Zecha back in hotels with affordable luxury brand Azerai

azerai_lp_reception_lrg
Azerai Hotel reception

Amanresorts’ founder Adrian Zecha, who lost the defining brand to Russian billionaire Vladislav Doronin, is back in hotels, this time attempting to redefine the affordable luxury space with a new brand called Azerai.

The first Azerai has opened in Luang Prabang. Its website said the hotel is “the first chapter of a new story and brand of hotels that offers guests simple elegance, refined design, discreet and attentive service in places of unique beauty and cultural interest”.

It targets “experienced urbane individuals, couples and families looking for distinction, quality and comfort at affordable prices”.

The name Azerai is influenced by Adrian Zecha’s initials and a Persian word, caravanserai, a resting place with a central courtyard for travellers.

Azerai Luang Prabang has its roots as French officer’s quarters. It became the Phousi Hotel in 1961 until it closed in 2014 whereupon work on Azerai began.

The new hotel has 53 rooms between 35-85m2, and rates starting from US$250++.

This isn’t the first time Zecha has his eyes now peeled on the affordable luxury hotel space. At GHM, which he co-founded and is a director of, the mid-tier brand Tin Hotels was launched recently, with the first hotels opening in Dubai and Oman in the next few years.

At age 84, Zecha shows he can’t get hotels out of his veins. Or luxury. He also launched Maha Yacht Club recently, which aims to bring hospitality excellence aboard superyachts.

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