roland_wa

Based on a yearly average (standard room) I think its the following order

1. Maldives and Paris
3. Moscow
4. Milan
5. Zurich
6. Tokyo

i dont think sydney makes the cut now but will after renovation.

can someone explain me why you can use hyatt stay certs for sydney, moscow and maldives but not for ph seoul and hotel victor? doesnt make any sense for me...

peteropny

I consider the stay certs sort of a purchased award - perhaps its due to some special negotiation between the properties and Hyatt. I know that the Victor has a wide swing in rates between high and low season - so perhaps that makes it too difficult to put a year round "value" which is what is needed with the Stay Certs.

sapguy

Good to know, thanks!

DHAST

Right now, the cheap rooms during high season at the PH Maldives seem to be priced at $830+. One area where this property seems less competitive is with their cancellation policy -- *every* published rate is prepaid in full. When I look at the Conrad, W, and PH, it seems that the Conrad is actually the most affordable. It seems that the PH might be pricing themselves out of the market -- if I have to pay it all up front, I can get a room for almost $200/night cheaper at the Conrad.

ma91pmh

Alila Villas Hadaha was out of the same league as the three properties you talk about. My hope is PH will retain the same level. You are comparing upper minor league players to the Yankees, for want of a better analogy. Maybe W is a Mets.

DHAST

Stupid (but serious) question... how would one know that the caliber of the PH/Alila is better than the Conrad or the W? Both are the premier brands (and possibly premier properties) of international hotel chains. You would expect a lot from them. How would one know that the PH/Alila is in another tier?

Just curious, 'cause if it's worth busting my arse to get into the PH, I will. I think I even have a way to do it without breaking the bank, but I'm not terribly thrilled about it: I can use the Inspire level stay certificates, but the property will take a $1040/night deposit. So really, I have to tie up $8k in cold hard cash for presumably a year (I'd book a place like this at the same time I book my award seats). *NOT* thrilled. (I'd be fine with a one night deposit.) I did price travel insurance, which for a three-week trip with a "cancel for any reason" at 100% reimbursement would cost about $700.

ma91pmh

It is a very fair question. On the W, one of the divemasters we spent a lot of time with and made good friends with (still keep in touch) had a brother who worked at the W and the feedback was it was not seen as being in the same "six star" league that Alila was. There is also consistent feedback on the regular review sites that the island is over-developed. And frankly I cannot see how the annoying Whatever, Whenever B/S that W do badly enough in NYC or LA translates to a setting like Maldives.

Conrad I don't have specific basis other than MHO, but again all that I have seen points to a nice but very commercial, chain run resort that is unlikely to stand out vs some of the real high end product there.

I also do not think that W and Conrad are necessarily their really competition. The US market is a pretty small segment for the Maldives where most tourists are from Europe and Asia. So really they are competing more with the like One & One, Soneva etc rather than the US brands

Indeed the one product closer to home it is more on a par with is Four Seasons who have a couple of well-respected resorts there