High-end hotels throw all kinds of swag at their guests. Hats, pens, water bottles, tote bags — most of it isn’t very interesting, and I’ll normally leave it sitting on the counter where they left it out for me. Go ahead and regift these at will to the next patron, hotel. Bag tags are also common, but again, in most cases I leave them behind and hate when they presume to take the initiative of affixing it to my luggage for me. I’ll remove those suckers as soon as the bag is back in my hands. Get that unwanted, branded tag off my clutter-free suitcase!
But then I visited one property where the parting gift represented such an unexpected dose of perfect hospitality that I became obsessed. In early 2022, with pandemic travel restrictions still waxing and waning, I took a short southwest road trip culminating in a visit to Amangiri in Utah. The stay epitomized the idea of top-tier luxury amid a vast, remote stretch of American beauty. Days were filled with a mix of adventure, in the form of via ferrata courses, and swanky poolside indulgence.
When it came time to depart, as jarring as it was to be forced to leave such a jaw-dropping property and re-enter normal society, staffers scooped up my bag for me. The next time I saw the suitcase it was already loaded in the trunk of my car, and had been adorned with a stylish leather luggage tag — and this time, it was holding a card with my name already printed on it.
It was a small touch, but one that’s stayed with me ever since — literally, as that bag tag has been on my Briggs & Riley Sympatico hard-case carry-on since the day it was placed there. The brown leather Amangiri luggage tag is embossed with the property’s name on one side, and features a woven, Native American-inspired motif in white, brown and black on the other.
By personalizing the parting gift with a guest’s name printed onto its identification card, the property went the extra mile to deliver a lasting, memorable impression. Even if it’s something as simple as a business card-sized piece of paper with your name on it, it makes it feel like it’s yours.
As the years have passed and I’ve tacked on a few more Aman hotel stays here and there, I anticipate receiving the gift each time. I’ll travel the world to keep stockpiling them, and currently have three on my bags as we speak. Amanemu, a getaway amid the secluded nature of Japan’s Shima National Park, has a solid gray tag with a textured pattern, while Aman Kyoto’s is smooth, dark-green leather with a gold clasp. The former is doing double duty alongside the O.G. Amangiri, while the latter resides on my backpack.
A few others have come and gone. I lost my tag from the Aman Tokyo, a crushing setback. Amanpulo and Amankora, I hardly knew ye. Amangalla, I think you let me walk out that front door of yours and into the sweltering heat of Sri Lanka with no new bag tag to be found. How dare you. (All right, I admit this is a plea for these properties to drop new luggage tags in the mail for me. Is this mic on? Can this be arranged?)
Probably not, I’m afraid. The only way to obtain them is to have stayed at a specific property, and they aren’t even available for purchase in the brand’s online store. There are leather “bag charms” with the Aman logo on them, but they aren’t the gifted bag tags. Elsewhere, the Aman Essentials line includes leather passport covers, leather credit card holders, leather wallets and other must-haves, such as $600 Aman cashmere baseball caps, if that’s your thing. But no property-branded bag tags.
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Take it from me: these brilliant, unexpected little travel moments of zen can make your dayIn fact, Aman might not even like me talking about the luggage tags, as they’re meant to be surprise parting gifts. Not only are they not available for sale, they aren’t mentioned or showcased in photographs anywhere amid its website or materials.
Even when pressed for details, Aman’s corporate team wouldn’t divulge much. They told me each tag is indeed unique and said to reflect its property, that they’re sourced locally where possible, and that the ritual parting gift is a component of their brand-wide, signature guest experience.
You gotta earn these, in other words. An Aman luggage tag is like a verified blue check mark on Twitter back in the good ol’ days, as opposed to the meaningless trash you can now just pay money for on X to pretend you’re cooler than you are, while hoping and praying that Elon Musk likes one of your slurping tweets one day.
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A personalized Aman bag tag is like a merit badge you only get after completing your task — in this case, staying at an exceptional hotel in some spectacular setting or another. They’re like passport stamps, but more exclusive. And while I’m steadfast in the belief that we don’t even need physical, handheld passports anymore, I do indeed want to keep these particular physical talismans to mark my travels.
When your life is a nonstop barrage of travel, you come to appreciate the unexpected pleasures along the way. In this case, a seemingly banal, forgettable exchange between a hotel and a guest became something that won me over and remains at the forefront of my mind when I think about how the little details can do some serious heavy lifting when it comes to service and hospitality. I never would have guessed it would come in the form of something as mundane as a luggage tag, but it’s proved unforgettable.
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