A day in the life of the real White Lotus hotel manager

The new series of the hit TV show is set in the Four Seasons resort in Koh Samui, Thailand. Lydia Spencer-Elliott hears about outrageous guest demands and how staff stay sane

- 

If there's one thing we've learned from two seasons of the HBO smash hit The White Lotus, it's that luxury resorts are intense, frenetic, and constantly surprising places to work. And general managers have it the hardest. In season one, set at the fictional White Lotus in Hawaii, head honcho Armond (Murray Bartlett) enters a feud with a manchild guest so ruthless that one of them winds up in a body bag. Meanwhile, over in Sicily for season two, Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) contends with guests who can’t drive demanding Vespas and sex workers propping up the hotel bar. We don’t yet know what’s in store for Fabian (Christian Friedel) in the show’s forthcoming third season, but it’s certain to involve more moneyed visitors, high tension, and death.

There is one man who knows the chaos of running a real-life luxury resort very well. And that’s Jasjit Assi, the general manager of the Four Seasons in Koh Samui, Thailand, where The White Lotus season three was filmed. He has 60 villas, 15 private residences and 300 staff to keep in order – plus jet-setter guests with wild requests, lofty expectations and even higher bank balances. “Customer interactions are not easy. They take [an] emotional and physical toll on you because you’re always here,” Assi says. “But you wouldn’t be in the service industry if you didn’t have the passion, resilience and persistence to continue.”

In what sounds like a scene plucked straight from the show, Assi greets guests upon their arrival – often by private jet or luxury yacht – at the hotel’s dramatic cliff top platform, overlooking 43 acres of tropical landscape and the turquoise Gulf of Thailand.