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YouTube influencer Ryan Walker paid $4,663 for a one-night stay at Amanvari, the new Aman resort in Baja California Sur. He never made it past the front gate.
The YouTube hotel reviewer, who has more than 150,000 followers and built his brand on paying full price for honest reviews, posted a video titled “Amanvari Called the Police on Me” days after the resort’s Aug. 1 opening, according to the Wall Street Journal. The video, which topped 750,000 views, shows Walker being escorted awa by staff who tell him he has no reservation.
Aman has a different take. A spokesperson said Walker’s video was “deceptively edited” and doesn’t show what actually happened. The company says it never called police and showed the WSJ an incident report that doesn’t mention law enforcement. It also says Walker arrived at a staff entrance rather than the main gate, and that it emailed him a cancellation notice, plus a WhatsApp message, the day before his stay due to limited capacity during opening week. Walker says he didn’t see either message until later.
Nearly every detail is disputed: when the cancellation email arrived, which entrance Walker used, whether police were actually called. Aman says it refunded Walker in full and offered to cover his other costs. He took the refund, not the rest.