dkan22

For our first trip to the Maldives we had a hard time choosing between W Maldives and St Regis Vommuli. We couldn’t find any posts online that made a clear case for one over the other. Ultimately, we decided to do both and we spent 5 nights in an overwater villa at each resort over the 2021-22 New Year’s holiday. We had a great time at each resort but we had a better and more stress-free experience at the W. And so for us the clear winner was the W. In fact, one year later for the 2022-2023 holiday we went back to W – and this time took our three teen children as well! So this review is based on TWO stays at the W, one as a couple one as a family, and one stay at the St Regis over the course of 12 months. The statements we make below about the W were consistent between our two stays. Where they differ we note it specifically.

1. Overall experience – Bottom line: We preferred the W. W is an older property (now 17 years old) with accommodations that are less fancy compared to the St Regis (which is only 6 years old). But “fancy” in this case is a relative term. The overwater villas at the W still feel luxurious with nice furnishings, beautiful bathrooms, incredible water views, floor to ceiling windows in both bedroom and bathroom, soaking tubs overlooking the water, plenty of space and outdoor decks with immediate access to great snorkeling. Moreover, the look and feel of the W, at least in our opinion, is more in keeping with the traditional “Maldives” feel – thatched roof huts that mesh with the surrounding environment. Most importantly, for both our stays at the W, we found the management team at W led by GM Idu Ribeiro to be so incredibly welcoming, friendly, personable and approachable that it set the tone for the entire resort and created an incredibly relaxing and memorable experience. In addition, we found the value in terms of points used and money spent better at W given that everything at St Regis seemed priced at a 30-40% premium to W.

2. Management – When we landed at the W on the Seaplane, the entire management team was there to great us, including General Manager Idu, F&B Director Ting, and assistants Kocha and Chunky and several other team members. The executive team does this multiple times a day every single day for each new seaplane arrival. Sure it was a bit of a show ala “Fantasy Island” – but it was real at the same time. The management was personable, approachable and friendly and we felt the entire time that they cared about making sure our stay was perfect in every way. They were also well coordinated – we were there celebrating two special occasions (anniversary and 50th birthday) and we had some dietary restrictions as well and our celebrations and needs were seamlessly communicated between F&B director, exec assistant Chef Wasantha (who is incredible), the room cleaning staff etc. Everything was handled in a stress-free manner among the W management – even a couple of slight hiccups (eg a dinner reservation mistakenly made at a closed restaurant) were fixed quickly and painlessly. We were delighted with multiple surprises in the room on multiple evenings of our 5 night stay - including special decorations, exotic fruit platters, desserts, champagne, etc. On the last night of our first stay at the W, the GM even treated us to drinks and some sushi at the bar to celebrate our stay. Am not saying that every single guest there hangs out with the management and GM (although we weren’t the only ones to do so on our stay) but we did feel that they made themselves approachable and available to everyone and genuinely enjoyed talking to the guests and taking care of special needs and requests. That kind of attitude and friendliness is hard to fake and you just felt it the entire time at the resort. While the St Regis is a well-managed and beautiful property, it felt very different in this regard. When our plane landed we were greeted by low-level staff led by our “dedicated” private butler (more on that below) but no members of management. The management at St Regis doesn’t seem to interact much with guests and in fact seems to pride itself on having the butlers and room staff solve your problems directly. In theory that makes some sense, but it didn’t feel nearly as warm or welcoming and it also led to some issues and stresses that detracted considerably from our state of relaxation at St. Regis. (more on that below). I should also point out that both resorts have 77 units – so size is not the reason that the management at W is more approachable. It’s purely the attitude and approach at W vs the St Regis.

