flyerchatter

The WA transfer is officially the world's most expensive mode of transportation in the history of mankind.

The return transfer cost from Male to WA Ithaafushi (23km) is $862.
The equivalent return transfer cost from London to Dubai (7128km) is:

• Waldorf Astoria "Luxury Yacht" - $267,145 ($862*7128km/23km)
• Gulfstream Private Jet - $55,000
• Emirates First Class - $5500

The WA transfer makes private jet travel look downright peasantry.

BLTraveler

I'm not an English major, but I think most people say The Maldives because Maldives sounds like a plural word. Kind like when people say, "I visited Hawaii" or "I visited the Hawaiian Islands". For some reason when its plural, "the" gets thrown at the beginning.

escape4

Maybe you are right. Or it could be that BV is the room type with the supply/demand issue simply because BV is the points option, not because the majority of people prefer that room. Make RV the points option and suddenly it becomes the room type with the supply/demand issue. I do agree that some people will prefer BV to be on land for safety reasons, but I cannot imagine that it would be the majority, so if they are the minority it follows that pricing should be lower.

At the risk of stating the obvious, upgrading Diamonds to other room types more generously when other guests want BV for safety reasons seems a far better solution than pricing their rooms illogically and backwards.

escape4

Thanks for the picture - this is very telling. There is not a snowball's chance in hell that I would pay a premium for a room with that view. In my opinion, booking BV would be out of need (if you have very young children), not because of preference.

Traveler Dave

escape4

Now you're talking!!! ^

MaldivesFreak

Not sure if this post got through before but if you can, could you please take a pic or two at night in the direction of Male. Interested to know how visible all the lights on that island are after dark. TIA!


Very surprised they are not waiting until after Chinese New Year to do this.


FEI: Have updated the wiki with info regarding the changes to base villa category and added 2020 pricing as well.

wekxbrainx

You really can't see much of Male. There's only one tall building I can see and I was told that's the Male hospital.

wekxbrainx

By the way, I ask my concierge about the difference of "grand" and regular room. He said the only difference is the extra living room.


Most of the pictures are in my DSLR, so this best I have for now.
Left side by the window there's a L shape sofa, table in front of sofa. An extra TV with sonos speaker. Far Right hand side is the fridge with coffee machine and cups. Near right hand side has a round table with 2 chairs.

MaldivesFreak

There could be the scenario where their primary, and most well-off, target market - rich Arabs - thinks that BVs are better than OWVs (from what I've read and heard they travel with family / children most of the time and it's far more convenient to be on land and have the space when you have kids, parents and relatives with you) and that they will get more mainland Chinese (not quite as affluent but still paying cash*) snapping up the more numerous - and now cheaper - OW and semi-OW villas (which they prefer by a considerable margin). They have vastly more RVs and OWVs than BVs so this could work out very well for them, while also satisfying Westerners' tastes and desires for being able to book (semi-)OV with points. Everyone wins.....theoretically.
They could have started doing surveys of these demographics since they opened and perhaps they are now marketing heavily for next year based on the results.

* Note that this demographic almost never pays with points so properties can be assured of earning full premium for their inventory. Other Asians - such as Japanese and Koreans - often sign up and make use of loyalty programs but mainland Chinese do not

escape4

Then they should make point redemptions go to RV not BV, that is an easy solution, but points redemptions 2020 are still BV which will achieve the opposite of what they want, and as far as I know based on reports here they insist on guests who redeemed points for BV to pay for an "upgrade" (or downgrade) to other room types (no complimentary upgrades/downgrades) so they are not doing themselves a favor to create more availability for those rooms. Makes no sense at all regardless how I look at it.

MaldivesFreak

Right. I'm figuring they may not have implemented everything yet and they might be planning to change this very soon. We shall see.

flyerchatter

I imagine the restructuring of the BV/RV/OWV hierarchy is a simple case of supply and demand. The number of BVs is relatively scarce to begin with - 31 out of 122 villas, and even less after some of these villas are claimed through points redemption. The BVs are more suitable for families with young children, elderly guests who prefer easy accessibility to facilities, and return guests to the Maldives who have experienced OWVs and prefer having a larger front yard with access to both beach and sea.

Marquinhos (famous Brazilian footballer who plays for France's richest football club PSG), who earns a weekly salary of 200,000 Euros, stayed at the Waldorf last month. You would think he would opt to stay at a Grand OWV, but he chose a BV instead as he had his child with him on holiday. The BVs definitely have their own appeal to the particular demographic.

TerryK

I just noticed the same. They are probably in the process of updating rates. I wonder if guests confirmed in King Beach with points may be downgraded to King Reef without notice?

escape4

I have a reservation later in 2019 and I asked to be "downgraded" from BV to OWV and they refused; they said since my booking is 2019, I can only do so if I pay $400 per night

Perhaps they would have had a different answer if my booking was early 2020 rather than late 2019? Regardless, I am not impressed. Let the rich footballers with children book in the more expensive BVs and let some of us downgrade voluntarily to OWV to free up more BV inventory. Everybody is happy. I guess that's not in the cards which is disappointing.