Originally Posted by
brandonpkt
We just wrapped up our third trip to CMRI and during our seven nights we experienced logistical issues, poor service and a lapse in communication that was very surprising given the high quality of our prior stays.
Timeline and highlights:
+ 11 months before arrival: Confirmed a paid upgrade to a RWV (this is our favorite villa due to direct reef access); we also made sure we would be in the same villa for all 7 nights to ensure we didn’t have to move
+ A few weeks before arrival: Conrad informed us of the RWV re-branding/refurb; we accepted an additional up sell of $50++ extra/night (beyond current paid upgrade to RWV) to have Grand Water Villa with pool vs regular Grand Water Villa w/o pool
+ Two days before arrival: Confirmed with Conrad over email that we will have the same Grand Water Villa with pool for all 7 nights to avoid a move that wastes time
+ Upon arrival at CMRI, communication #1: Due to lack of availability/ongoing construction we have been downgraded for our entire stay to a Deluxe Water Villa (We decline and request the Manager)
+ Upon arrival at CMRI, communication #2: We can move over to Grand Villa with Pool after first night in Deluxe Water Villa
+ Upon arrival at CMRI, communication #3: We will have to spend first night in Deluxe water villa, second night in Grand Villa w/o pool and then have to move for third night in Grand Villa with Pool
+ Day #1 of stay: In Deluxe Water Villa which are worse than the SWV. I don’t recommend paying extra to stay here. Old/worn and not near the reef. They are also the closest villas to the sea planes which can be very loud in the unit.
+ Day #2: Moved to Grand Villa w/o pool. No different than old RWV except for treatment room replaced with two twin beds (they placed us in the family version)
+ Day #3 of stay: Finally moved to the Grand Villa with pool that had been confirmed before arrival: Villa not QC’ed thoroughly- we step on loose screws and other construction material; no hot water in Villa
+ Day #4: Hot water still not fixed; repair man tries again - this time it works and we finally have hot water for rest of stay
+ Day #5: AC goes out in our Villa around 11am. Really hot all day due to greenhouse effect. At 5:30pm we inquire about status from the Quiet Zone and the Conrad ensures that AC is fixed. We return to our Villa from the quiet Zone to discover that this is incorrect and that the AC in our Villa is still not working. We report our ongoing issue (and the lack of a fix) to the on-duty manager and it becomes apparent that no one actually checked our unit to confirm whether or not the AC is working (until we came back to discover this fact). We are then moved for one night to a standard beach villa while they repair the AC overnight (side note- the standard beach villas at the CMRI are awful; you can hear your neighbors due to the very thin walls; don’t stay in these despite the nice interior refurb)
+ Departure day: Conrad changes our sea plane at the last minute with no warning. We were supposed to be on a direct seaplane to Male that landed right before we took off. However, because we had been waiting in the seaplane lounge, at the last minute the Conrad switched us to the other seaplane that was making one stop in the other direction - before going to Male. We ended up losing an extra 40 minutes of vacation time because of waiting for passengers to embark/disembark at the extra stop before Male
In summary, we stayed in 4 villas over the course of our 7 night stay - despite only wanting to be in one villa for entire stay and confirming this 11 months before arrival. We really hate moving villas and packing up our stuff - such a waste of vacation time.
In addition, all of the villas are extremely worn out and service has really gone downhill compared to our prior visits (see my prior posts).
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we just arrived at the Waldorf and experienced extreme professionalism and class through the transfer and welcome process. I’ll continue to post details of our stay there on the Waldorf forum, however I can already tell you that the Conrad is in serious trouble with competition from new resorts - especially the WA.
In addition to the service gaps at the Conrad that I have already highlighted, the WA has a true 5 star hard product that is light years ahead of the Conrad. The Conrad will have to engage in a full tear-down/re-build in order to become competitive to the WA in terms of hard product.
We have heard from several employees at both the Conrad and the WA that over 80 employees have left the Conrad to work at the WA since it was opened. This may have led to a lot of the service and communication issues we experienced over the last 7 nights at the Conrad.
Lastly, I don’t think this resort can stay branded as a Conrad anymore given the current gap in service and hard product compared to other locations in the brand. CMRI would be better served downgrading to a Hilton (like it was for many years) and competing with its current lower service and hard-product levels at a much lower price point.
I can tell you I ran into some similiar issues in November.
Paid to get a deluxe beach Villa, got told after 3 days you need to move for dredging. Nevermind this was a refurbished unit, but there was a leak in the bathroom ceiling water came down the drywall, and some of the light switches wernt labeled/didn't work. Got offered like 4 different villas and they all sucked in terms of the location, or the rrom. Finally got upgraded to a beach suite. Beach suite had a bathroom that didn't work, they wanted to move me to the other beach suite which guess where it was located? In front of the dredging so why did I have to move from my initial room which I was kind of sort of ok with. I didn't come to cm to feel like I was camping and moving. I just wanted to stay in one Villa and relax.
The other issues were that they said they were going to get my bags, the buggies never showed up, tried to call from my initial room and the power and phone lines went out. Called on my cell to inquire where the buggy was, the guy was clueless. Wound up dragging my bags over to the new rooms. Talked to Nashid, he offered to not charge me the upgrade fee for my stay.
Then I ask two days before I leave for the bill, guess what's on there? The upgrade charge. So I ask nicely for them to remove it in an email that makes it way to cm accounting department cc'ing the Nashid who offered taking off my upgrade fee. They say they will, day of departure comes for checkout ..guess what's on the bill? The upgrade charge so I ask nicely again we had an agreement please remove it. To the front desk check out peoole. So they remove it except for a couple nights and once again I say no, it's supposed to be removed for the entire stay.
Nashi, who talked to me initially was in male for something. They hand me the cell phone he starts calling me a liar. I'm like dude you said it in front of my island host and I have an email from accounting when I emailed you about the bill before to take it off. I finally say we were in reception so let's pull the security camera tape and see if you said you were only refunding it for part of the Trip.,which he declined.
So I know all of this was long winded, but the bottom line is I agree with this poster. There is no service recovery at cm, and these are self inflicted cm issues. I was happy staying in my initial leaky Villa. But instead it was one cluster after another. Compare this to Seychelles where I had a subpar experience in the restaurant one night because it was understaffed and the food quality wasn't so good. They literally found me on my walk the next morning in a buggy and was like how about if we comp your meal and give you a free lobster dinner. I was like oh ok sweet. They didn't mess up the lobster dinner. Didn't make me fight them on the bill...ya know the things good upscale hotels/restaurants do to make up for an inconvenience.
I agree CM is in trouble because they can't recover with service lapses and I am pretty sure Steffano knows it.