Amanfayun Disappointments
 

I am in the middle of a stay at Amanfayun and I must stay its been disappointing. This is my first Aman stay and I had high expectations given the glowing recommendation from everything I've read and everyone I've talked to. While the hard product here is stunning and it's a real treat to stay in an 800 year old village, the hotel staff seems to be deeply disorganized. Every employee is exceptionally kind in their interactions, we can't help but feel let down by the overall experience. For example, at dinner tonight we ordered pre dinner cocktails, of the three ordered it took nearly and hour for two of them to arrive and the third never did. Then at dinner at the western restaurant all of our appetizers and entrees were brought at different times over a 20 minute period. Meaning we were each eating our meals individually. There are other examples of this kind of service that is not just disappointing for an Aman but for any hotel anywhere. Additionally all of the Aman touches that I had heard about like the amazing and frequent housekeeping and employees knowing your room number without asking have been completely missing. We have received standard twice daily housekeeping and have had to state our room number at every juncture where it is necessary.

When I asked the front desk clerk this evening for the email of the General Manager to voice my disappointment, he informed me that the GM had left the property as of July and there is currently no GM. He told me he would try to put me in contact with someone who could help tomorrow.

I'm a bit unsure what I can do now to improve my stay and would appreciate any help or insights. I also wanted to hear if anyone has had similar experiences at this property.

It's an up and down Aman. always has been. It's a problem that exists throughout China, and especially the minute you get out of a huge city like Shanghai (not that Hangzhou is by any means a small city).

Your comments somewhat echo my stay there, but the place is so gorgeous that you kind of put up with the mediocre service (not that you'd get it much better in other parts of Hangzhou/China - it was even worse at a 'luxury villa' resort near Guangzhou that cost about as much as Aman). We did have redeeming features (our butler + GM) but interaction with other staff, while well meaning, was similar.

With that in mind, there were some reports recently of great service there so perhaps its a(nother) case of GM missing, things go south very fast. The EAM (Executive Assistant Manager) should be stepping in here but doesn't seem like it has happened.

Also, sad to see Kent go - he was superb.

since no GM, you could talk to corporate, perhaps someone will private message you

kent was one of good external hires, right? unfortunate several of the good ones gone

Kent was excellent. Their EAM Edisson was even better. Disappointed to hear about this. We had a lot of little service issues during our stay mainly due to language barriers, but nothing like you mentioned.

After a lackluster conversation with the front office manager (highest ranking person on property) and more service mishaps today, I think my best option is to take your suggestions and contact corporate.

Do you have a suggestion on how to do so? I feel like I should something better than the standard form on the website.

is Edisson leaving?
Edisson Zha Yong?

christophe not well regarded here
vuittonsofstyle has good idea >

I would email Ferdinand Wortelboer, who is MD Ops Asia.

IIRC he is long time veteran and well regarded here

So I wanted to provide an update on my stay. When checking out of the resort I asked the front office manager if he could give me the name and email of someone at Aman who oversees the property, he gave me Christophe Olivro, who oversees China for Aman. I sent him an email explaining my disappointments with our stay the day we left, which was over a week ag and I have yet to receive any reply. I even followed up about four days ago and still nothing.

I guess at this point I will give up trying to talk to our stay with anyone at Aman but its incredibly disappointing. I had such high hopes for Aman and it has been disappointing in a number of ways.

I'm sorry this happened to you. I know what it is like to be ignored by an Aman property GM too.

Sorry to hear of your poor first encounter with Aman! I stayed at Amanfayun in July and was also super disappointed with it.
During my stay, there was no GM and it really impacted the service. I booked the two bedroom villa and I'd say the hard product was also a disappointment. This was my least favorite Aman to date.
But please don't let Fayun put you off other Amans, there are fantastic ones out there...Just stay out of the China ones.

this >
like when some here went to FS corporate, and got great results

are aman beijing and dayan also missing GMs as of recently ?