Nicolas Peluffo of Awasi on Ultra-Luxury Lodge Travel, One Villa One Guide One Vehicle, and the Last Untouched Frontier in Luxury Travel

South America is, as Nicolas Peluffo puts it, the last place on the luxury travel map where the lights have not yet turned on. From the moon, you would see luxury hotels glittering across Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America and then, across an entire continent sitting right next to the United States, relative darkness. That darkness is the opportunity Awasi has been quietly building inside for nearly two decades: a collection of five small lodges in some of the most extraordinary and least-visited destinations on earth, united by a single operating philosophy: "one villa, one guide, one vehicle".

Peluffo, the CEO of Awasi, sat down with Adam Mogelonsky to trace the full arc of that philosophy across five very different biomes: the Atacama Desert, Patagonia's Torres del Paine, the wine country of Mendoza, the triple frontier of Iguazu, and a new oceanfront property in Santa Catarina, Brazil. The conversation covers the conservation work underway in Patagonia, the Guaraní community partnerships deepening at Iguazu, the active wellness program launching in Brazil, the Zenit villas soon to open in Patagonia, the tiramisu story that explains what personalization actually means at this level, and why Peluffo believes the entire South American luxury travel market has a very long tail still ahead of it.

What is Awasi?

Awasi is a collection of five small lodges positioned at some of South America's most extraordinary natural destinations: the Atacama Desert in Chile, Torres del Paine in Patagonia, Mendoza's wine country in Argentina, the Iguazu Falls on the triple frontier of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, and a new property on the island of Santa Catarina in Brazil. The properties are small by design, the largest running no more than a handful of villas, and they are united by a founding proposition that has driven the brand since its first property opened in Atacama in 2007: "one villa, one guide, one vehicle".

"We don't sell rooms," Peluffo says. "We sell a private way to experience and move around territory." The guide is not an amenity. The guide is the product. From the moment a guest arrives at the airport, the guide is there: picking them up, driving them to the property, beginning the conversation that will shape everything that follows. On arrival, maps are spread out, options are discussed, and the itinerary is built from scratch based on the guest's interests, fitness level, available time, and the day's weather. Nothing is pre-packaged. Nothing is pre-scripted. "It's your space, your pace," Peluffo says. "And you stay with that same guide throughout your entire trip."

South America: the last frontier

Peluffo is careful not to rank South America's landscapes against those of North America or anywhere else. Beauty, he notes, is personal and impossible to put on a scale. But he makes a structural argument for South America's distinctiveness that goes beyond scenery.

Torres del Paine in Patagonia receives approximately 300,000 visitors per year. Zion National Park in Utah receives five million, and Zion is, Peluffo estimates, roughly 0.05% of the size of Patagonia. "It's not difficult to be there and feel like you're the first person who ever set foot on that place," he says. "You look around, you don't see a single person, you don't see any human-built infrastructure. Everything is the way it's always been." That degree of remove, the capacity to genuinely disconnect from daily life and reconnect with something elemental, is, in his view, what distinguishes the South American experience from even the most spectacular national parks in the developed world. "When you're in beautiful nature but there's cars everywhere, there's RVs, there's pizzas, you don't really disconnect. It sort of feels like a little bit of a shopping mall."

The commercial implication is significant. South America sits adjacent to the United States with minimal time zone difference and relatively straightforward access. The luxury hotel supply is thin compared to the scale of the destinations. "If you go to one of the national parks or one of the destinations we're at, you rarely see anyone," Peluffo says. "We think there is massive opportunity, a very long tail on that."

The tiramisu

If one story captures what Awasi means by personalization, it is the tiramisu. A solo guest staying at the Patagonia lodge mentioned to his guide, in passing, that he had a strong memory of his grandfather giving him a dollar every Sunday to go and buy tiramisu. The guide said nothing. That evening, the guide quietly relayed the detail to the chef. The chef (not a tiramisu specialist) called a contact in Europe, learned the recipe, prepared the dish, and placed it on the dessert menu with a separate card and a dollar bill. Only one option. The guest broke into tears.

"That level of personalization — I'm listening to you, I'm connecting with you, we're on the same energy," Peluffo says. "It's not about white gloves. It's not about gold doorknobs. That doesn't really matter for us." What makes the story additionally remarkable is the operational context: at the Patagonia lodge, the average lead time between ordering something and receiving it on property is approximately two months. "It's an extremely complex operation. It's very difficult to get anything done." The tiramisu happened in hours.

The properties: five biomes, one philosophy

Awasi Atacama was the first property, opening in 2007 in the village of San Pedro de Atacama in the driest desert in the world, at 4,000 feet. The 12 villas are round, built from adobe with thatch roofs, inspired by the Aldea de Tulor — one of the oldest settlements in the region, dating back approximately 2,500 years, whose remnants survive nearby in the same round adobe form. A channel of water runs through the property in the traditional irrigation style of the area. "You feel like you're in a world of its own," Peluffo says. "And then you step out and go into the desert, into the Licancabur volcano." The property is Awasi's smallest and, in Peluffo's telling, the one that launched everything.

