Looking for Total Luxury at a NYC Hotel? Try the Aman New York with a $200,000 Club Fee
Edited by: TJVNews.com
For those super luxurious hotel afficionados, there is some incredibly exciting news to report.
Whether you reside in New York City, its suburbs or just about anywhere in the country or the world, for that matter, and want to transport yourself to the Big Apple for a stay of any length, it has now been reported by Bloomberg News that the much-anticipated opening of the Aman New York took place on August 2nd.
This new hotel stands out from the rest of the iconic luxury hotels that dot the Manhattan landscape in terms of its panoplies of amenities.
As you most probably figured out by now, seeking lodging at this gilded hotel will cost you a pretty penny. Staying at the 84-suite hotel located at the site of the 100-year-old Crown Building on East 57th Street and Fifth Avenue will require a six digit membership fee and believe it or not.
According to a enlightening report on the Bloomberg web site, “ So great is the faith in Aman’s ability to raise New York’s already high standards of luxury that locals ponied up $100,000 initiation fees to become founding members of its world-first Aman Club during a pre-opening period. (The sign-up cost has since doubled, not including $15,000 for annual dues.).”
For those not familiar with the Aman hotel name, Bloomberg reported that it is a brand “whose expansive resorts command more than $2,000 per night in any destination.”
Aman’s competitor in the luxury hotel business in New York City is the new Ritz-Carlton NoMad, and they charge $1400 per night for an “entry level” room in a neighborhood that is not that great, according to the Bloomberg report. Aman, however, has established itself in a league of its own in terms of nighty rates.
Even the smallest rooms at the Aman such as their 340 square foot studios are not available on their own. Bloomberg has reported that these modest sized studios can only be booked as an “adjoining option for $20,000-per-night corner suites as a way to make them bigger.”
The premier suites at the Aman are 815 square feet and they are in the majority at the posh hotel. If that sounds like the type of room that would appeal to you for your stay in the Big Apple, currently you can book a reservation through the end of the year. But here’s the wrinkle, if you want to call it that. Be prepared to spend really big as officially, the hotel has said that these rooms will state at $32oo per night, as was reported by Bloomberg, but they are now going for $42oo for weekday nights and up to $5500 per night on weekends until the end of this year. What the nightly rates will be in 2023 is anyone’s guess, but presumably they will be higher than they are now.
So, why in the world who someone plunk down that kind of money for a Manhattan hotel room when a similar suite at the iconic Carlyle (favorite hotel of the late Princess Diana) goes for less than half the price on the same dates.
Bloomberg reported that Aman guests represent a following that is devoted and apparently they adore the kind of hotel that it represents. For those who desire discreet luxury, reports Bloomberg, the brand appeals to them. The report indicates that the Aman “tends to fill architecturally important buildings such as summer palaces in Beijing and monumental Venetian palazzos and make them feel like ultra-private residences for the few guests who can call them temporary homes.”
Speaking to Bloomberg from Ibiza via a video call, Aman’s chairman and chief executive officer, Vlad Doronin said, “There’s a big difference between us and everybody else. Not only will our clients be willing to pay luxury money for what we’ve built, but they’re also going to feel very happy with the value they’ve received by the time they check out.”
Conceding to Bloomberg in the interview, Doronin said that he has
“spared no expense” and went beyond budget, spending approximately $300 million on the hotel alone. He also admitted to Bloomberg that with the acquisition of the building along with adding residences, the totally eye-popping bill came closer to $1.45 billion. The exorbitant tab was a result of a variety of challenges that comes with the territory of building a six-star hotel during a supply chain crisis that was a result of the Covid pandemic and society being put on hold for a good part of 2020 and thereafter.
Yet and still, the money spent on the Aman has made it a hotel unlike anything New York has ever witnessed, according to the Bloomberg report.
Bloomberg has reported that Aman has 34 locations across the world but only the hotel in Tokyo is located in a major city. The reported added that what is for the most part unfamiliar to Aman are the challenges inherent in operating and developing a hotel in Manhattan.
The strategy of expansion that is on the top of the list of priorities of Doronin and it appears that such cities as Miami and Bangkok in Thailand are next on the list for Aman hotels, the report said.
Attracting younger people is also something that Aman is shooting for and the Bloomberg report said that these venues offer an increased potential for selling residences and that will of course, offset costs involved in development of the hotels.
Doronin told Bloomberg that the median guest age of Aman has begun to change as more people who hold jobs in the big tech industry who are in their mid-30s are outnumbering people in their 50s.
What also needs to be taken into account is the fact that amenities must be stacked vertically due to “tight and awkward floor plans that go against Aman’s penchant for “generosity of space,” as Doronin told Bloomberg.
Of course, the seemingly endless list of amenities are quite impressive as one would imagine from a hotel of this caliber. Six floors of the Aman house hotel rooms and suites and the approximately 25,000 square feet that dedicated to the spa and wellness center that takes up three floors of the building. Bloomberg has reported that this includes space for an indoor pool and for cryotherapy chambers.
For the health conscious guest, this hotel is a dream come true, according to the Bloomberg report. This includes a Harvard-trained internist named Dr. Robert Graham who utilizes a bevy of cutting edge machines to “measure inflammation and stress levels throughout your body before prescribing “wellness immersion programs” that consist of such things as acupuncture, intravenous peptide boosts, or hyperbaric oxygen therapy, “ as was reported by Bloomberg.
There are also private spas within the spa and two bath houses.
And for a mere $8500 for two people for a full day, one can thoroughly enjoy “apartment-like spaces complete with bedrooms and dining areas, where small groups or couples can have an experience that revolves around a Moroccan hammam or eastern European banya. Either scrub is followed by dips in hot and cold outdoor plunge pools—set on a private garden terrace with a retractable roof—plus custom lunch menus and add-on massage.”
The global head of wellness and spa for Aman, Yuki Kivono told Bloomberg, “We wanted it to be fun and to give people something they’ve never seen before.
Enjoying a spa of this magnitude might indeed arouse someone’s appetite and Aman New York has two restaurants off a 14th floor, double-height lobby, according to the Bloomberg report. Right now these eateries, known as Arva and Nama which serve Italian and Japanese cuisine are limited to club members and those spending the night at the Aman, as was reported by Bloomberg.
Enjoying a drink at dinner time or any time will be enjoyed in a 7,000-square-foot terrace bar off the lobby that’s wrapped like an elaborate jewelry box in latticed metal sheeting and bamboo slats, as was reported by Bloomberg.
The Bloomberg report reminds us that “even the neighbors on Billionaire’s Row will find that their best chance of getting in is by signing up for that $200,000 club initiation fee.”
