chinmoylad

Amankila had a 3 (or longer) month break between GMs. Shane was in charge. We had the best stay we've ever had, anywhere in the world. It really depends who is taking over - I would suggest reaching out to the team to ensure that everything you need is taken care of.

livefromtuscany

IMHO, this is a huge loss for Aman and a clear indication that things are not going well within the company. I miss all those fabulous GMs who have left, and remain unimpressed by most of the new people, who simply don't "get" Aman. And with less and less veterans around able to teach them, things are bound to get worse.

chinmoylad

Agree with that.

There should be new hires who DO 'get' Aman.

Also, not particularly excited about some of their newer hotels.

Shanghai seems nice in terms of the story behind the project, but it's not an exciting hotel/destination.
Amanemu? Still not sure.
Kyoto...so many options.

Amanera is definitely interesting (but not the larger proposed project around the place) but some of the newer proposed Caribbean ones are just more hotels in fairly well known existing locations, albeit in some cases 1-2 hours in the OTHER direction from where most of the 'action' is which is at least a saving grace.

vuittonsofstyle

Aman are about to launch, globally, their new Aman Skincare, which is rumoured to have been manufactured by ILA. All-black bottles and jars again, but it looks as though it is plastic this time instead of glass.

Epicura

If I may add a more positive note though, for ex Igor from Amanruya is IMHO somebody who absolutely "gets" Aman but not sure he would still qualify as some of the "new people" as he already joined Aman 10 years back. IIRC he even worked for Tapa as his executive assistant manager. Amanruya still has a great rate by the way for the next weeks, with the 3+1 nightly rates are actually starting at just over 500 EUR which is an amazing deal for this property.

Anyway, glad to hear that at least OP issue has been sorted out. I am indeed afraid that these issues were rather related to a transition period for SS where the boat was missing a captain.

chinmoylad

Agree with your sentiment - but a couple of them have also gone to a brand that has actively tried to suppress a rape story at their resort.

gegarrenton

Do what?

offerendum

Fc912

gegarrenton

Holy cow. That's insane what happened at the Six Senses

Jermyn

We arrived a few hours ago and were warmly welcomed by Tapa and Jane. The setting is beautiful as is our room. It does not feel like a downgrade after our Amanoi stay in June... At all. The staff we have encountered so far have all been great. Talkative, helpful, engaging and proactive. Proper Aman.

No wasps or broken hardware either.

The truffle pasta at dinner was unbelievably good too. I say that as somebody who spent several days in Florence two weeks ago.

Really looking forward to the rest of our stay.

One annoyance though: the noise that comes over from the nightclubs on the mainland, at night. Lots of low level karaoke and general shouting over grainy PAs. It is after 11pm and doesn't really show any signs of letting up. Nothing the resort can do but surprised it's not been mentioned before.

BESVISOR

Had two sets of clients checked in today and seems to have had great welcomes and experiences so far. Tapa is on it and he should be at the resort till end of Month, at least.

Edit: Tapa just emailed me to advise that all 4 clients are happy and enjoying their time. I really appreciate the kind gesture on his part and detailed attention to ensure that the same issues occurred with the OP didn't happen again. Seems that they took the feedback very seriously and immediately. But I'm also grateful that the OP brought his issues to everyone's attention, hate that he had to take one for the team, though!

Fc912

chinmoylad

It should be remembered that social media/the internet/online space also has a lot to answer for. There will eventually be a shocking stay at every resort (and it needs to compensated accordingly, as this one presumably was) - it happens. And it happens now, as it happened back then.
20, 30 years ago, it would be talked about within a small circle. Difference is, now it goes up on a forum, on Instagram, on TripAdvisor etc.

We often report the bad reviews on here - and this is not to discourage any reviewers from writing the negative reviews, we do actually need MORE of those because it provides a balance and also a warning - but how often do we report the amazing reviews, nevermind the decent/good ones? Does everyone on here who has ever reported a bad review also reported a decent stay? A good stay? An amazing stay? An out of this world stay?

There are plenty of an older generation who have told me they disliked their Aman stays, even back in the "heyday" of the late 80s and early 90s - whether it's because that's not what they were looking for from a trip, or it just didn't go as planned and they don't see the value proposition. It's not a unique phenomenon to now, despite the 'change in ownership' and leadership (which, again, isn't to say it isn't an issue - sure, I've seen some changes myself in the last ~5 or so years). But these reviews from back then would be within a small (if influential) circle; not a public forum/space like here or Instagram etc.

And that's true across every hotel, brand etc.

What is different, though, are the amount of 'fake' reviews (and these tend to mostly be positive) which probably didn't occur as much back then.

offerendum