Vladislav Doronin's Aman opened three properties between November and May — Amanvari in Baja's East Cape with 18 casitas, the renovated Rosa Alpina in Italy's Dolomites with 51 rooms, and the relaunched Eastern & Oriental Express through a Belmond partnership. The cadence represents the tightest opening sequence in the portfolio since the 33-property operator shifted from asset-light licensing to direct development control in 2014.
Amanvari debuted in May as Aman's first Mexico presence, targeting the $2,800-per-night winter traveler moving between Cabo and Punta Mita. The property sits on 200 acres between desert and the Sea of Cortez, with positioning toward marine park access rather than golf or nightlife. Rosa Alpina reopened in December after a full reconstruction, bringing Aman's alpine inventory to four properties and extending ski-season occupancy deeper into the Dolomites shoulder months. The Eastern & Oriental Express relaunch in March — operated by Belmond but carrying Aman design language — tests the group's willingness to embed its aesthetic into third-party rail and cruise platforms without equity ownership.
The compressed timeline matters because Aman historically opened one to two properties annually, with development cycles stretching five to seven years from site acquisition to ribbon-cutting. Three openings in six months suggests either pre-pandemic construction delays resolving simultaneously or a deliberate pivot toward faster asset deployment. Doronin has publicly targeted 100 properties by 2030, implying ten to twelve openings per year starting now. The Mexico entry also breaks Aman's longstanding pattern of avoiding the Caribbean and Central America entirely — a region the group dismissed through the 2010s as over-trafficked and under-differentiated.
The Baja choice signals specific calculation. East Cape sits 90 minutes from Los Cabos International but remains undeveloped compared to the Corridor's $1,200-per-night median rate. Aman is betting that scarcity and remoteness justify the rate premium, and that clients will tolerate the drive in exchange for isolation. If Amanvari achieves 70% occupancy at published rates, it validates expansion into secondary luxury geographies rather than only capital cities and established resort clusters. That outcome would likely accelerate Aja Pechanga in Southern California, Aman Niseko in Hokkaido, and the stalled Aman Miami Beach — all secondary or tertiary markets by traditional luxury-hotel underwriting standards.
Operators should track Amanvari's first-winter occupancy data, expected by March 2026, and whether Aman files permits for additional Mexico sites before year-end. The Eastern & Oriental Express test will clarify by September whether the Belmond collaboration extends to other rail or yacht platforms. Rosa Alpina's performance through the 2025-2026 ski season will determine if Aman pursues further European resort acquisitions, with St. Moritz and Courchevel rumored as next targets. Doronin's 100-property goal requires averaging 8.5 openings annually for the next eight years — triple the historical pace.
The group now has 36 operating properties, with 12 more in confirmed development. The math only works if construction timelines compress or if Aman shifts toward management contracts on third-party capital, reversing the ownership-heavy strategy Doronin installed when he acquired the brand for $358 million in 2014.