Traveler Dave

MaldivesFreak

That just shows you they are setting double standards. It's not as if this is a situation where a particular staff member is acting against their policy, their policy being let everyone come in however they want. To date everything has been the total opposite for common folks trying to arrange a transfer. So this is what we know so far;
* If you are a pleb (no $) - Diamond or otherwise: screw you and your speedboat transfer! We'll even be as compassionate as to offer you a refund of your points a day before you are due to check in. And hey, that's pretty damn compassionate, after all, it is the Maldives - you can just stay at a hotel in Male for your 2-week visit. There are a ton of them and lots of availability!
* If you have a chartered yacht (appear to be affluent): we'll allow you to dock. Note: for the clapping hands welcome amenity, we roll a 20-sided die and if you get a '1' you'll have won the privilege to experience it
* If you're a rich Arab with your own yacht (very affluent): you'll receive a very warm welcome with clapping hands where you get your own space at the dock (provided it's small enough that it can sail into the shallow waters of the lagoon)

Traveler Dave

NYC_1

NYC_1

Traveler Dave

Kilian Zoll

Reading some of the bizarre accounts in this thread we are strongly considering to cancel our stay. It is in April next year so we won't touch it for now -- hopefully these issues will be ironed out over the next six months or so. And perhaps they'll lower the insane transfer cost by then as well...

MaldivesFreak

Edited to reflect the clapping hands welcome amenity you were so fortunate to have experienced. God that is just so silly. It's what you'd expect for scared 4 year-olds arriving for their second day of kindergarden. "It's OK kiddies. Don't be scared. You're gonna have a great time (in the treetops at Terra). Yaaaayyyyy!!"


Again, it's not about the hard product or even the service given, it's about the attitude of management and the people who are going to be making money off of her.

Deja vu.....I posted a similar post saying almost exactly the same thing a month or two ago.

MaldivesFreak

Paparazzi on a rubbish boat? Oh wait.....that does make sense. LMAO!

goliath

Because some (many, most?) will stop reading at "A shared transfer on the resort's yacht is US $350", which sounds much better than "... is $862.40".

BLTraveler

I assumed the risk of 3rd party transfer was them being late, not showing up, or showing up in some sort of row boat. Never would I have imagined the resort on such short notice would tell me to pretty much f*** off.

I would say saving $1,100 dollars is a bit more than “cutting some costs”. $1,100 could book a week long cruise with a balcony with all food included.

BLTraveler

Do any other resorts try to get cute and list the transfer price one way per person plus tax?

For those trying to calculate the transfer cost, I created the below algorithm:

Transfer Cost = ((($350*W) *110%)*112%)*P
W=# of ways
P=# of people
Transfer Cost = Haha sucker

What is funny is the Holiday Inn is 15km further from Male than the Waldorf and they list the round trip transfer cost inclusive taxes at $229USD. They also allow 3rd party transfer since so many people complain about how high the transfer cost is haha. What I could not find out of the 1,700 reviews was anyone complaining about their privacy being infringed from a 3rd party boat.

BLTraveler

@MaldivesFreak, you are probably right that me trying to swim ashore would have been great viral YouTube video. I had all the camera equipment haha. I did consider just showing up, but knowing this resort, they either would have turned me back or made up some other “arrival fee”. This fee in reality is just like a country club golf fee, paying money just to get into some high society club. However, I’ve been to Waldorf properties before and it seems way off brand for them to be acting like Augusta National.

I’m surprise Maldivian Laws allow this kind of restriction since it prevents money from getting to the local economy and instead goes to some foreign corporation.

Update to my situation: After Hilton calling and emailing the resort for about ten hours to try and get the resort to process the refund, the Manager sent me a “generous” offer. Since, I already paid $600 for the nonrefundable transfer to the resort, if I just paid Waldorf an additional $1,100 dollars, they would pick me
up/drop off in Male. Mind you, my plan was to go to a nearby resort after the Waldorf and that I already requested the refund 10 hours earlier. I declined the offer after a good laugh. After frustratingly refreshing my email every 5 minutes for 10 hours for an update, the last place on earth I wanted to be was at the Waldorf. Both Waldorf and Hilton accused each other of not answering phone or emails haha.

At about 12 hours of anxiously waiting for the points to refund, I finally received enough points to book at the Conrad until my next reservation. However, they had issues refunding the 2 weekend certs I used which caused me to have to use my points instead. Certs finally got refunded today but they expire soon and I won’t be able to use them before expiration. I asked if Hilton if they could swap certs for points on the Conrad booking and they said it was not possible.

Losses form this experience:
-$614 non refundable transfer
- 2 weekend certs unused that will expire
- One full day in the Maldives staring a phone trying to resolve situation.

Other tidbits:
- They said they used to allow 3rd party transfers but guests complained about their “privacy”. Pretty sure this is a lie and guests were instead complaining that they paid 300% more for their transfer.
- Waldorf said they will look into contacting guests sooner and adding info to the website clearly stating prices and transfer restriction. Good idea, but hopefully it shows up prominently during the booking process on the website and mobile app.

noeatbutgo

Jesus... it was extremely difficult to switch my booking from Conrad to Waldorf for a weekly stay in late Feb. But now I feel I might need to switch back with great risk to lose both of them...!

NightFury1

I feel like I've never seen the CMRI not have award availability, and if I have, it's rare. It's like that resort was built to function as a points sink.