Staff at the White Lotus season 3 hotel reveal shocking filming secrets
It had been an ordinary day of filming on The White Lotus season three at the Four Seasons Koh Samui, Thailand, until staff noticed two intruders with bleeding feet approaching the set, climbing over the dangerous rocks dividing the resort from the swathes of jungle. “I saw them coming by chance, with bleeding toes,” remembers resort manager Jasjit ‘JJ’ Assi. “I called security and said ‘who are you?’ They said they’d do anything to be part of the show.”
Weirdos with bleeding feet and paparazzi flying drones over the hotel from boats docked metres from the beach: life changed drastically for JJ and his Four Seasons Koh Samui colleagues when the White Lotus film crew came to town. It was no surprise: the first two seasons became huge stories when they filmed at Four Seasons resorts in Hawaii and Sicily (here’s our review of the Italian hotel). In Thailand, the popularity of the show has already driven a 386 per cent rise in enquiries.
To scout the location for the third season, White Lotus creator Mike White spent a year trawling around posh hotels in India and northern Thailand. He wasn’t looking for any old swanky five-star resort: he was scouring for somewhere truly substantial from which to base his show, which satirises its cast of brattish, hot-headed hotel guests. It had to be right: nearly 10 million viewers obsessed over season two. At the end of his research year, White rocked up at the Four Seasons Koh Samui. “I was ready with my marketing spiel,” says JJ. “He came in and stood there quietly for 10 seconds. Then he said: ‘This is it. This is it.’ Koh Samui was the last destination. He must have seen 30 resorts in Thailand by that time.”
Inside Four Seasons Koh Samui: White Lotus’ location on Thailand’s smartest island
White entered at the highest point of the resort with views over the Gulf of Thailand. Having visited recently in the name of very important journalism, I can attest to the fact that the hotel’s arrival spot is almost impossibly beautiful. Guests high on dopamine and the scent of orchids remain in a dreamlike state for an average stay of four days; most never leave the resort despite the bounty of Koh Samui sitting on their doorstep. Even for people predisposed to beautiful places, the view raises the hairs on your arms.
Sixty villas spill down the mountain towards the sea. Each protrudes from the jungle on stilts; little swathes of private-pool-blue stand out against 150 varieties of exotic plant. This is not manicured resort jungle, but jungle proper. “If you go five, six metres deeper it starts to become wild,” says operations manager Hannes Schneider. Designer Bill Bensley carved the resort out of a former coconut plantation and refused to disturb a single tree. Forget the humans, the 856 swaying palms are the real divas; some protrude through bedrooms. My villa had a hole in the roof to make room for our arboreal totem of the East.
Is Four Seasons Koh Samui really like the show?
You feel so literally in the middle of a jungle that it can be a little unnerving, but nature contrasts with meticulous craftsmanship: plants nearest the pathways have been layered to perfection: “Lady palms have this beautiful ability to not overgrow but have a certain visual beautification effect,” says Schneider. “The most important thing is that you layer the jungle. Different plants at different heights with different colours. That brings everything to life.”
The secret to pampering the world’s most pampered is what interested Mike White. Given the storylines about ridiculous diva requests and portrayals of staff, The White Lotus surely introduced a PR problem for the Four Seasons? JJ shakes his head. “Look, it’s not a PR problem,” he says, squinting in the sun over an iced coffee at hotel lunch spot Pla Pla. “They are doing a great job in saying this is a satire, this is all exaggerated.”
“In the end it’s a work of fiction, but in every piece of fiction there’s a grain of truth,” laughs Schneider. Other guests are as curious as me, says JJ when I ask him whether dramatic things really happen at the hotel like they do on the show. “They want to know the stories. ‘Is there anything you can tell me, has there been a murder?’ I say no, just in the series.”
When he isn’t spending his downtime schmoozing guests, JJ scours Reddit for fan theories. “I read comments after every show to see what’s going on,” he says. “It’s very important to understand the sentiment.” JJ was actually offered an acting role by White – he had even learned his lines – but Thai labour laws prevented his star turn.
It’s a few hours after my check-in, and we’re stirring G&Ts by the pool used for filming. It’s sundowner hour and we’re having the loudest conversation I’ve heard all day. Many of the crowd are exec types doom scrolling on their phones from sun loungers. A quintet of couples are wearing snapbacks in the pool and talking loudly. This is where the thirst-trap scenes from the third season are shot, such as when Patrick Schwarzenegger grabs his crotch as he chirpses Aimee Lou Wood on a sun lounger. It’s here where the original White Lotus sign remains.
