tasmania. Now they even offer private flights within Tasmania and even from Melbourne. They also left the Relais & Châteaux (many top properties in Australia seem to believe that the "Luxury Lodges of Australia" are enough.

I had a pleasant stay a couple of years ago at Saffire, but it was somewhat "synthetic" and also the style of guests was not to my liking. Would not return and rather like the Baillie's style (they had a project in Tasmania).

Virtuoso guests may still stay at the Islington Hotel when visiting Tasmania, certainly not luxury, but rather a very very nice guesthouse in Hobart. As an independent traveler knowing exactly what I want and also thanks to the knowledge from FTalk, I will continue to book directly and get the best conditions in all cases.

bhrubin

I've also heard wonderful things about the Le Meridien Lav in Split.

I assume this Virtuoso drop is an artifact of the Marriott-Starwood merger and new corporate policy. This has to be one of the very few (or only?) Le Meridien properties in the Virtuoso network!