Hospitality Design - May 2017 - 144

perspectives

anchalika
kijkanakorn

interview

By Alia Akkam and Stacy Shoemaker Rauen
Renderings courtesy of Akaryn Hotel Group

PERSONAL TOUCH
One pioneering woman redeﬁnes boutique
luxury in Southeast Asia

Akaryn Hotel Group of course has a proper
reservations department, but one afternoon,
Anchalika Kijkanakorn, founder and managing
director of the Bangkok-based portfolio of soonto-be six small, luxe Southeast Asian resorts,
responded to an email request directly. "Not that
I do that all the time," she says, "but I still like to
be in touch with my customers and know what
they want so that I can build the right hotels."
Providing guests exactly what they desire
reflects Kijkanakorn's intuitive nature, which has
steered her right since 2003, when she gave up
a 10-year stint working for global financial giant
GE Capital to transform her extended family's
vacation home into her first hotel, the Aleenta
Hua Hin Resort & Spa on Thailand's east coast,
merely because she "wanted to create a place that
I would personally like to go to." Back then, when
the big brands she sought out on business trips
dominated the market, the concept of boutique
or small luxury hotels wasn't yet the norm in
Thailand, she recalls. "I like to be part of the
location, to feel like I've arrived at the place I've
come to visit. I want to be part of the scene, yet
I'm no longer 18 backpacking with a Europass
and sleeping on the train," she explains. Hotels

144

May 2017 hospitalitydesign.com

1
should have "all the comforts that I deserve,"
but also be private with unobtrusive service. "It
should be there when I want it, and I should not
see anybody when I don't want to," she explains.
That philosophy spawned the Aleenta, and
a new definition of barefoot luxury in Asia, as
well as a longtime collaboration with Paisarn
Krusong of Bangkok's Simple Space Design. The
resort features whitewashed buildings crowned
with thatched roofs and guestrooms that come
with private plunge pools. "We were called the
first boutique hotel in Thailand. Most of the
people who heard about us didn't know what
to do because no one could believe that I would
open something with 10 rooms," she says. It's now
grown to 23 rooms, just as sister retreat Aleenta
Phuket Resort & Spa, which debuted with 32,
now has 69 suites and villas deftly integrating the
outdoors. Of the three brands in her collection,
Aleenta-meaning "reward of life" in Sanskrit-
is the one Kijkanakorn says is closest to her
heart. To her, these hotels are "places where you
come and give yourself a little pat on the shoulder
because you've done well."
Kijkanakorn, who has served on the Small
Luxury Hotels of the World board of directors for

1. Pathree Design is
combining high ceilings
with marble in the soonto-open palatial President
by Akaryn for a French
Colonial aesthetic.

the past nine years, and recently as chairperson
for four, has diversified her roster with the
Akyra Manor Chiang Mai, an upbeat hotel with
a rooftop bar and 30 suites gathered around a
courtyard from Singapore-based Manor Group.
Named after her son, Akyra translates to "source
of light," and so the brand showcases that energy.
"It's passionate, it's strong, it's striking, it's active,"
she points out. These getaways include the justopened, 59-room Akyra Beach Club Phuket
from Simple Space, featuring rich sapphire hues
and Andaman Sea views. The forthcoming
148-room Akyra Thonglor Bangkok, slated for
January 2018, reimagines serviced apartments
in a building originally by Bangkok's Begray
Architects that will nod to the artsy, gallerypacked neighborhood where it is found.
If the colorful design schemes of Akyra strike
a chord with Millennials, Akaryn-a tribute
to Kijkanakorn's other son that means "ray of
light"-is a more introspective and Zen band,
http://www.hospitalitydesign.com
Hospitality Design - May 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - May 2017
