Aman Resorts


Aman Resorts International is a luxury hotel group with 32 destinations in 20 countries. Vladislav Doronin is the CEO, chairman and owner of Aman Resorts.

History

Founded in 1988, Aman Resorts' first destination was the result of Adrian Zecha's desire to build a holiday home in Phuket. His plans soon developed into an idea to build a small boutique resort with Anil Thadani and two other friends. They invested their own money in the venture as no banks would lend for the project due to the small number of planned rooms.
By 1992, the group had expanded to include several resorts in Indonesia, a resort on Bora Bora and one in the Alpine village of Courchevel. Later, Clement Vaturi acquired a majority stake in the company, thereby allowing the boutique hotels to be further conceptualized.
In 1998, Vaturi's controlling interest was acquired by Los Angeles-based Colony Capital, a real estate investment fund. A lawsuit between Vaturi and Colony Capital promised to drag on and Colony Capital moved to protect its interests by taking a more active role in the company. At this time, Zecha resigned from his position at Aman and for the next two years pursued other interests.
In 2000, Colony Capital and Vaturi had settled their lawsuit and Vaturi sold his shareholding interests to Lee Hing Development, a Hong Kong investment company. With controlling investors allowing full control over the company, Zecha returned as chairman and CEO.
Over the next seven years, Aman launched retreats in Cambodia, India, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Caribbean.
On 27 November 2007, DLF, India's largest real estate company, acquired Lee Hing's controlling stake in Aman Resorts for $400 million including debt of US$150 million.
In early February 2014 DLF sold Aman Resorts for $358 million to Aman Resorts Group, an investment company led by international businessman Vladislav Doronin and which also included Omar Amanat. The sale included all Aman properties except for the Lodhi Hotel in Delhi. DLF sold Aman Resorts in order to reduce its debt and refocus on real estate after it had expanded into hotels, windfarms and running export processing zones. In August 2015, Doronin became sole owner of Aman, when Pontwelly Holding Company, took full ownership of the hospitality business, Silverlink Resorts. Following this restructuring, Doronin and board director Alan Djanogly, remain as the only two directors.
In February 2017, Roland Fasel joined Aman as chief operating officer, continuing his 25-plus-year career in luxury hospitality.

The resorts

Each resort has a small number of rooms. The staff count is typically four staff to one guest. There are no reception desks, lobbies or bellboys.
Guest accommodation is typically provided in individual private villas, pavilions or tents, often have private pools and outdoor lounging and dining areas.
Aman mandates a concern for cultural preservation. In Cambodia, for instance, they acquired a ruined guest villa that had been built in the early 1960s by the country's King Sihanouk. All architectural records of the villa had been destroyed, but the discovery of an old tourist book with pictures of the building allowed the company to closely replicate what had been lost.
Since its establishment, Aman has been highly rated by Condé Nast Traveler, Zagat Survey, Gallivanter's Guide, Harper's Hideaway" and Travel & Leisure.
34% of Aman patrons originate from Europe, another 34% from Asia-Pacific, 28% from the Americas and 4% from the rest of the world.

Architects

Among the architects who have designed Aman resorts are John Heah, Ed Tuttle, Marwan Al-Sayed, Wendell Burnette, Rick Joy, Kerry Hill, :fr:Jean-Michel Gathy|Jean-Michel Gathy, Aqsa Rafiq, Danilo Capellini, Elastic Architects, and Tom Kundig.

Locations

As of 2019, the group operates the following resorts :