I booked a Beach Villa (lowest level room) at the Conrad Maldives last February prior to the HHonors devaluation, knowing that an upgrade would more than likely not be complimentary at the resort, regardless of my HHonors status. Well, I was shocked today when we found out that we had been upgraded to a Water Villa! Here’s the email I received from the hotel about three weeks before our stay, listing the prices for upgrades and the included HHonors benefits:
Dear Mr Point Me to the Plane
Sunny greetings from Conrad Maldives Rangali Island!
Thank you for choosing our beautiful resort for your upcoming vacation.
HILTON HHONORS
Due to the very special nature of the accommodations at Conrad Maldives, we are unable to offer complimentary upgraded accommodations. However, as you are a valued Diamond member, we are delighted to offer you the following benefits during your stay. Please ensure that your Diamond status is active upon arrival in order to enjoy full Diamond member benefits. Kindly note that Diamond benefits are only applicable for cardholder and one guest. In the event that cardholder is not travelling, guests who are staying with us will not be able to enjoy the benefits below.
- Complimentary breakfast for cardholder and one guest per day. Additional guests will be charged at $35 + taxes per adult per day. Children below 12 years old get 50% discount.
- One bottle of wine upon arrival
- Chocolate & Fruit amenities upon arrival
- Daily Happy Hour at Vilu restaurant for you and sharing guest in same villa from 17.00 – 18.00 hours
HHonors™ Global Benefits:
- Earn points & miles “double-dipping”
- Complimentary weekday newspaper (online print)
- Late checkout upon request, subject to availability
- Two complimentary bottles of water per day
ROOM UPGRADE
If you wish to upgrade your villa for your upcoming stay, either for the entire stay or partial stay, I am pleased to offer 30% discount on upgrade charges. The discounted upgrade rates from Beach Villa to the below mentioned villa categories as follows.
Beach Villa to Water Villa – USD 350.00 + taxes per night
Beach Villa to Deluxe Beach Villa – USD 350.00 + taxes per night
Beach Villa to Superior Water Villa – USD 525.00 + taxes per night
Beach Villa to Retreat Water Villa – USD 665.00 + taxes per night
Beach Villa to Deluxe Water Villa – USD 840.00 + taxes per night
Beach Villa to Premier Water Villa – USD 1,645.00 + taxes per night
Beach Villa to Junior Beach Suite – USD 1,645.00 + taxes per night
Taxes are 10% service charge and 8% Tourism Goods and Service Tax.
So this upgrade should have costed over $400 per night, however upon check-in we were told by our personal check-in assistant that the hotel was at 90% occupancy and that while upgrades are normally not complimentary, in this case they were more than happy to offer it to us…even without requesting one.
Awesome, really really exciting. Here’s a quick look at the room, full report in the coming weeks.
Welcoming committee….
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11 comments
What do you mean “non-upgradeable”? From the menu, it looks like you can upgrade to ANY villa, but you just have to pay up for it!
Upgrades are not available for diamond members but may be for well-known bloggers…
@Al – Pretty sure this is due to my Diamond status. Have I mentioned the trip on the blog – Yes. Do I think I’m well known – not really. BoardingArea is but I’m not sure anyone from the hotel is reading BA. Is there a possibility that Hilton corporate reads BoardingArea, sure but our greeter specifically mentioned my Diamond status multiple times and then said this was something they were doing based on that loyalty.
Edit – Conrad Maldives just commented on this post clarifying the upgrade situation so I guess they are reading…
No, we did not read BoardingArea, but we saw twitter this morning when you tweeted that you’d been upgraded and that led us here to your blog. Your upgrade really was due to your HHonors diamond status.
^ THIS. yes, tell me they were completely unaware that you’re a travel blogger and out of the blue offered a water villa upgrade gratis. i doubt it. i’m more than inclined to believe they did it for the coverage that you already started with this post and will follow with your full trip report.
you might want to make your title more accurate/less misleading: “upgrades available @ Conrad Maldives if you’re a travel blogger and leverage that fact”…
@abby – see the reply to Al
i stand corrected (and hopeful, because i will be at Conrad Maldives in 2 months crossing my fingers that they have an unused over water available for this Diamond as well)! 🙂
It’s not correct that upgrades aren’t offered at Conrad Maldives. We do upgrade diamond members, but we can’t guarantee the upgrade because of the large number of HHonors guests we get and the small size of the resort (we can easily have 35 diamond members at any one time and we’ve only got 150 villas).
To avoid disappointment we advise everyone that the upgrade isn’t possible and then try to upgrade if we can.
@Conrad Maldives – Thank you for the clarification
I’m pretty sure the Conrad Maldives doesn’t need to worry about “coverage”. They do plenty fine on their own. With or without mentions by blogs.
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