The Superlative Stay – Interview with Vladislav Doronin, CEO, Owner and Chairman of Aman
Unique locations, original architecture and interiors, an unparalleled level of service and privacy all make up the DNA of Aman. Vladislav Doronin, CEO, Owner and Chairman of Aman tells us what it takes to deliver consistently at this level.
What do your first 30 mins of the day look like, your morning routine? I am quite protective over my morning routine. My days are incredibly busy, so it’s important for me to find time to look after myself and I’ve developed a morning routine that works for me.
I practise qigong, yoga and meditation in the morning for around an hour after waking up. I then take my SVA herbal formulas, which we launched in 2020. Named after the Sanskrit word for health ‘svasthya’, these Traditional Chinese Herbal Formulas were developed with Dr Ning Ma who has over 30 years’ experience within Traditional Chinese Medicine.
I’ll also work with my trainer several days a week, perhaps doing a strength workout or HIIT to get my heart rate up. If I have time, I will also do some watersports – I particularly love kitesurfing and always feel so energised when I’ve been out on the water. Ensuring I have some time set aside to look after my wellbeing each day is vital and I prefer to do this first thing in the morning, not only to ensure I feel healthy, but it also means I’m at my best throughout my working day too. How did your time working in commodity trading support your role as Chairman of Aman now? My time working as a commodities trader definitely shaped my approach to business, as it gave me strong foundations, as well as excellent experience. I was always the first in the office and the last to leave – I was driven to succeed and knew working harder than anyone else would enable me to do that. I have learnt over the years that balance is important, but I do have an incredibly hardworking approach when I am in the office and am very focused. I also noticed that great attention to detail leads to success – if you’re attentive to every element of what you’re doing, your work is both considered and accurate, which is something I stand by and expect from both myself and my teams today. What is your approach to business and building a work culture? I think you must lead by example when it comes to work culture. There’s no point creating policies or guidelines to build a business culture, but then not embodying them yourself. This only means no one in the business adopts the approach, as culture filters down from the leadership team. I believe strongly in identifying a clear vision, principles and goals for the business, especially when you have a large or international business. At Aman, our teams are located all over the world, but this clarity over the vision means the whole company is working together, driving forward to achieve our mission.
The energy and camaraderie that comes from working together in person is incredibly important. Globally, our teams have relished being back in the office, as it’s a more dynamic environment in which creativity can really thrive. I believe the best ideas don’t come to life through a screen or over Zoom, but in person – similarly, if I’m working on a deal with someone, I want to do this in person, with a handshake. Ultimately, and particularly in luxury hospitality, it’s all about building connection with your team, partners and clients.
What was the catalyst for investing in Aman and what have been the biggest hurdles you’ve had to overcome? I had been developing mixed-use real estate projects for some time and I knew that it would be a great benefit to bring a hotel brand into my portfolio. Hotels have incredibly vast infrastructure which creates an opportunity to provide services for apartments and their owners – however, I knew the number of apartments in each project needed to be very limited in quantity to guarantee the level of luxury I was looking to incorporate within my projects.
Aman had long been one of my favourite hotel brands – I had visited each property as a guest already – and it happened to come to market while I was considering the expansion of my portfolio, so it was the perfect fit. Time has become such a commodity – no one ever has enough of it – and branded residences with managed services for owners is of great value. People want to have Aman experiences and seamless management in their homes, as they have no time to manage staff or prepare their home for arrival, but with an Aman Residence everything is done perfectly, with Aman’s unrivalled service and standards. I’m now seeing this ambition come to life, for example, at Aman New York, USA which will open later this year. We have just 22 residences in addition to the hotel, but owners will benefit from the extensive services and amenities, such as the 2,300sqm Aman Spa, our signature restaurants – Nama, our Japanese restaurant, and Arva, our Mediterranean restaurant, the subterranean Jazz Club, plus the unrivalled 24-hour Aman service. The two-floor Cigar Lounge with terrace, renowned Aman Spa and Wine Room, will be available for Aman Club members only – our new concept, the Aman Club is an ex
clusive community of like-minded individuals who have access to members-only Aman experiences and amenities. The value added via property management, priority access to Aman hotel amenities and the newly launched Aman Club, of which owners are nominated as Founder Members, means Aman Residences command a premium compared with traditional apartments. How do you approach challenges? It depends on the challenge – generally, my approach is to work with the team to try and find a solution which means you don’t have to compromise your vision, but I also feel it’s important to know when to take stock and change direction if something fundamentally isn’t working.
