No Starch

Why formal service is giving way to a personalized hospitality experience

- TODD PLUMMER

THE WALDORF ASTORIA Seychelles Platte Island is an exclusive luxury hotel located on a tiny atoll hidden in the Indian Ocean some 80 miles out to sea from the capital of Mahé. The property embodies a true sense of barefoot luxury—it occupies the entire island, which can be circumnavigated on foot in less than an hour. And despite its remote location, guests can expect the entire Waldorf Astoria experience: 50 sprawling villas open onto private pools and lawns, a lush spa uses Seychellois products, and there are no fewer than six distinct dining concepts.

Each villa comes with its own butler who mixes a welcome cocktail and then provides a WhatsApp number through which requests can be made at any time of day or night. Guests can call and order a golf-cart chauffeur to take them from their villa to the common areas, or they are free to use one of the house cruiser bikes. By the second day, the breakfast staff will have silently noted your preference of coffee.

The staff are present when you need them, and invisible when you don't—it's a model of modern hospitality that feels personal and suave without sacrificing a sense of refinement. But it's also an about-face from the formal, reverential, white-gloved service that has distinguished the Waldorf Astoria New York for more than 130 years (and which recently reopened after an eight-year renovation). Before that hotel's closure in 2017, there were still bellhops out front wearing three-piece suits and white gloves.

Platte Island's modern approach certainly has to do with the property's remote resort environment, but there is a general trend globally of luxury service growing less formal. The old hallmarks are giving way to a fresh genre of hospitality.