Awasi Patagonia opened in 2014 inside Torres del Paine National Park, on 7,000 acres of private land that Awasi now manages as a conservation reserve for the local puma population. The surrounding land had been a cattle farm; since pumas are afraid of cattle, the animals had been pushed back from their natural territory. Awasi leased the adjacent land on a very long-term basis, removed the cattle, and allowed the guanacos (the puma's natural prey) to return. The pumas followed. "They walk right past our guests," Peluffo says. "There are pictures of them on top of a hot tub, on top of a deck, in front of a villa." A new addition to the property is the Zenit villas: ring-shaped structures on the edge of the mountain, facing the Torres del Paine directly, each designed for a family group with two suites, dedicated guides, and dedicated vehicles. The architect, Felipe Asadi, is internationally recognized. Beginning next year, the property will open in winter for the first time, offering guests the extraordinary experience of Torres del Paine under snow, with the park essentially empty.

Awasi Mendoza sits inside Agrelo, in the Luján de Cuyo wine region of Mendoza — the most established wine-growing area in Argentina — with Viña Cobos, Catena Zapata, and Cheval des Andes as neighbors. The property has its own vineyard. The innovation Awasi brought to Mendoza was not wine hospitality in the conventional sense but private access to the specific vineyard plots where the grapes for those iconic bottles actually grow, locations that are typically inaccessible to visitors and remote from the wineries themselves. "We bring you there to see and touch and taste and be in the place where this magical stuff comes from," Peluffo says. The broader experience layer includes gaucho culture, horseback riding, the Andes at every angle, and food that draws on the agricultural richness of the region.

Awasi Iguazu opened in 2018 at the triple frontier of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, adjacent to Iguazu Falls — one of the seven natural wonders of the world, and a location Peluffo argues is consistently underestimated relative to Niagara Falls on every dimension that matters: volume of water, biodiversity, and the lushness of the surrounding Atlantic rainforest. The distinguishing feature of Awasi Iguazu is its deepening relationship with the Guaraní community — the indigenous people of that land, with three villages immediately surrounding the property. Awasi team members are drawn from that community. The dishes they serve are drawn from that culinary heritage. Excursions that previously happened elsewhere now take place on Guaraní land. "We're not reinventing the wheel, we're not colonizing Mars," Peluffo says. "We're just people with people, and trying to make those exchanges meaningful for all of us."

Awasi Santa Catarina in Brazil is the newest and most distinct property in the collection — the first Awasi on the ocean, and the first in a new biome entirely. The brand's DNA has always been built around active exploration: hiking, horseback riding, biking, kayaking. Santa Catarina extends that into the ocean with scuba diving, trekking, and kayaking on and around the island. The signature addition is what Awasi calls active wellness — a longevity-oriented program that integrates the brand's exploration philosophy with structured attention to nutrition, movement, sleep, and habit change. "We're looking at an infinite horizon," Peluffo says. "We're trying to imagine the rest of your life." The framework draws on behavioral science: the Atomic Habits logic that a four-degree course correction, sustained over time, lands you in a completely different place. The program closes with a personal booklet that guests take home, giving them a concrete framework for maintaining what they experienced on property.

The Awasi Academy and the 3:1 ratio

Awasi operates with a staff-to-guest ratio of roughly three to four team members per guest, depending on the property. That ratio is made possible (and meaningful) by the operational infrastructure running underneath the guest experience. Heavy investment in technology, systems, and training on the back end is designed to ensure that when team members are in front of a guest, they have the time and the mental space to be fully present.

The mechanism for sustaining that culture across 600-plus employees in multiple countries is the Awasi Academy — an internal training function whose sole mission is to make every team member better, every day, across every dimension of the operation. The philosophy is not compliance with standards but judgment within guidelines. "These are the guidelines, this is what we know works, but you have freedom," Peluffo says. "You have judgment. You are empowered to adjust according to the situation, according to the guest." That empowerment is what makes the tiramisu story possible. It is also what makes it repeatable.

Travel advisors and the joy span

Approximately 50% of Awasi's business comes through travel advisors, a figure Peluffo does not view as a dependency but as a structural fit. High-value, high-stakes, complex experiences attract guests who want expert guidance, and Awasi is present where those advisors operate: Virtuoso, American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts, Relais & Chateaux, and a global team covering partners in Europe, the United States, and South America.

The concept Peluffo introduces to describe what guests are protecting when they book through an advisor is "joy span" — the arc of joy across a trip that represents a significant commitment of time, money, and emotional energy. "You're not gonna blow that opportunity," he says. "You wanna maximize impact and your joy span." It is a term that sits usefully alongside the industry's growing vocabulary around experience optimization, and it captures something specific: that for guests traveling to remote South American destinations, there is often only one chance, and the cost of a missed opportunity is not recoverable by points or a room upgrade.

What comes next

Awasi's growth philosophy is deliberately restrained. "It's not about volume. It's about quality," Peluffo says. The brand is privately owned, with no mandate to expand for its own sake. New properties will be pursued only when a destination and a concept feel right; when they can extend what the collection already does rather than simply add to its footprint.

The near-term news is the Patagonia winter opening, the Zenit villas, and the active wellness program in Santa Catarina. What drives Peluffo beyond the operational ambition is something more fundamental: the proximity that hospitality uniquely creates between a brand and its guests at their most open and memorable moments. "What other product or service allows you to eat with someone, sleep nearby, talk to them, spend 24/7 with them, be present for some of the most important moments of their life?" he says. "To be able to do that when it's so important for them, and be remembered — that's what gets us up every day."