Just received the following automatic email reply: Kindly note that W Maldives to set to undergo a full scale transformation, closing our doors starting 01 May 2024, with its grand reopening March 2025.

So, March seems to be the new official date.

Here comes the Email from them. They are just insulting everyone’s intelligence … so sad. Apparently we should thank them for offering a FREE rebook to the JW, which is 30% cheaper. Do they really think their guests are that dumb? That’ll backfire …

Do they say anything about the reason for the new delay? It must be something serious to postpone the reopening by another six weeks.

"unanticipated" ... no company would give reasons for such delays unless they are 'act of god' like a natural disaster or something like that

Could be, but if the Island is bigger with lots of dining options. Why not. Been at the W in 2009 so I kind of know the island, but the new designs of the villas look impressive. Hence why I'm a little torn between the two.

Thankfully the W's cancellation policy is 30 days prior so will have time to think.

My wife and I booked the W Maldives for the last week of February 2025 back in May, when the expected opening date was November 2024. We booked on points, so I've been checking our dates every month to see if there are any rate changes. Last week I noticed that you can no longer book the dates that we have reserved so I decided to reach out to the hotel to see if anything had changed. Today, I got a reply saying that we'd need to rebook since they aren't opening until March 2025 and that we could have our reservation changed to stay at the JW Marriott instead. It's amazing to me that they thought they could just wait until the last moment to inform us. All they had to do was run a simple database query for the reservations before the opening date and send out a generic email informing everyone affected. Has anyone else experienced anything this sloppy and unprofessional from a high-end property in other hotel loyalty programs?

I'm surprised that no one affected by the rebooking has left a negative review on TripAdvisor or Google yet. Typically, that's one of the most effective ways to push properties to rethink their poor handling of these situations (In this case giving better rebooking options beyond the JW).

If accept the change to JW, is there any discount offered as compensation?

Is there any difference from making the reservation to JW myself?

To add insult to injury, got a presumably auto e-mail this morning from the W as a pre-invite for my stay next week at the W that was long transferred to the JW lol.

I think of us are still negotiating (or waiting for responses). I can ensure I will take the time to leave a robust but truthful review if they continue with that nonsense

They are not offering any compensation as far as I can tell

The difference is ... if you book it yourself, you will pay less

I went through this months ago, there's no compensation to be had it seems, let me know if someone does and I'll have another run at it too!

They got back to me and told us to pound sand. No re-scheduling for a year later, no RC, no StR. Sure ... they will refund the difference to the cheaper JW ... oh great ... wonderful offer.

Time to tell them to cancel and refund - luckily our flights are refundable. Oh wait ... maybe we'll go and stay at the Conrad instead.

Been a long time since encountering such an incompetent hotel management team. Appropriate reviews will be left in due course - I hope everyone else does the same. Hopefully an appropriate shaming of the property will help others who are less fortunate with having non-refundable tickets.

W contacted me.
There is no compensation and the rates remain the same.
Please let me know other resorts.
JW will not replace W.

Based on my one stay here, I am not surprised at all by the experience of folks affected by this delayed reopening. The management team at this hotel has never been good, it was the worst service experience of any of my trips to Maldives.

That being said, and not to defend the property's approach to handling this issue, if I had planned to visit here within 6 months of the planned reopening date I would have also had a backup plan booked concurrently. No different than making a backup plan for a new hotel opening.

We are booked for a stay at the W on March 20th and I have no idea what to do at this point. It is hard for me to trust they will actually be open and ready for us and we do not want to stay at the JW at all. We chose the W over the St. Regis and Ritz at the time because the point redemption was cheaper (not by much) and we liked the vibe. As of today, the point redemptions for the other two properties have gone way up. For a 5 night stay including a free night, the St. Regis is 572k and the Ritz is 648k. Back when we booked they were each over 100k less. I never thought the W would be delayed in reopening for this long. I can't help but feel slighted if I bite the bullet and use more points to switch, given we could have just booked at the cheaper rate months ago. If we take the risk and stay, it could get pushed back again and then possibly have to pay even more points for St. R or Ritz, or they might even be sold out. This has left us with such a bad taste in our mouths over what was supposed to be a dream trip.