During the development of a new project we often come across challenges. Amanyangyun, Shanghai is an example of this – it is an exceptional property that was an ambitious feat of architectural conservation. We moved antique Ming and Qing Dynasty villas stone by stone from Fuzhou to Shanghai, protecting the historical architecture, as well as the camphor trees which were also rescued and now sit within the property. It took 15 years to develop – it was exacting work and needed uncompromising attention to detail to achieve the vision, but it was a series of challenges that were well worth figuring out – the hotel is incredibly special. How do you think last year affected the growth of the travel industry and have you made changes in light of this? We are fortunate that Aman’s core principles since the brand’s conception mean our hotels and resorts are perfectly set up for social distancing – we’re hugely generous with space and focus upon privacy as an integral part of the experience. Given each of our villas, suites and pavilions has its own private butler, if you choose to, when staying at an Aman property you can see no other guests during your stay with us without compromising your Aman experience. We were also very agile, quickly changing our focus to domestic markets for each of our hotels, so each of our guests could continue to enjoy an Aman experience, just closer to home than they perhaps would have done usually.
These two combined has meant we have seen incredibly strong performance across several of our locations throughout 2020 and 2021 with Amanyara and Amanera in the Caribbean, Amangiri and Amangani in the USA and Amanpulo, Philippines to name a few seeing even stronger performance in 2020 than previous years.
These locations are performing well as they are within countries where travel is permitted, so we’re seeing very high demand. I strongly believe this demand for international travel will only increase in the coming months and we’ll see a travel boom, as people are tired of being at home. We are already seeing this – as soon as restrictions ease in our different destinations, we see an immediate spike in requests and bookings.
Did you have any mentors in the early days and how did this help navigate the right path? I had great career aspirations from as young as I can remember and always had a drive to succeed, however throughout my career I have learnt from mentors and others I have worked with. I think it’s important to have people in your life who you can trust as advisors or as a sounding board, as it can bring a different perspective, which can add real value to your decision making and broader business ventures.
Which has been the best piece of advice you’ve had in business? Trust your instincts and learn to feel comfortable with taking risks – sometimes you need to take the risk to deliver success. Also, hire a strong team and make sure everyone is aligned to the company vision and purpose, then you have total trust that the decisions being made are in the best interest of your overarching goal.
What has been your approach to scaling the business to date? My key focus is to keep the guest experience at the heart of everything we do and develop. I also want to protect the core DNA of the brand – its privacy, design, service and feeling of being in a good friend’s home – even as we expand our collection of hotels.
This has also seen us take Aman hotels from the horizontal resort experience to the vertical, in cities. We opened Aman Tokyo to great success in 2014 and are looking forward to opening Aman New York this year, as well as Aman Miami (2024) and Aman Nai Lert Bangkok (2023). This enables us to offer a sanctuary and all the hallmarks of the Aman experience but within the beating heart of dynamic urban environments. Led by the demand from our guests, we’ve also developed several products, including our Aman Spa Candles, Aman Skincare, Aman Fine Fragrance and more recently SVA (taken from the Sanskrit ‘svasthya’ meaning health), which is our range of Traditional Chinese Herbal Formulas. As with everything we do, these products need to be the best quality and so we took a long time to develop each range, working with the best experts globally to make sure they match the quality of the Aman experiences, but in people’s own homes.
What do you believe is the value of social media in business growth relating to luxury and which platform do you feel will next drive most success? Social media of course has a place in our business, as a means of sharing our offering with our clients, but our focus for connection is much more personal. We created the Aman Private Office which is how we connect with our clients – each client has an individual point of contact and the way in which we interact with them is entirely personal and bespoke, based on their enquiry and needs.
When you bought Aman it boasted 27 properties, many located within UNESCO heritage sites. You’re now at 33 and have plans for seven more. How do you go about securing the locations and how careful are you in selecting partners to bring your vision to life in terms of interior? When looking at new destinations, it is our core values and offering, as well as the guest experience which is front of mind. The Aman proposition can be brought to life in an urban, jungle, desert or oceanfront destination, but the potential location must be unique to the rest of our collection, and it must also be exceptional. For example, our two forthcoming Aman properties in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be located in AlUla, a place of extraordinary natural and human heritage with UNESCO Heritage sites of archaeological significance. This is integral to our pathfinder spirit – we have a continued mission not only to curate resorts of architectural distinction, but also to explore new destinations and cultural experiences and currently have 14 properties located close to UNES
“If you’re attentive to every element of what you’re doing, your work is both considered and accurate, which is something I stand by and expect from both myself and my teams today.”
