How a hotel buyout actually works

The rooms, obviously. But also: the pool with nobody in it you didn't invite. Cassette running on your schedule, not the hotel's. The lawn as your dance floor, your ceremony, your long lunch. The bar that stops asking what time it is, asking only you. At seventeen rooms, a buyout isn't a corporate arrangement — it's a house party with a kitchen and staff.

Weddings — the kind where the guest list fits in the rooms and the ceremony happens in front of a water palace or a paddy field. Milestone birthdays — the fortieth, the sixtieth, the one where three generations fly in from four cities. The weekend a group of friends has been threatening for years. Founders who need thirty-six hours away from everyone except each other.