How a Thai luxury hotel brand is conquering Italy

Mention the name Anantara to most travellers, and chances are that blissful images of Thailand’s sun-kissed beach resorts and swanky urban retreats will spring to mind.

And yet, quite without anyone really noticing it, the brand ‒ which debuted its first property in Hua Hin way back in 2001 ‒ has been spreading its reach across the world showing up in the most unexpected spots such as Zambia, Tunisia and Ireland.

But Anantara is not the only hero in this fairy tale, because its sister brands loom large, too ‒ some 550 hotels in 55 countries with more in the works. And it’s in Italy that they have been partying the hardest. At last count, their Thai parent company Minor Hotels ‒ founded in 1978 by the American-born tycoon Bill Heinecke ‒ has close to an astonishing 60 hotels operating under multiple brands, including Tivoli, NH Collection, NHOW, Avani Hotels and NH Hotels.

And if you’re wondering just why Minor is so bullish about the land of La Dolce Vita, the simple answer is: What’s not to love about Italy? As Marco Gilardi, Minor’s affable director of operations for Italy and USA points out, Italy is one of the world's most popular travel destinations. 

“It’s a very particular mix of amazing places full of culture, rich history and excellent cuisine and, as such, it’s a natural fit for Minor Hotels to develop our portfolio,” he said, adding that Minor inherited many hotels from the Italian NH Hotel Group which Minor acquired in 2018.

And if your next question is just how Minor manages to sync the delicate grace of Thai hospitality, for which its brands are rightly renowned, with the considerably more free-styling, sexy Italian sensibilities, again, the answer is simple: It doesn’t.

Taking the Anantara brand as an example, its focus, said Gilardi, “is always to provide guests with a sense of authentic luxury that reflects the unique local and cultural influences indigenous to each destination rather than trying to shoehorn elements of Thai hospitality.”

Case in point is the 52-room Anantara Convento Di Amalfi ‒ one of Minor’s recent takeover and makeover of a pre-existing Italian hotel. This is a hotel that may bear the moniker of a well-known Thai brand, but its MO is unmistakably Italian, not least its almost cinematic staging in an 800-year-old Capuchin convent.

As you lounge in the fabulous, long, shaded loggia ‒ every seat featuring million dollar views of old Amalfi down the road and the glorious aquamarine sweep of the sea below ‒ you can’t help but marvel at the stroke of good fortune that has brought you to this moment in time, to be part of the uncounted cohort of guests before you who have come to Amalfi and be utterly seduced by the sunshine and embrace of this fabled corner of Italy.

This formula is repeated throughout the Minor properties in Italy, whether you’re out sailing on the Adriatic Sea or meditating in the float tank at the Tivoli Portopiccolo Sistiana Wellness Resort which opened a few months ago; or sipping a Prosecco in the garden terrace at the Avani Palazzo Moscova in Milan.

Take the newly opened Avani Rio Novo Venice. Formerly an NH property, this 144-room gem ‒ stately in its Rationalist architecture and interiors that pay tribute to Italy’s golden age of cinema ‒ sits in the midst of Dorsoduro, a historic, yet relatively quiet neighbourhood whose cobble-stoned alleys and bijoux bridges and canals are alive with little bars, wine shops, and ancient squares stuffed with family-run trattorias, pizzerias, and ice-cream parlours.

In the morning, accompanied by the foghorn of passing tug-boats and swoosh of vaporetto ‒ the marine buses that ferry Venetians up and down the canals all day ‒ children and workers stream to schools and shops.

On the edge of a canal, a narrow boat is anchored. Loaded with vegetables and fruits ‒ fennel bulbs, artichoke hearts sitting in tubs of brine, and clusters of fat red tomatoes ‒ it’s a floating market that does a brisk trade with the signoras plotting the day’s lunch.

For guests at the Avani Rio Novo, it’s a tableau that’s as close as they’re going to get to being a local, completely simpatico with their quotidian lives. That is, when they’re not joining the hordes of tourists trawling through the Doge’s Palace. I suppose, in a way, that’s the point that Gilardi is making when he refers to a “sense of authentic luxury” ‒ a concept which, let’s face it, is, these days, increasingly less about the thread count of a hotel’s bed linen and the crystal goblet of negroni sbagliato in the expensive bar in the lobby, than it is about finding a space that isn’t bedevilled by other tourists.

Sure, Avani Rio Novo and its sister properties have all the requisite markings of an eminently comfortable, even luxurious, Italian hotel, but there’s something more to the draw.

It’s the stories that these hotels have to tell. In the case of the Anantara Convento, one such story is the painstakingly restored facade and interiors of a grande dame built by Capuchin monks in the 13th-century. And at the palatial 232-room Anantara Palazzo Naiadi Rome, the mind stumbles over itself trying to absorb the fact that the building itself ‒ clad in 19th-century marble and acres of soft linen with views of the Eternal City to thrill ‒ is suspended over the ruins of the ancient Diocletian Baths of old Rome.

For Minor, the current batch of 60 hotels with a squadron in the works is merely the first salvo of a canny masterplan to mine the world’s ongoing love affair with Italy. For there are plenty more stories to tell. As Gilardi says, “Italy is a very popular destination, so we will continue to look for opportunities for all the Minor brands throughout the country.”

Our advice? Start booking flights and brushing up on your Italian.