A Quite Long History of Bali Hotel Architecture Part VI: GHM, Alila, and Contemporary Design

General Hotel Management (GHM) was set up in 1992 to implement an ambitious philosophy. The aim of the Singapore-based company’s visionary founders, Hans R. Jenni and Adrian Zecha, was to provide elegant, environmentally friendly accommodation in a classy, uncluttered atmosphere that also afforded intimacy, oozed style and guaranteed unparalleled customer service. The result was a group of the world’s chicest, most individualistic hotels of characteristically Asian design.

GHM took where The Beaufort Hotels left: designing, developing, and managing a distinctive array of exclusive, stylish hotels, and maintaining each hotel’s individualistic identity. Each GHM property is an original, reflecting symbiotic relationship between the hotel and the local culture to provide guests with a genuine, close-up experience of the best each destination has to offer — pretty much similar to Aman but with lower price point and bigger count of rooms.

GHM developed three tier of sub-brands. The first one is a “brand-less” collection of high end hotels with individual names, adopting the naming system of The Beaufort Hotels. The most well-known hotels from this category were The Datai Langkawi, The Legian Bali, The Nam Hai Hoi An (now Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai, Hoi An), The Lalu Sun Moon Lake, and The Setai Miami.

The second one is The Chedi. The word “chedi” typically refers to place of meditation. In the same, way, the Chedi hotels are created as tranquil settings where on their journeys, travellers rediscover the peace of solitude and stillness amidst environs of beauty. The Chedi hotels were positioned below the earlier-mentioned individual hotels. Some Chedi hotels were The Chedi Ubud (now Alila Ubud), The Chedi Bandung (now Padma Hotel Bandung), The Chedi Phuket (now The Surin Phuket), and The Chedi Chiang Mai (now Anantara Chiang Mai Resort).

The last and least expensive sub-brand was The Serai. The term “serai” is taken from “caravanserai”, used to describe large inns found along trade routes in central and western Asia. The Serai brand was developed to provide quality accommodation for discerning travellers in a destination with limited luxury offerings. There was only one hotel built under this brand, The Serai Manggis (now Alila Manggis).

In 1993 Kerry Hill laid the foundations for GHM’s exceptional architecture by designing The Datai…