3. Service – The service was great in both resorts but we preferred the W model. At the W you don’t have a dedicated concierge or butler but you are given a dedicated Whatsapp number for the “front desk” where you can ask for anything at all times. In theory, the St Regis concept of a “private butler” sounds fantastic. Your St Regis private butler sends you a video greeting even before you arrive, greets your seaplane arrival, gives you a tour of the resort, helps you with luggage and room orientation, responds to your personal requests and drives you around the resort on a golf cart. He (or she) is at your beck and call just waiting for your Whatsapp requests. What could be better than that, right? In reality, the St Regis private butler model fell short (at least for us) in several ways:

a. Since your private butler is tasked with handling pretty much all your needs – and that private butler has to sleep and is also shared with some other resort guests – it puts undue pressure on one person and leads to slower responses. We found responses to our Whatsapp requests at the W virtually instantaneous at all times 24/7. We didn’t even know who exactly was responding but everything from spa appointments, to dinner reservations, to scheduling excursions like scuba dives to PCR testing (for our initial 2021-2022) to travel documents got immediate responses and was solved quickly. At the St Regis, responses were a bit slower and sometimes issues lingered overnight.

b. At the W, if we needed a cart to leave our room or return to our room we could get one almost instantly by ordering via Whatsapp or just flagging one down since they aren’t dedicated to one person. At the St Regis, with all the dedicated private butlers in their own carts we often had to wait sometimes 15 minutes or more for rides from our own private butler unless we scheduled in advance. That wasn’t due to his lack of effort – it just seemed like he was pulled in multiple directions simultaneously.

c. We incurred some stress due to language barriers with our (first) private butler. When we landed at St Regis during our 2021-22 stay we asked about “outdoor dining” as we were Covid-conscious and had eaten all meals outside at W. We were told by our butler as we toured the island that “there was no outdoor dining available” at any of the restaurants. We asked the question multiple ways and got that same response. We were floored! Well that turned out to be a language barrier issue – it was certainly not the case and there was plenty of fantastic outdoor dining options at St Regis but it was a bit of a jarring initial miscommunication.

d. After one day our first private butler at St Regis had to leave the island for an unplanned family medical issue. It worked out fine as our replacement butler was even better and had great English language skills. However, as you will see in the next point, this handoff did lead to some communication gaps.

e. The private butler model seemed to epitomize the management at St Regis – solving guest issues and handling guest needs is pushed down to the lower level staff and isn’t always coordinated well if you run into something that can’t be easily solved. As a result I incurred some truly unnecessary stress around a major birthday celebration. Prior to arriving on the island I had communicated via email that I wanted to celebrate my spouse’s birthday with a surprise romantic private dinner on the beach for the two of us. I was offered several different options and packages (all very expensive ) and I confirmed via email that I wanted to reserve such a romantic dinner on the beach – with the specific package TBD upon arrival.

On the day we arrived I was told by our first private butler that no private dinners could take place on my spouse’s birthday (even though I had confirmed the birthday dinner on that night in advance) since the Russian Christmas was that same night and they weren’t accommodating private dinners on the beaches. [This was before the war started 2 months later – both resorts had many guests from Russia and Ukraine in 2021-2022 but very few in 2022-2023]. “But don’t worry” the private butler said “I will decorate your room beautifully and you can have a private dinner on your deck.” This wasn’t the solution I had in mind and was not satisfactory. I asked him to push for the romantic private dinner on the beach. After he left for the medical issue, I then brought up the issue once again with the replacement butler. He told me that “the private dinners for that night were all booked” – which contradicted what I heard from the first butler. I told him that and asked him to look into it as well. After more than 24 hours with no resolution and the birthday celebration taking place the following day, I asked our private butler for the Whatsapp of the St Regis GM. I received the GM’s whatsapp contact eventually - but not immediately. It turned out the butler needed special permission to give the GM contact to a guest. (Exactly the opposite of the attitude we found at the W – where the GM was extremely approachable). Upon receiving the contact, I immediately sent a msg to the GM asking if I could speak with him directly in person. He did not respond for several hours “due to being in a meeting” but I did get a msg from our private butler in the interim that the issue was solved and our romantic private dinner on the beach was confirmed. It turned out to be fantastic and worth the money (about $1200 for the 2 of us) but the process leading up to it was needlessly stressful and really detracted from my relaxation at the St Regis. And I blame the private butler model and GM attitude for it – when you try to push all guest interactions down to lower level staff you are asking for these kinds of problems.

