Ritz-Carlton next month opens its first Reserve property, a 54-villa hideaway in Southern Thailand.
Phulay Bay, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, marks the launch of a brand extension that aims to offer a new level of personalized luxury for leisure travelers in small, secluded resorts.
Phulay Bay, for example, will employ between 250 and 300 people for 54 villas, said Daniel Ford, a Ritz-Carlton spokesman in Asia. "That's five or six to one."
While traditional Ritz-Carlton hotels are often in urban centers or larger resort areas with a mix of leisure and business and meetings clientele, the Reserve collection will be in more remote resort locales and will offer "a very, very tailored experience," Ford said.
"For example, you and I could check into rooms right next to each other in Phulay Bay and have a completely different experience," he said.
The Dec. 22 opening of the Phulay Bay property will be a triumph of sorts for Reserve, which was created during the height of the luxury boom, only to be caught in the middle of the credit crisis.
One of the other projects that was on the initial drawing board, Molasses Reef, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve development on West Caicos, Turks and Caicos, hit the wall when Lehman Brothers, which was financing it, collapsed last fall. The resort was 75% complete when work was halted in October 2008.
The Molasses Reef project remains on hold while the developers try to find new financing.
Other Reserve projects include the 130-room Dorado Beach development on the site of the former Hyatt on Puerto Rico's north coast, which is due to open in 2012, and the 170-room Guacamaya Reserve on Costa Rica's Pacific coast, expected to open in 2011.
The company has also planned a project in Abu Dhabi.
Ritz-Carlton also hopes to develop Reserves in places such as Vietnam and the Maldives.
Ford said the company did not expect to have more than 15 or 20 Reserve properties. Aside from beach locations, they could be developed in places such as a South African game reserve, a ski locale or an Indian palace.
Despite the credit crunch and the downturn in luxury travel, he said Ritz-Carlton was seeing an increase in interest in the new brand and was excited to have the first property open as a showcase.
"The reality is ... we probably wouldn't open today if we had a choice," he said. "But it's not about this year or next year, it's about the long term, and we think this will have a very positive impact on the Ritz-Carlton brand."
The Phulay Bay property has an infinity pool, a signature Thai restaurant, a sunset lounge and a spa with 11 treatment rooms.
Guests are assigned their own concierges, who can set up everything from private picnics to seaplane tours.
The resort was designed to blend with its surroundings.
"When styling and designing Phulay Bay ... we were very conscious of the abundant natural beauty surrounding us, which is what makes people fall in love with Thailand," said Estelita Sebeto, the resort's general manager.
"So we have worked with nature to maintain a setting that evokes the very best of the natural environment of the hotel and sourced local and sustainable materials in its construction and styling."