Originally Posted by joecool1885

Pretty sure the only recent developments were the opening of Koi on the water villa jetty and the addition of the Presidential Villa (would love to try that place!). When we went last year, the rooms hadn't been renovated since our 2016 visit.

Been to four resorts in the Maldives: Conrad, WA, St. R, and PH. Obviously PH isn't in contention for most luxurious property, but IME, they exemplify the PH Slogan, "Luxury is Personal", and atop of this, the island is far more incredible than the others.

I'm a broken record here because I've said it a dozen times upthread, but PH offers the most genuine Maldives experience. It's tranquil, intimate, soothing.
In my book, PH is better than WA, which is better or equal to Conrad, which is better than St. Regis.

Obviously, WA offers the most convenient and luxurious experience of them. It's marred by close proximity to Male, and everything there is overpriced (Obviously all of Maldives is overpriced, but its 2nd worst offender of the 4), Food variety is alright, but for all the luxurious and ambient dining choices, our favorite pick was a simple Steak Sando at the ledge.
The property there is also quite a bit expansive. Fun to adventure around, to be sure, but also gets a little exhausting/redundant when you're headed to some of the spots.
The rooms though are spectacular, and you can easily spend a lot of time lounging/swimming/dining there. Easily the best base rooms of them.

Conrad has it's own type of magic, and it blew me away to watch the Manta's at night. Their food selection is off the charts and reasonable in price. Ithaa is a must-do-in-your-life type thing, even if the food (at least at lunch) is just okay.
TBH, it's the one I've been to least recently (PH and Conrad 2016, WA 2020, St R and PH in 2021), and I think they're not quite as generous as they used to be to elite members, but it was a high-bar to begin with.
Many of the villas there are more recently renovated than PH, but PH has solid space between every one of their villas, and many entry-level rooms at the Conrad are rather close to neighbors.
Additional pro of the Conrad is convenient to go Whale Shark snorkeling, which is nearby (pretty sure it's seasonal, though, and even then it's not a super high success rate to see them). I also thought, at least based on what I experienced back then, that they have the most well-rounded excursion list of them all. I'd note that because of this, they're probably the most family friendly of the resorts listed. While it didn't feel "busy", relative to the other properties I listed, it was.

St R: my disclaimer is that if you've never been to the Maldives, never tried those other places, and end up with the right staff on duty, you'll likely still have a grand time here. In fact I enjoyed my overall stay (helped that a family member chartered Norma, and that I found an exceptional Cash+Points upgrade rate for the JJAE).... BUT, this is a Marriott property, and as most of us who've played the hotel game for a bit figured out, their Customer Service leaves much to be desired.

My family spent more money here than the other three (excess of 30K for 4 of us), yet not ONCE during our stay did anyone other than our butler check in on us. And our butler, while well intentioned and a decent guy, was grossly unprepared to handle our family--- which consisted of my wife and I, my sister, and my aunt, all who wanted to share some experiences and do some things on our own. To say it was a clusterf would be generous.
I also felt more nickeled-and-dimed here than at any of the other properties. I didn't have a ton of time to try the restaurants, but the food we did have for private dining experiences was mediocre. Breakfast, OTOH, was terrific. My experience attempting to get my points credited with Marriott after the stay led me to abandon Marriott. (I won't say never again, but I'm a lot more guarded now).

Anyway, at WA we had an Front office person check in with us, and he even comped us an upgrade to a Grand Reef from Reef for 8 of the days we were there. Conrad had a guest services department, and we had someone check in on us while we were out eating.

And Park Hyatt---- Nik (GM) and Mohammed (Front Office Manager, I think?) were a phenomenal pairing and engaged with us on multiple parts of our short stay. While we had a bit of a language barrier with our host there, it was really rather irrelevant because of how interactive those two were.


So, go to WA for luxury, go to Conrad for Adventure, and go to PH for the genuine Maldives tranquility and intimacy. And if you end up at a Marriott, you'll probably still have a good time. Only other thing Id say is that an ideal situation would be to spend 4-5 nights PH and then 5 nights at either Conrad or WA. Split stays are fairly common, and gives you a good opportunity to taste what each place has to offer.

Park Hyatt is my #1 Hyatt hotel (followed by GH Kauai and PH Vienna) out of around 85 properties.