It only took 20 seconds for Mike White, the creator of “The White Lotus,” to cast the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui as the star character in the third installment of his hit HBO series.
“Arriving to the resort, you’re standing on top of a peak and you can see 43 acres of lush land [and] the Gulf of Thailand, and it’s just beautiful overall,” Jasjit Assi, the resort’s general manager, told TPG on a recent visit to New York City. “And when Mike walked in, he was just silent for 20 seconds, and he said, ‘This is it.'”
In all three seasons of “The White Lotus,” the fictional general manager plays a key role: catering to haughty guests, managing staff members who see and hear everything and, at times, getting into sticky situations of their own.
For Assi, who has worked with Four Seasons, the luxury hospitality brand “The White Lotus” is unofficially based on, for 18 years, it’s easy to separate the TV general managers — like Armond on Maui and Valentina in Sicily — from his real-life role as the primary leader at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui.
“Look,” said Assi, who is nothing like the awkward, goofy general manager of The White Lotus Koh Samui in the show. “‘White Lotus’ is meant to entertain. There is a bit of exaggeration. It’s a satire; it’s a fictional drama series.”
But what’s real, he insists, is the beauty of the resort and the exceptional Thai hospitality you see throughout the season.
“You are seeing the resort play a character,” he said. “To maintain the beauty of this resort, that’s my role in this.”
After White “booked” the resort for the show, he reserved a stay for himself and “experienced everything as a guest,” Assi explained. He added that the two of them, along with White’s crew, “opened up every door that could be opened” as Assi helped the team plan the perfect locations for different types of scenes.
Then, in February and March 2024, the resort closed to the public to transform into “The White Lotus.” It stayed fully open, though, for the show’s cast.
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“In reality, it was like running a proper resort every day,” Assi said, even though shoots were happening Monday through Friday.
On filming days, the Four Seasons staff adjusted to meet the needs of the cast and crew’s wild filming schedule.
“Whatever [the crew’s] needs were, wherever they were moving around the resort, the staff was helping them out to move and set up locations,” he said.
On the weekends, the stars of the show “embraced the real Thailand island life.” And, after five days of shooting, he explained, they needed to relax.
“We treated them like normal guests. They would go down to the beach. They were ordering cocktails. They were going into the spa,” Assi said, noting that they also spent time elsewhere on the island, like local restaurants, “embracing real life.”
Really, he said, they “felt like part of the family.” So much so, in fact, that actor Parker Posey, whose trip to film the show marked her first visit to Asia, “came back to the resort to say thank you to the people who looked after her” while returning to the island for a wellness retreat.
The Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui staff might have tried to make the experience at the resort as normal as possible for the cast and crew, but for them, playing host to one of the world’s most popular TV shows required some changes.
“We had to educate them, to be honest,” Assi said about his staff, many of whom didn’t understand just how big the show is — or that the show’s satirical look at its staff didn’t necessarily represent them, the real-life people who make the resort so wonderful.
Assi’s staff had to be nimble, adjusting meals tailored to the cast’s on-set diets or helping them plan days off. They also had to vow to secrecy.
“We had to sign a lot of NDAs and confidentiality agreements,” he said, explaining that his staff learned how to be coy when guests asked if they were going to film “The White Lotus” there.
Now that people know Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui as the property from the show, the questions have changed. People want to know what villa the Ratliff family stayed in (a three-bedroom villa that starts at $8,000 per night) or where actor Patrick Schwarzenegger came out of the pool shirtless.
“Guests want to [have] their own ‘White Lotus’ experiences,” Assi stressed, noting that his team fully anticipated the drive in bookings the show would cause — just like the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea in Hawaii and San Domenico Palace, Taormina, A Four Seasons Hotel in Sicily, Italy, experienced after their seasons as guest stars.
And that’s why Four Seasons has been — and probably will continue to be — such a great partner for the show.
“The Four Seasons philosophy has always been ‘inspiration through travel,'” Assi said, “and I think cinema in this age has [taken] it to the next level. [Four Seasons] is based on the pillars of a great location, a great resort and great service … [and with the show,] you can see it.”
Now, with Season Three coming to an end, just don’t ask Assi his thoughts on where Season Four should take place. With a laugh he said, “Let me survive this one.”
How to book: Rates at Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui start at $1,800 per night for a pool villa.
Book through a program like American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Edit by Chase Travel to score elitelike perks, such as room upgrades (when available), free breakfast, late checkout and property credits.
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