Staying here 1 night later this month before our St Regis stay and the hotel has reached out for prepayment for the room via a Bank of the Maldives link. This is a cash stay, but the terms when I booked did not state any prepayment was necessary and I was expecting to pay upon checkout like any other hotel. Is this common practice in the Maldives? Below is the full message:
Concerning your query, please note that payment policy for Sheraton Maldives may vary from other Marriott properties and city hotels.

Please do allow me to clarify onto the charging mechanism. The credit card details provided during the reservation would not be automatically charged as there is no payment portal linked to the reservation due to protection of guest data. Thus in the Maldives we share the secured payment link authorized and authenticate the card holders card by the Bank of Maldives to obtain the payment. This method is not only practiced by Sheraton Maldives but also practiced by other Marriott Maldives property as well.

And since, Sheraton Maldives is a remote destination which only accessible by limited mode of transfers, we require many arrangements to be made well in advance prior to arrival which all reservations to Sheraton Maldives are on prepaid basis once the booking has passed the free cancellation. Therefore, your reservation has passed the free cancellation on 15th Sep 2024 and reservations without prepayment is subject to being released / cancelled from our system automatically if prepayment is not received.