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You’d think a television series that involves backstabbing, sex and at least one dead body (and that generally portrays ultra-luxury travellers as the absolute worst) would be unappealing to real-life resorts. In the case of The White Lotus and the Four Seasons, though, the opposite is true—and it’s boosting business.

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At multiple Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts properties in Thailand, even ones that weren’t involved in the filming of the new season, guests are spending wildly in an attempt to create White Lotus moments of their own.

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“I had goose bumps when I saw Episode 1,” says JJ Assi, general manager of Four Seasons Koh Samui, where much of White Lotus Season 3 was shot. Four days after Season 3 premiered, he says, “we had three sets of guests check in and, at the last minute, upgrade to three-bedroom residences,” which feature prominently in the first two episodes.

Those residences start at US$10,000 per night and come with butlers and swimming pools, veritable miniature resorts-within-a-resort. The villa where Parker Posey’s Ratliff family stays is even more resplendent in real life, as is the one that houses the trio of so-called best friends, though it’s worth noting that monkeys do not roam the grounds. “We have to clarify that to our guests,” Assi says.

On the evening of Feb. 16, when the show premiered on HBO, Assi hosted a watch party by the main pool, where Patrick Schwarzenegger’s slimy horndog character tries and fails to work his moves. “Seeing the property portrayed with such cinematographic opulence, it was just fantastic,” Assi says. (Two days after we talked, Parker Posey, who plays an unhinged Southern mom, returned to the resort to bestow thank-you gifts on Assi and his team, who hosted her as well as the rest of the cast and crew throughout filming.)

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Did he find the (spoiler alert) gunshots that ring out in the first minutes unsettling?

“Look, no,” he says. “Everybody understands that White Lotus is a very theatrical, fictional drama. If you’ve seen Season 1 in Maui, Season 2 at Taormina, you know that’s how this works.”

Besides, given that the 71-room-and-residence resort is running at close to 100 per cent capacity—an uptick from seasonal norms that usually have the resort 80 to 90 per cent full, credited to the show—he has bigger catches of the day to fry. (Four Seasons chief executive Alejandro Reynal has told Bloomberg that his resorts didn’t need a boost in business but that reservations and Google searches both spiked when Season 3 was announced.)

“Another guest is checking out tomorrow and said, ‘I want a residence for my final night,’” Assi says. “‘I don’t care about the money. I’m going to stay there.’”

It was not an isolated instance. After seeing the first episode of Season 3, a guest who was one week into a three-week stay decided they simply had to sleep in the two-bedroom residence where Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood shot (unperturbed, apparently, by the characters’ problematic relationship).

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The upgrading spree, Assi says, has had a significant impact on revenue.

“You all of a sudden move from a US$2,000-, US$3,000-per-night room to a US$7,000-, US$8,000-per -night room, for a two-bedroom residence, or US$10,000-, US$11,000-per-night for a three-bedroom residence,” he says. A higher per-night cost translates to higher service charges and taxes.

Beyond that, the sort of guest who spends US$10,000 a night is also likely to want to pad their stay with spa treatments (US$352 for an “energy four hands” massage) and wellness activities (US$499 for “connection with sunrise”). “We’ve added four more bodies to the concierge team to deal with emails, chats and creating plans for guests, because we have so many more inbound requests,” Assi says.

When asked if all that interest is a result of White Lotus, Assi says, “One hundred percent. It’s now becoming a statement: ‘I stayed at the White Lotus before everybody else.’”

Thailand’s overall popularity is also on the rise, thanks at least in part to HBO’s influence. The luxury travel agency Black Tomato Ltd. reported a 44 per cent spike in sales to Thailand for the first four months of this year over the same period last year. It also reports that prices have ratcheted up approximately 15 per cent from last year. The country’s tourism officials are anticipating a 20 per cent increase in annual visitors because of the show.

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Its popularity also drove up room rates at the Four Seasons resorts in Maui, Hawaii, and Taormina, Sicily, where the first two seasons were filmed. And this season the Hollywood hype has spread beyond a single property.

Owing to the relative seclusion of the Four Seasons Koh Saumi spa—it’s in the middle of a jungle; you traverse a series of steps fashioned out of large stones to reach your treatment room—Season 3 (including that chilling opener) was also shot at properties owned by Anantara Hotels, Resorts & Spas, a Thai-based brand that a company representative says “is every bit as luxurious as the Four Seasons.” Footage from the Four Seasons Koh Samui and four Anantara resorts was stitched together to create the fictional White Lotus.

“Whilst we cannot comment on our guests’ spending behaviour,” says Rebecca Hall, area director of public relations and communications for Minor Hotels, Anantara’s parent company, “many have already embraced their very own White Lotus moments,” by, say, taking a selfie in the lobby of Anantara Bophut, which is featured in the show.

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Thanks to a global partnership with HBO, the Four Seasons efforts are more immersive. The hottest table in Bangkok is currently one in the lounge at the Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Phraya River, which wasn’t a filming location but did host the Thai premiere, and is now offering a White Lotus-themed high tea with lotus-shaped bonbons. Spotted in the lobby: tourists taking selfies in front of a faux lotus the size of a loveseat. (“My friends back home are going to die,” one said.)

“Everyone coming into the restaurant is talking about White Lotus this, White Lotus that,” says chef Gaggan Anand, whose Bangkok restaurant Gaggan is rated No. 3 in Asia by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. “There is more to do in Thailand, but you wouldn’t know it right now, listening to these people.”

Up north, the Four Seasons Chiang Mai—which was also left out of Season 3—turned the already-regal area surrounding its jade-tone swimming pool into a branded “escape” complete with show-themed cocktails (approved, of course, by both HBO and Four Seasons executives). Among them is the tequila-based Pineapple Suite, a nod to Season 1. There are rules. “After 90 days, this bar has to go away,” says Anthony Tschudin, the property’s general manager. “They were very strict about that.”

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“Y’all are really milking this White Lotus thing,” a blond woman with a blowout and a Southern drawl says, ordering another US$13 branded cocktail.

Back in Koh Samui, Assi is wondering how long he can preserve certain bells and whistles.

“Our first priority is our guests,” he says, “but we allow non-guests to use our beach and pool facilities for an entry fee of US$150 per person. We have a limit of 10 per day; every day, 10 people come in.” Now, a seafoam green wall at one end of the pool is adorned with an official sign: The White Lotus Bar.

“I’m very scared,” says Assi. “The moment I put it on Instagram, imagine the number of people who are going to [try to] come in. Some things need to remain exclusive.” Then again, he also has his bottom line to consider.

That same day, a guest posts a photo of the sign on Instagram Stories. Within hours, the Four Seasons Koh Samui account shares it.

Bloomberg.com

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