It solely took 20 seconds for Mike White, the creator of „The White Lotus,“ to solid the 4 Seasons Resort Koh Samui as the star character within the third installment of his hit HBO sequence.
„Arriving to the resort, you are standing on prime of a peak and you may see 43 acres of lush land [and] the Gulf of Thailand, and it is simply stunning general,“ Jasjit Assi, the resort’s normal supervisor, advised TPG on a current go to to New York City. „And when Mike walked in, he was simply silent for 20 seconds, and he stated, ‚That is it.'“
In all three seasons of „The White Lotus,“ the fictional normal supervisor performs a key position: catering to haughty visitors, managing employees members who see and listen to the whole lot and, at occasions, moving into sticky conditions of their very own.
For Assi, who has labored with Four Seasons, the luxurious hospitality model „The White Lotus“ is unofficially primarily based on, for 18 years, it is easy to separate the TV normal managers — like Armond on Maui and Valentina in Sicily — from his real-life position as the first chief on the 4 Seasons Resort Koh Samui.
„Look,“ stated Assi, who’s nothing just like the awkward, goofy normal supervisor of The White Lotus Koh Samui within the present. „‚White Lotus‘ is supposed to entertain. There’s a little bit of exaggeration. It is a satire; it is a fictional drama sequence.“
However what’s actual, he insists, is the great thing about the resort and the distinctive Thai hospitality you see all through the season.
„You might be seeing the resort play a personality,“ he stated. „To keep up the great thing about this resort, that is my position on this.“
After White „booked“ the resort for the present, he reserved a keep for himself and „skilled the whole lot as a visitor,“ Assi defined. He added that the 2 of them, together with White’s crew, „opened up each door that may very well be opened“ as Assi helped the staff plan the right places for various kinds of scenes.
Then, in February and March 2024, the resort closed to the general public to rework into „The White Lotus.“ It stayed totally open, although, for the present’s solid.
Each day E-newsletter
Reward your inbox with the TPG Each day e-newsletter
Be part of over 700,000 readers for breaking information, in-depth guides and unique offers from TPG’s consultants
„In actuality, it was like working a correct resort day-after-day,“ Assi stated, regardless that shoots had been occurring Monday via Friday.
On filming days, the 4 Seasons employees adjusted to fulfill the wants of the solid and crew’s wild filming schedule.
„No matter [the crew’s] wants had been, wherever they had been transferring across the resort, the employees was serving to them out to maneuver and arrange places,“ he stated.
On the weekends, the celebrities of the present „embraced the actual Thailand island life.“ And, after 5 days of capturing, he defined, they wanted to calm down.
„We handled them like regular visitors. They might go all the way down to the seashore. They had been ordering cocktails. They had been going into the spa,“ Assi stated, noting that additionally they hung out elsewhere on the island, like native eating places, „embracing actual life.“
Actually, he stated, they „felt like a part of the household.“ A lot so, in truth, that actor Parker Posey, whose journey to movie the present marked her first go to to Asia, „got here again to the resort to say thanks to the individuals who taken care of her“ whereas returning to the island for a wellness retreat.
The 4 Seasons Resort Koh Samui employees might need tried to make the expertise on the resort as regular as attainable for the solid and crew, however for them, enjoying host to one of many world’s hottest TV reveals required some modifications.
„We needed to educate them, to be trustworthy,“ Assi stated about his employees, lots of whom did not perceive simply how massive the present is — or that the present’s satirical have a look at its employees did not essentially signify them, the real-life individuals who make the resort so fantastic.
Assi’s employees needed to be nimble, adjusting meals tailor-made to the solid’s on-set diets or serving to them plan days off. Additionally they needed to vow to secrecy.
„We needed to signal a variety of NDAs and confidentiality agreements,“ he stated, explaining that his employees realized easy methods to be coy when visitors requested in the event that they had been going to movie „The White Lotus“ there.
Now that folks know Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui as the property from the show, the questions have modified. Individuals need to know what villa the Ratliff household stayed in (a three-bedroom villa that begins at $8,000 per night time) or the place actor Patrick Schwarzenegger got here out of the pool shirtless.
„Friends need to [have] their very own ‚White Lotus‘ experiences,“ Assi harassed, noting that his staff totally anticipated the drive in bookings the present would trigger — identical to the 4 Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea in Hawaii and San Domenico Palace, Taormina, A 4 Seasons Resort in Sicily, Italy, skilled after their seasons as visitor stars.
And that is why 4 Seasons has been — and possibly will proceed to be — such a fantastic companion for the present.
„The 4 Seasons philosophy has all the time been ‚inspiration via journey,'“ Assi stated, „and I believe cinema on this age has [taken] it to the following stage. [Four Seasons] is predicated on the pillars of a fantastic location, a fantastic resort and nice service … [and with the show,] you’ll be able to see it.“
Now, with Season Three coming to an finish, simply do not ask Assi his ideas on the place Season 4 ought to happen. With fun he stated, „Let me survive this one.“
Methods to e-book: Charges at Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui begin at $1,800 per night time for a pool villa.
E-book via a program like American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Edit by Chase Travel to attain elitelike perks, reminiscent of room upgrades (when accessible), free breakfast, late checkout and property credit.
Associated studying:
Trending Merchandise
