Aman vs Four Seasons: Which Luxury Brand Fits Your Trip?

Ask ten luxury travel advisors to name the top two hotel brands in the world and you will hear the same two names in some order: Aman and Four Seasons. Biirdee books both at preferred-partner level, which gives us an unusually clear view of where each one actually wins. The honest answer is that they are optimized for different trips, and most of our best-traveled clients use both, deliberately.

Below is the comparison we walk clients through, now with our own numbers (guest scores, same-dates rates and what our desk actually books), followed by the simple rule we use to recommend one over the other.

Aman vs Four Seasons on Our Numbers

On 1 October 2026 we priced the same stays at every hotel of both brands through our own booking engine (the one behind hotels.biirdee.com) and scored the 100 most recent verified guest reviews at each hotel ourselves. Rates are the lowest per night the engine charged at booking; taxes the hotel collects at checkout are extra. Our test stays were 10–13 Nov 2026, 27–30 Dec 2026, 12–15 Mar 2027 and 15–18 Jul 2027, and live rates change daily, so these were the rates on 1 October 2026. Forbes ratings are the Forbes Travel Guide 2026 Star Awards.

One brand fits that method and one does not. Four Seasons sells widely online and has thousands of recent reviews. Aman has too few online reviews to score and almost nothing on sale online, because it sells almost entirely through its own reservations team and partners: only 4 of the 31 Amans we track could be priced on our engine over 12 months. So read the tables below as a full picture of Four Seasons and a partial one of Aman.

Four Seasons is the brand you can measure, and it measures well: 9.17 across 72 hotels and 7,200 recent reviews, 82% of guests scoring 9 or more, 42 Forbes Five-Star hotels and nine with Three MICHELIN Keys. Aman is the brand you mostly take on trust. We could not score it, could price only four of its hotels, and its Forbes count is a single Five-Star (Amansara). Yet seven Amans hold Three MICHELIN Keys in 2026, close to Four Seasons' nine from a portfolio about a quarter of the size, and Aman Tokyo (No. 11) is outranked by only one Four Seasons, Bangkok (No. 3), in The 50 Best Hotels 2026.

On price, the brand medians are not a fair fight: Aman's four are city flagships and a villa resort, while Four Seasons' 115 run from Jakarta to Bora Bora, so $5,054 against $838 in November says more about which hotels were on sale than about the brands. The same-city comparison below is the honest test. For every Four Seasons we priced, see Four Seasons prices and the best Four Seasons hotels.

In all four cities the Four Seasons was the cheaper stay on every date both hotels had rooms, and its side is consistently well reviewed: the Otemachi (9.57) and Kyoto (9.55) rank 10th and 12th of the 72 Four Seasons hotels we ranked, and the Otemachi also holds Three MICHELIN Keys in 2026, the same top distinction as Aman New York and Amangiri. The only Aman we could score, Amanjena (9.66), edges the Four Seasons Resort Marrakech (9.31), but on older reviews.

The gap is widest where Aman sells only suites and Four Seasons sells ordinary rooms: Tokyo in November, $4,177 against $1,087. Compare suite to suite and it narrows sharply. The Otemachi's cheapest suite was $2,884 in November and $5,349 over New Year, against Aman Tokyo's $4,177 and $4,572, so at New Year the Aman suite was the cheaper of the two; in Kyoto the Four Seasons' cheapest suite ran $2,987 over New Year against Aman Kyoto's $4,396 room. Taxes shift things too: Aman Tokyo and Aman New York showed nothing to collect at the hotel, while the Four Seasons Hotel New York added about $271–361 a night at checkout and the Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto about $382–477 on our November and December stays.

What Our Desk Books

Our clients use both brands, in different ways. Four Seasons is the brand our agents price most often (60 price lookups across 37 different Four Seasons hotels since June 2026, more than any other brand), and its most-booked hotel on our desk is the George V (4 bookings, 25 nights, all in July and August), followed by Seoul (4), Tokyo at Otemachi (3) and the Beverly Wilshire (3). Aman bookings concentrate in Japan: Aman Tokyo (6 bookings, 26 nights) is our most-booked Aman, and the most-booked Tokyo hotel of any brand, ahead of the Otemachi.

Spend tells the price story in one line: our clients' median night was about $4,700 at both the George V and Aman Tokyo, and about $2,400 at the Otemachi, taxes in. Timing differs too. Four Seasons city stays were typically booked within a week of arrival and resort stays months ahead (Cap-Ferrat about 5 months, a Tokyo cherry-blossom stay about 7–8 months), while our Aman Tokyo and Aman Kyoto bookings were typically made 10 to 16 days out.

Our Verdict on the Numbers

Our verdict, and it is ours: on the evidence we can measure, Four Seasons is the safer booking almost everywhere. Its hotels score consistently well, it is easy to book, and in every city where both brands have a hotel it was the cheaper stay on every date we checked. Aman earns its premium in two situations: when the hotel is the destination (Amangiri, Amanemu and the resorts our engine could not even see), and in Tokyo, where our own clients choose Aman Tokyo more than any other hotel and where, suite for suite, it is closer in price to the Otemachi than the headline rates suggest. Choosing a city hotel on value, we'd book the Four Seasons; choosing a sanctuary, we'd book the Aman, knowing you are buying on reputation and awards rather than on reviews we can verify. The wider ten-brand picture is in luxury hotel brands compared.

Where Aman Wins

Aman wins when the hotel is the destination. Nobody else assembles land like Amangiri's 900 desert acres, Amanjiwo's Borobudur amphitheatre, or an entire Montenegrin island village, and nobody else staffs 50 rooms like a palace. The privacy is structural: small properties, vast grounds, no conference traffic, no scene-seekers in the lobby. For honeymoons, milestone trips, and genuine decompression, Aman operates in a category of one. Start with our guide to staying at Aman if the brand is new to you.

Aman also wins on coherence. A multi-stop Aman itinerary, most famously through Japan, feels like one continuous stay because guest preferences follow you between properties.

Where Four Seasons Wins

Four Seasons wins on coverage, consistency, and family infrastructure. With 130+ properties it is simply present in far more of the places trips actually go, and the floor is remarkably high everywhere. Traveling with children, Four Seasons' kids-for-all programs, larger pools, and flexible suite inventory make life easier than Aman's quieter resorts generally do. City stays where you want restaurants, bars, and a concierge desk plugged into the whole town also tilt Four Seasons.

And at a fraction of Aman's price (in every city where both have a hotel, the Four Seasons was the cheaper stay on every date we checked), Four Seasons leaves budget for the rest of the trip, or for more nights. Value-per-dollar, it is the stronger everyday luxury choice.

The Rule We Use

If the trip is about the place and the people you bring (a city to explore, a family to entertain, a business week to smooth) choose Four Seasons. If the trip is about disappearing (a honeymoon, a reset, a landmark birthday where the hotel is the experience) choose Aman. When an itinerary contains both kinds of legs, split it: Four Seasons in the city, Aman in the wild. Our own bookings add one exception to the rule: Tokyo, where Aman Tokyo is the most-booked hotel of any brand on our desk.

Aman vs Four Seasons FAQs