What a fantastic hotel lobby, I thought as I arrived at the Anantara Layan resort in Phuket. Descending a flight of stairs into a cool stone courtyard?welcome refuge from the sweltering heat of Thailand?I took in a view of an infinity pool stretching out over a length of 69 feet beyond a scrim of palms, with the shimmer of the Andaman Sea down below. The space was expansive; the flow, graceful. Purple chaises and a sala with cushions beckoned. But first: being ushered into the living-room pavilion to do a little basic check-in paperwork.
The private pool in my residence
As the hotel manager who greeted me handed me over to a butler to continue the welcome and tour, it slowly dawned on me that I wasn?t in a hotel lobby at all. This was all mine. Including the butler, who would be sleeping in staff quarters downstairs and whom I could summon 24/7 throughout my stay. (Having to interact with different staff during a vacation wouldn?t be sufficiently luxurious, general manager Sascha Hemmann told me, and larger groups get multiple butlers.) I was in one of the resort?s 15 ?residences??villa doesn?t begin to convey the scale or the level of luxury, and besides, that word is already used to describe the resort?s less lavish multi-room accommodations in freestanding bungalows. (Those are lovely but nothing unusual in this part of the world.) Trailing up a hillside at the top of the property, the residences made their debut around Christmas last year with three to eight bedroom...