Word: zecha
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Dates: during 2001-2001
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...Zecha is very much the anticorporate boss. He shuns manuals and encourages staff to employ unobtrusive, personal touches to make each visitor's stay memorable. Because many guests come from stressful, corporate and urban surroundings, Zecha tries to create the opposite environment. "The whole point is to keep things as 'not institutional' as possible," he says...
...Zecha never set out to create retreats for the rich. The descendant of a Czech-Indonesian family that acquired plantations in Indonesia in the 19th century, Zecha was educated in the U.S. and began his career in Asia as a journalist and publisher. In the early 1970s he helped found Regent International Hotels, but cashed out 13 years later. Shortly afterward he was looking to build a private holiday home for himself, his wife and son, when he stumbled upon the coconut plantation where Amanpuri sits today...
...treatment for every guest. It all comes at a price, of course. Rooms, often stand-alones, begin at $575. Suites cost up to $2,200. Private villas, offered at some resorts, can be rented for up to $6,000 a night. "There are many versions of my preferred lifestyle," Zecha laughs. "Since I can't afford to live the lifestyle, I might as well create...
...Zecha has created yet another version of his lifestyle in a second chain that he founded last year, Maha Resorts (maha means great in Sanskrit). The first offering?Mahakua-Hacienda de San Antonio, a converted 19th-century hacienda once owned by Sir James Goldsmith?opened in western Mexico last October. In a few months, the two resort chains will merge under the Amanresorts umbrella...
...Zecha, who is based in Singapore, spends most of his time traveling, checking established properties and scouting for new sites. His plan is to double the number of Amanresorts in the coming years. Three are under development outside of Asia, and Zecha says he is interested in Europe and the U.S. "He has Asia tied up with Aman," says Gordon Byrn, whose firm is a major shareholder in Amanresorts' parent company. "If he stayed here, he'd be competing with himself." Now that he is back in charge, Zecha looks set to take on the world...