4. Cost Comparison

Both of these resorts are incredibly expensive. Even when you use points. There are no bargains in the Maldives! We spent almost $2K per day as a couple over New Years 2021-22 at each resort even though we used points for the rooms. We spent $10K as a family of 5 for only 3 nights over New Years 2022-2023 even though we again used points for BOTH rooms. Sea plane transfers ($600 pp), mandatory New Years Dinners ($750 pp) plus very expensive food prices, spa prices, excursions etc add up so significant cost. On top of your resort spending you are charged a 10% fee for service plus we added some tips for spa personnel, servers and room attendants. We found that the prices at the St Regis for everything from spa treatments, to excursions, to entrees and desserts at meals, were 30-40% higher than at the W – and you are looking at insanely high prices at the W to begin with (W charges $28 for a soup, $55 for a fish entrée, $300 for a 90 minute massage, etc). While the St Regis had more food options and restaurants, we didn’t think the quality difference justified the price difference. Both resorts have fantastic food and the St Regis prices just seemed a bit obscene.



We also felt that the dedicated butler model at St Regis adds an additional implied obligation (at least in our minds) to tip a considerable amount for the butler whereas in the W model you didn’t feel that pressure since various individuals handled your needs.



5. House Reef



The house reef at the W is simply fantastic. It’s known as one of the best in the Maldives and is in great shape. It’s very easy to access from many locations on the beach and from the overwater bungalows. Sharks (don’t worry – placid nurse and reef sharks), turtles, sea stars, giant clams with unique colors, and an incredible variety of fish abound. It’s a great reef for expert snorkelers and beginners too and if seeing the underwater wildlife is an important component of your Maldives experience (it was for us), the W is unbeatable. The St Regis reef is also good – once you get out to it. To reach it you have to swim out a bit of distance from your bungalow over a long area of relatively barren ground. When you get to the edge there is a sheer dropoff into a 100 foot abyss. Its pretty cool for an expert snorkeler and wildlife abounds at the edge of the abyss – but its intimidating (and more tiring) for beginners to access. So in this regard we give the W a big W – especially for a family trip.



6. Physical plant



The St Regis is a newer resort and the overwater bungalows are much more modern and considerably larger than the overwater bungalows at the W. St Regis has automatic shades that can be controlled individually for each window, very fancy furnishings and super high end marble floors and fixtures. However, the fancy interiors made us feel as though the St Regis Miami had been plunked down in the middle of the Indian Ocean. We joked during our stay that the St Regis was for those who wanted to come to the Maldives and stay in their rooms the whole time. For some folks that might be desirable – and the rooms are definitely higher end than the W rooms. However, the W rooms were high end enough for us and have more charm and more of a “Maldives” feel in our opinion. The restaurants, gym and spa at St Regis were also considerably fancier vs the W and there are more variety of restaurants at St Regis. That said, we didn’t consider this a major advantage for the St Regis since the W physical plant was more than enough for us.



7. Vibe



As noted above, the vibe at the W can be summed up as “Friendly and Fun”. The vibe at the St Regis can be summed up as “Fancy”. We prefer Friendly and Fun, and when returning with Family that was certainly our preference. We spent both New Years (2022 and 2023) at the W. The New Years parties at the W were differently themed each year and both were incredible. Mandatory per person charges for New Years in the Maldives are crazy high ($750 at the W – even more at the St Regis) so we were definitely expecting a great party. The W delivered both years – with great entertainment, incredible variety of food and desserts, and a midnight fireworks show. The DJ played until 2 in the morning. Its an incredible place to ring in the New Year!