Dare to leave your private pool and there is Michelin-rated Thai food, a dedicated Italian restaurant, a Middle Eastern pop-up and private beach. One morning at the resort’s most beautiful restaurant, Koh, I tucked into a prawn soup topped with so many interesting ingredients it felt more fit for a fancy dinner. If spice sounds stomach turning at sunrise, try in-house-made financiers, madeleines and Orio cakes – a few fragments of the overwhelming breakfast buffet.
The island of Koh Phangan, four kilometres away, looks almost swimmable. Staff disparagingly brush it off as “hippy”, but Thailand’s reputation for wellness began there. It was where the Full Moon Parties started in 1985 and where some of the earliest mindfulness resorts taught the Buddhist philosophies of breathwork and stillness to cluttered Western minds. The island still has some of the most authentic spiritual retreats in the world. By contrast, Koh Samui has a reputation for posh hotels and not much else, which is exactly what the Four Seasons guests want.
What was it like filming White Lotus season 3 in Koh Samui?
In a meta reflection of the show, the cast stayed at the Four Seasons for two months during the shoot, which took place in the winter of 2024. “The actors were rehearsing with the butlers so they could learn the script, that’s how personal relationships started to form,” says JJ. When filming started, residence three turns into Parker Posey and Jason Isaacs’s family apartment in the show and residence nine is where the trio of toxic school friends live (the cast also filmed at the Anantara hotel on Koh Phangan, which we reviewed last year).
Sometimes the hotel’s posh restaurants opened at 4am to be flexible for filming hours. The managers became close to the actors, and JJ believes the stars were in holiday mode while filming: “You can see it in their faces, in their expressions, they really embraced this whole thing.” Did Schneider get any gossip out of the celebrities? “If there was something personal then I hope you understand I’d be reluctant to share with you!”
Absolutely no question is met with a “no,” except when I ask manager JJ whether the cast of The White Lotus enjoyed Thailand’s legalised weed culture. He thrusts his hand to block the question, exhibiting the soft power that escalated him to general manager. “No.” Were they big drinkers? He laughs this time before keeping predictably schtum. “No, no.”
JJ laughs when I ask whether Four Seasons guests are like the characters on the show, then avoids the question. “Our guests are ultra high net worth individuals who come here to relax and really cut off from what’s going on in their day to day lives.” I ask again. “Look, it’s exaggerated. There are guests, I wouldn’t call them divas, I’d call them… There are guests who require hand-holding because they require their itinerary to be on time and scheduled. They want everything planned out for them. You manage guests… that’s what we do.”
Having at first ignored that the show existed, the Four Seasons has finally realised leaning into the hype is a good idea. A White Lotus pop-up is happening in the Los Angeles hotel and the themed cocktails (very tasty) are available in their hotels worldwide. Trying my darndest to get into character, I must have sunk about thirty of them around the pool.
As time went on, I became the classic Four Seasons guest. I didn’t leave the resort once. One afternoon, after an early lunch, we considered it, then laughed off the idea. Everything to see – waterfalls, food markets – is at least a 40 minute drive away, and given the beauty here, nothing justified spending an hour-and-twenty on gridlocked island roads. Instead, we cracked open the mini bar and wiled away free time by our private pool, pretending to be the characters from the TV show. We weren’t alone: a group of American guests admitted they’d been filming skits in their apartment; the wife did an uncanny “where’s the Lorazepam” Parker Posey impression.
Is the Four Seasons Koh Samui really like The White Lotus? Well, not everything is perfect. The water is shallow and coral means it is hard to swim, and we weren’t told about daily activities. But honestly, I’m glad I didn’t know about them, because I might have been tempted to do them, and using my brain would have been horrifying.
After four days doing sweet FA, it was time to leave. I had lived for a time like a White Lotus guest but I was glad to escape the bubble. Still, as I checked onto my business class flight I did wonder if perhaps I’m a little more of a Jennifer Coolidge than I realise.
Stay at the real White Lotus hotel season 3 yourself
Villas at the Four Seasons Koh Samui start from £1,184 per night for two people; fourseasons.com/kohsamui