escape4

I am not sure what you define as "rack rates" but in your previous post you referred to the rates on the back of the door that nobody ever pays - this is the maximum possible guests can pay so it would be a handful of days in the year. I would be very surprised if WA Maldives does not cost far more than $2k on peak days, for example new year eve. Right now they are using those rates for random dates in 2019 after opening, not for peak dates. I would be glad to be proven wrong if someone gets a quote of $2k for new year even.

St.Regis charges nearly $2k as a flexible rate for many random days in late 2019 and that is nowhere near their "rack rate" that nobody ever pays, so why would we think that nobody will pay $2k for WA? People actually do pay over $3k for rooms at St.Regis during holidays, I suspect it will be the case at WA as well.

This is not to say that $2k will be the lowest rate available once the resort is open. Right now prepaid rates are not available so for sure there will be something lower at some point.

Regarding bloggers, they add value when they bring new information to their readers, for example first hand contact with a hotel to get info which was not publicly available before. Sounds like the article was valuable for you and I am sure for others as well, but for many here we did not learn anything.

MS02113

The Conrad lounge at MLE desperately needs a refresh. The white leather furniture is dingy and peeling, the view is poor given airport construction, and food offerings are underwhelming. Frankly, the lounge in its current state would make for poor first impressions of the brand new Waldorf Astoria.

MaldivesFreak

Received with thanks! ^


Have asked for this info in my email to them. I guess ideally what Hilton should do is keep the Conrad Lounge as is and use it for their Curio SAii and build a new one for both the Conrad and the WA.

Regarding rates, I have also asked for rates; high, low, shoulder etc. Am awaiting their reply.
As for what they're actually going to do, there have been some good points made by folks here. @Traveler Dave made a good point when he said he thinks the WA will open with good 95K availability and once they are sure their initial pricing is right they will reduce the amount of villas for redemption. I'm not an expert on the matter but wouldn't it be silly to start with a minimum of 2K++ and not a) offer discounted cash rates and promos knocking a good third or more off them, and b) silly not to open a quarter or third of the villas in each category to decent - read 95K - redemption amounts. They are going to have seriously low occupancy rates for the first 2 or 3 months with all this postponement going on. There's no way they can be pre-selling a ton of rooms to potential Middle Eastern guests or anyone else when they are constantly putting dates back. My 2c anyway.

alanslegal

Getting to the WA will be by luxury yacht so I doubt guests would be going to the seaplane terminal to pick up the yacht from there.

Jamal06

MS02113

True. I didn't think it was likely WA would share the Conrad lounge; was just responding to another poster who suggested the possibility.

It seems other resorts' yachts depart directly across from the airline terminal, so perhaps WA will also build a lounge there.

Traveler Dave

escape4

MaldivesFreak

Would be interesting to know how they would go about the simulations. I suppose you'd have to look at how many members frequently book with points at properties that have maximum redemption rates or close to maximum, how many regularly book high-value FNF stays, how many have enough points to do a Fifth Night Free at their desired (new) rate, etc. For example, if they thought one and a half times the current maximum amount for a single night was in order, i.e; 95K*1.5 = 142,500, let's say 140,000 like the Qasr el Sharq, then to figure out how the first couple of months might turn out they'd be looking at how many could do 560,000 off the bat for a FNF redemption stay. Figure into that the other accounts of spouses and family members for the purpose of calculating combined points (since you can now pool). Then they might look at how many of those eligible accounts have visited the WA Ithaafushi's website and how many have contacted them by email, called HHonors Reservations to enquire, how many are regulars at Conrad Rangali, etc. Even then they'd be purely guessing. I suppose the data from the Conrad and the old WA Maldives would be pretty useful, especially for those with elite status.


With 120+ rooms there will be a lot of guests and a lot of departures per day. A yacht will be slow. If they only have one yacht you'd expect waiting times to be significant on occasion. They will most definitely need a lounge somewhere.

Tilly71

It would have to be fairly fast then as people paying their proposed cash rates won't want a long time on a yacht for transfer reasons between resort and airport.

There is also stiff competition these days in the Maldives for luxury resorts. I was surprised to see soo many adverts in the Transmaldivian airlines flight magazine on the way to Rangali. strangely, I did not see one resort advert for any Hilton properties in the magazine.

escape4

They might also compare themselves to competitors such as Park Hyatt charging 25k pts per night and St.Regis charging 60k pts per night (increasing soon in April though). The approximate value of those points is not completely dissimilar to 95k Hilton points.

If WA ends up being expensive on points by creating a brand new category way above 95k pts, some customers with a healthy balance of points not only with Hilton but also with other chains might end up going somewhere else rather than trying WA. I would argue that in the first 6 months of operations, this is possibly not the best scenario for a resort which wants to drum up some business.

What WA will "lose" by hosting guests on a point redemption at 95k pts which they might consider too low? Those guests will spend money on F&B when rooms would have been empty otherwise. So the theoretical loss is peanuts in the grand scheme of things if you take the long term view.

Traveler Dave

alanslegal

According to their website:-

• Breathtaking and tranquil private island resort 30 minutes from Male International Airport by yacht


Estimating the distance on google maps, I'd say 25 kms from MLE

Traveler Dave

jphripjah

They want to sell luxury and exclusivity. Arguably, the experience is devalued for their ultra-rich $2,000 a night guests if a bunch of chuckleheads like ourselves are running amok there at 95,000 Hilton Honors points per night.

Wait, what am I talking about. I meant 76,000 points a night with the fifth night free benefit.