“Worst service from management. Definately not 4star!”
Just returned from Maldives and our experience was made terrible by management. The island is fine and view of ocean beautiful, but nothing else going for it.
1) Due to delays in flights, got to hotel past midnight, instead of midday, so missed half board meal. Manager Mr Nazeeh said he could not give us food, even though we paid for it in our package, as we missed the buffet meal time. 4 star hotel service would have gone out of their way to make you comfortable, esp after 27hrs or so of travelling. I have travelled alot, and never received such poor service from a suppossedly 4star hotel.
2) Had booked seaplane transfers to and from Male, as everyone says its great experience. Got a domestic flight instead. No apology again from hotel. Simply response of 'we stopped seaplanes from 1st Nov, 1st Oct'....they could not quite make up their minds of when they had stopped they service - and yet continue to advertise it on their hotel information channel in the hotel rooms, and are still happy to take money for seaplane transfers from travelagents.....our agent tried to book one after we informed them of the problems we had, and the booking was still accepted it. However Holiday Island management said they had informed all their travel agents...clearly not! Asked for a written letter to confirm seaplanes had been stopped, and it was like getting blood out of a stone. Mr Nazeeh refused to give anything in writing....the only reason I can assume for this, is because they are either giving out wrong info, or taking money for a service they do not provide.
3) Lack of loungers and umbrella shades. Only lounger are available to use are the ones outside your room with your room number on it, and the lounger mattress also has room number. Very few shades available, so if you see one, have to move your lounger yourself to it, or use someone else's lounger providing they are not there - else you'll get told to move. Also if you ask for a shade umbrella, get told by management that everyone comes to Maldives for the sun, which is great, but we don't all want skin cancer, so want some shade in peak sun hrs.
4) Resort is very money orientated not customer service focused. We were told by Mr Nazeeh that our return transfer was not booked, even though I had proof from my travel agent. He said he needed an additional voucher, that acts like cash for them. Without it, he can't do anything. Not the best service from a 4star hotel. To inform group of girls that they will not be able to get home and will have to miss their flight back from Male. Any other good hotel would have said not to worry, and that they'll sort it all out....just enjoy the Maldives whilst you are there. But not this one. Instead they make the customer run around phoning/txting/emailing my own travel agent to try and resolve the situation.
5) Lack of vegetarian food at buffets. Even on asking, you get shrug of shoulders. Wasn't till the last days that our waiter said something special could be made for me. Which makes you wonder why they didn't offer this to begin with, when they can clearly see you are having nothing for dinner, except a bread roll. Even the salad had fish mixed in.
6) Went to celebrate a birthday, and got travel agent to email ahead to try and do something special. Asking Mr Nazeeh if he had anything arranged, was informed no email had been received. But after he actually checked, he realised he had been passed the information. It seems that no one wants to check the correct arrangements you may have made, in the hope that you forget about them and they do not have to give you any extra service. Again no apology to say he had got the info already and had missed seeing it.
7) They want to get you out of the room even before official check out time, which is midday, but insist you give the keys back by 9am. And they tell you directly, it's because they have a big group arriving so need to start getting the rooms ready. So resulted in us waiting around in reception area for an hour then transferred to the airport and waited further hr and half before needed, just so the hotel had our rooms emptied.
8) Only positive it about the diving centre - all very pleasant and helpful there.
Overall impression-
-Mr Nazeeh was being extremely unhelpful, not polite in the slightest, did not even smile at us to greet us. Feeling of discrimination against us because of race and sex. He was able to speak to Caucasian couple very pleasantly...shook their hands, smiled and laughed with them. But did not behave the same with us. Was rude and kept making irrelevant comments about indians not working properly and thats why the transfer hadn't been booked correctly.
-Do not stay here if you are vegetarian / go as a female group/ are of indian origin.
-If you need to speak to management ask for Mr Zahir - he tried to help us, and is polite - providing the kind of service you expect from a manager and generally a 4 star hotel. He was the one who actually tried to assist us, and directed Mr Nazeeh to provide letters we needed for our travel agent etc. And helped sort out umbrella shades and birthday dinner.
-This is the worst 4 star hotel I have been to. On appearance and room and view it would be 4 star, but on service and how the unhelpful the reservation manager is, it should be rated 1 star at the most. I have travelled alot and it's the people that make the places great. I cannot say this for the Maldives, which is a shame, as for most individuals this is a trip of a lifetime.
Room Tip: Ask for a room with good beach strip in front. Some rooms had just an arms length. They are building...
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