CO Heritage Sites. Architecture and design are passions of mine and I have a clear vision of what we’re looking for from each project, as well as great attention to detail. I think like our guests, who also expect every detail of the Aman design experience to be considered. We have some partners who we have worked with often and understand the brand incredibly well, but that said, I am always looking out for new talent in architecture and design who understand the Aman philosophy and could bring a fresh take on the Aman experience within our new locations, drawing inspiration from the property’s unique surroundings. Ultimately our partners need to understand our approach – we design to celebrate our surroundings, not to commandeer them.
The service at Aman is unparalleled. Do you tailor each stay to the individual and how do you approach this accurately? The Aman service is something we pride ourselves on. We have a very uncompromising attitude towards personalisation and the level of detail that our teams deliver is unparalleled.
Our service is intuitive. It’s not about a cookie cutter approach but training and enabling our teams to be intuitive, think about each guest individually and understand what they are looking for before the guest needs to ask. This level of consideration of one’s needs and wants is to me the absolute marker of a luxury experience. Where do you see Aman in five years? My vision for Aman in five years’ time is to grow the brand offering and our collection of properties, but always in line with our core values and the expectations of our guests. I plan to continue our expansion into global cities and I’m currently exploring opportunities in London, Paris, Milan and L.A.
This year, we have launched several new verticals for Aman, born out of the demand from our guests. This includes The Essentials by Aman, our first clothing collection, a curated edit of timeless pieces available at our on-property boutiques, which were designed with the Aman experience in mind.
Looking further forward, my vision is to further cement the reputation of Aman as the ultra-luxury lifestyle experience. I use the word experience purposefully – our guests are getting younger and their expectations are different to the generation which travelled before them. The experience economy is booming, and Aman is proud to create experiences which are enriched by the local culture of our destinations and build meaningful and lasting memories for our guests. Experiences like the guided meditation within the world’s largest Buddhist temple, Borobudur, which we offer at Amanjiwo, Indonesia, are other-worldly and create incredibly special moments our guests will remember forever. We also recently launched Janu, the sister brand to Aman. Janu means ‘soul’ in Sanskrit, compared to Aman, meaning ‘peace’. This encompasses the difference between the two – Janu will have a different energy to Aman, focused upon connection, togetherness and being effortlessly social, in comparison to the sanctuary and privacy of Aman destinations. We have announced Janu Montenegro (2023), Janu Tokyo (2023) and Janu AlUla (2023) and have a more extensive pipeline of hotels I’m excited to announce shortly. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs in the current market? I think there is great power in acknowledging the cyclical nature of the economy and I encourage entrepreneurs to be resilient and maintain the core offering of their businesses, but also to look ahead and have a plan in place for economic recovery. I also believe the moments for pause we have had at different points over the last year and a half also create great opportunity for reflection and creativity. I suggest being proactive and bold, act upon those ideas and try to create exciting opportunity from a period of challenge. When you travel – how do you maintain any kind of routine and what do you always need to travel with? I am fortunate to be in the position to be able to travel with my trainer. This helps me to maintain my morning routine, which I find then sets me up for the day ahead. It’s also in my nature to be relatively disciplined, especially if I’ve found something that works for me, so I enjoy my morning meditation and workouts whether I am on holiday or about to embark on a long day of meetings.
Where do you love to escape to? My location of choice for an escape varies depending on what I’m looking for. Amanpuri, Thailand is the first Aman resort I ever visited, back in 1990, and remains one of my favourite places in the world to this day – there is a very special energy here which to me is the ultimate escape and perfectly encapsulates the Aman experience. I love to come here with my family to switch off and relax together in total privacy and sanctuary.
Amandira, Aman’s flagship yacht, is a custom-built two-masted Phinisi sailing yacht, which sails around the remote islands of Indonesia’s Flores Sea. As I love watersports, spending time on board Amandira is a real escape for me, where I can enjoy scuba diving in the coral reefs of Raja Ampat – which is home to the most diverse marine life – as well as sailing through the incredible scenery of these remote islands.
More recently, we have opened urban locations and I really enjoy the buzz and energy at Aman Tokyo. Tokyo is one of my favourite cities in the world, it’s so dynamic and I feel re-energised when I visit, especially when I enjoy the Aman experiences which are so immersed in the local artisan culture.