We just returned from spending 7 nights at the property. We stayed in Beach Pool Villa. Here are some thoughts and happy to answer any questions:
- Beach Pool Villas - it's not clear from booking process, but there are two types of locations - those where the pool and outside area is completely enclosed by trees and those where the pool and outside deck faces the beach openly. We preferred to see the beach/sea. For those, the best are villas 1 and 25. The rest are almost fully enclosed. Villa 1 is most open to beach but is right next to arrival jetty with potentially more traffic. We stayed in villa 25 that is on the opposite end of the island with rare traffic in front of the beach but one extra coconut palm blocking the view.
-Manager is Kristoff (don't know last name). I'm not impressed. The only times we saw him was at arrival when he said hello and on departure as we were loading into the boat. For a small property as this, this is unacceptable. At departure i tried to give him some feedback and he had no interest in listening, just yessing me to death. For that alone, i will not return to this hotel until there's new manager. This is some of the feedback I was trying to give him if he bothered to speak with us:
- Guest engagement - there's none. Every department is functioning well, but it's all on automation with no imagination. For example, we had a period of 24 hours of solid rain (not kidding). All activities except spa assume good weather. The hotel did nothing extra. There was no attempt to create any kind of guest interaction or activities that would make the day go by quicker. They could have done things like - cocktail class with bartender, cooking demonstration, reef talk with naturalist (or even dive staff), literally anything to get you out of the villa. make an extra yoga session somewhere covered, or some happy hour specials at the bar or the spa, etc.. But nothing at all.
- yoga: there's daily yoga in the morning at 7:15am and only twice a week at sunset at 6:15p. Why can't they have daily yoga two times a day or alternate every other day morning and evening? The whole point of vacation was to sleep in and I loved doing yoga in the evening.
- there's no "calendar" of events available. every time I ask, the answer is talk to your host, except the host forgets to tell about things i need to know. Just make a calendar and put it on a website if you don't want to print it. Things like yoga, weekly bbq and maldivian night buffets, excursion timings/schedules. We find out those things by stumbling into them or asking specifically. Again, for a hotel this size (50 rooms), this shouldn't be happening
- bathtub is not functional. That's the only conclusion I can make and it's by design, not something being broken. Bathtub is huge, the water runs very slow so it takes forever to fill up, during which time it gets cold. In addition, the hottest water that was available to run the bathtub was colder than the hot water in the shower right next to it, which tells me they limit the mixing. best I could do was a lukewarm water that was too cold to sit it. disappointed.
-gift shop is very very limited. almost no sundries, most of space if devoted to bland Villebrequin bathing suits. I needed a new rashguard and was willing to pay, but they only have them in plain black. no small souvenirs with "park hyatt" logos - just tshirts.
-housekeeping - i'm a broken record but at property with only 50 rooms, housekeeping needs and can be invisible. Our first morning we got woken up with a bang on the door at 9am! when we said we are still sleeping and to come back later, they asked what time? I don't know - later! yes, our fault for not putting DND in our jetlagged state, but that's not good housekeeping. Every day it was a negotiation as they wanted to know exact time to come. The only place we can be is either in the villa or somewhere around central area. just coordinate with F&B team - if they see us at breakfast, then they can go clean the room.
-costs: I know it's maldives and high costs are expected, but also at this level of hotel I expect not to be nickled and dimed at every turn:
1) non-motorized watersports. You get snorkel gear for free and regular kayaks are free. however glass kayak and stand-up paddleboards are $20/hr. Not a big cost but why? it's more the hassle of finding someone to give it to you, signing for it, etc. just seems petty.
2) breakfast - generally good but at this level, i would expect at least one glass of mimosa or sparkling wine to be included.
3) maldivian night buffet - i was looking forward to trying maldivian food. there were only a couple of dishes on the regular dinner menu. There is weekly Maldivian night buffet (it was on Tuesday night). However, the cost is $219 ++ (22%) for total of $267 per person. This is ridiculous even by maldivian standards. Most of food is curries and salads, with fresh fish grilled (salmon, tuna). They include lobster and that ups the price but i didn't see how it could possibly be worth that. I think making it so expensive is a disservice to maldivian culture. The regular bbq buffet (also with lobster) was $189++ ($230). I see no reason for the difference.
4) small thing but we stayed at W maldives a long time ago and they had ice cream freezers throughout the island. It was such a nice little touch - you are sitting on the jetty watching sunset and you can grab an ice cream. There's nothing similar to this here.

other thoughts -
the house reef and diving are truly magnificent. The dive team is great. House reef is a treasure - sharks every day, tons of fish and very healthy coral. This is not the place for Manta Rays and Whalesharks - there are no regular spots for them and dive team sees them on occasion passing by but it's not a regular occurence. But we saw tons of huge turtle on dives, lots of other fish and sharks every snorkel/dive (mostly black tip reef sharks but they have a few others as well).

I loved the Beach Pool Villas - beautiful design, well made and perfectly maintained. The pool was a very good size and beach was right there.
Surprisingly there is no jacuzzi or hot tub anywhere on the island. After my failure with taking a bath, it was windy and chilly and i wanted to warm up - there's nothing.
Also missing - fresh coconuts. WHY!!??? from prior reviews, they used to be available with breakfast and at the bar, but now not a single one anywhere. this is on an island literally filled with coconut palms.

Happy to answer any questions. We were two adults. I wouldn't bring kids here - we saw a few teenagers who were diving with parents and that's about the youngest I would consider. Lots of other hotels in maldives that have better facilities for kids.