The Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple, in Trivandrum, has been amassing gold for centuries. PHOTOGRAPH BY CHIARA GOIA

What I love most about Xandari is this fact: over nearly two decades, several tens of thousands of guests have trusted Xandari with their valuable vacation time, and that faith has been reciprocated with such authentic hospitality that Xandari has one of the most loyal clientele of any hotel I know of. Most guests coming to Xandari today are related through kinship or friendship to guests who have already been at Xandari before. That loyalty is like treasure buried deep inside of Xandari.

When I posted this, just over four years ago, George M George was just back from his first visit to Costa Rica, having met Sherrill Broudy while staying at Xandari. That visit led to the eventual transition of Xandari’s ownership from the Broudys to MLHS. Going back through correspondence relevant to the history of Xandari just now, I found some letters to friends and family that related the treasure that Xandari represented to the treasure recently found in Kerala that now needed guarding. It would be tedious to quote those letters, but the metaphor holds.

Xandari, a concept created in Costa Rica but with universal appeal, is now valued much more (just as the treasure in that temple accrued value over time, estimated now to be in the tens of billions of dollars)  due to the commitment of MLHS to build well on a strong foundation: community. The beautiful architecture, lovely grounds, arts, food, etc. are all important–but community is the essence of the concept. That was true in the Broudys time and it is true under MLHS ownership.