Video: Aman Resorts Places Big Bet on City Hotels

For most of its almost 30-year history, Aman has been an unusual company, perhaps more interested in building and operating luxurious properties than making profits. And often, it would build its hotels far from places tourists would usually visit, forcing them to travel outside their comfort zones.

That’s starting to change. Aman is expanding in larger cities, including Shanghai, Tokyo, and New York. In October, it said its Manhattan property, slated to open in 2020, will have 83 hotel rooms and 20 apartments.

The urban expansion comes as Aman seeks to open more hotels everywhere. The company has 31 hotels in 20 countries, but wants to have 45 to 48 by 2025, its COO, Roland Fasel, said earlier this fall at the Skift Global Forum in New York. Many new properties could be in cities, though Fasel said for customers the experience should be the same as in the brand’s remote resorts.

“We are very well-defined around the pillars of location, about the service proposition,” he said. “These pillars have been established over the years, though they may not have always been 100 percent articulated. … And those brand pillars, you can translate them into a vertical environment.”

He said hotels will remain small, and employees will continue to offer personalized service, with unusually high staff-to-guest ratios.

“It’s never going to be a massive company,” Fasel said. “We will always protect the mystique we have.”

Watch the entire interview above, and find more coverage of Skift Global Forum here.

At this year’s Skift Global Forum in New York City, travel leaders from around the world gathered for two days of inspiration, information, and conversation. There were interviews, and panels as well as solo TED-like talks on the future of travel.

Visit our Skift Global Forum site for more details about 2018 events.