The St. Regis Maldives Is Now Bookable (And REALLY Expensive)

The St. Regis Maldives Is Now Bookable (And REALLY Expensive)

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For those visiting the Maldives, the go-to points hotel is the Park Hyatt. It’s a stunning property, and you can book a stay there for just 25,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points per night. Rates at this hotel are often $1,000+ per night, so that represents a heck of a deal.

Park-Hyatt-Maldives-4

However, I do think it’s worth pointing out that a visit to the Maldives won’t be cheap, even if you’re redeeming points (Mike also covered this in a recent post):

  • Since most hotels are on private islands, transfers between Male Airport and many hotels cost $500+ per person
  • If you want to upgrade to an overwater villa, it’ll cost you another several hundred dollars per night at most properties
  • Food and drinks in the Maldives are expensive

Still, many find it to be worthwhile, as the Maldives really is a special place.

Starwood has some interesting options in the Maldives. Tiffany recently reviewed the Sheraton, which has the convenience of being closer to Male Airport (and therefore much cheaper to get to), though I don’t think the property is quite to the level of some others.

Sheraton-Maldives-50

Then there’s also the W Maldives, which looks pretty nice.

W-Maldives

However, the nicest Starwood property in the Maldives will soon be opening. The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort is scheduled to open on September 1, 2016, though as of now they’re only accepting reservations for stays as of November 1, 2016.

The resort looks stunning

St-Regis-Maldives-1

St-Regis-Maldives-2

St-Regis-Maldives-3

St-Regis-Maldives-4

However, I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a newly built St. Regis in the Maldives will be crazy expensive.

Their “Special Opening Offer” rate is ~$1,800 per night, while their standard rate after that is ~$2,300+ per night. I’m pretty sure that makes this the most expensive St. Regis in the world.

St-Regis-Maldives

Even with the Citi Prestige Card fourth night free hotel benefit, that’s still insane.

Not included is the $645 roundtrip transfer per person. It’s worth noting that getting to this hotel requires taking a seaplane, unlike the transfer to the Park Hyatt, which is on a prop that lands on a runway, and then from there you take a boat to the resort.

St-Regis-Maldives-Transfer

The other catch is that redeeming Starpoints at resorts with only specialty rooms isn’t a very good value. That’s because they typically charge double or triple the usual number of required points for these stays. That seems a bit backwards, given that part of the reason a hotel is in a particular category is because of the average nightly rate, which factors in the lack of “standard” rooms. In the case of this hotel, a free night is 90,000 Starpoints per night.

However, historically Starwood has 35% off promotions at SPG resorts for about half the year, so hopefully that returns this year, as it would be a great value at this property (at least relatively speaking — it would still be very expensive).

SPG-Resorts

Bottom line

While the new St. Regis in the Maldives looks incredible, it’s obscenely priced. I guess that’s not a surprise, given that it’s a new build five star hotel in the Maldives. I was in the Maldives over New Year’s, and while I’d like to return at some point, it’s not somewhere I have to visit every year. If I can find a good deal on points, maybe I’ll try the St. Regis next time.

In the meantime, if you have bottomless pockets, give the St. Regis Maldives a try and report back, please!

Conversations (13)
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  1. Aaron Brody Guest

    I am staying here here on an employee rate ($350/nt) at the beginning of December. Yes $350/nt. Any insight on food/activity costs?

  2. Ellandro Guest

    We are going for our Honeymoon in November -- cashed out our points, will report back:)

  3. eddieb Guest

    Just booked this on points for spring 2017.

  4. Charles New Member

    As a reference point, SPG quoted me 140k/night at the W Maldives next May, which I thought was complete highway robbery. It looks awesome, but damn...

  5. Nasakoto Iakata Guest

    its not that bad. I have MSed 0.5M spgs in a month, and that took about 20 hours worth of work.
    I am definitely thinking about this hotel now. :)

  6. YHM Guest

    Time to dust off that Kickstarter, Lucky!

  7. Ken Guest

    Best time of year is Dec-April...United offers round trips in business class for 160,000 miles which is a great deal considering the flight takes a very long time and multiple stops (usually somewhere in Europe then a stop in Turkey).

    There are dozens of great resorts worth investigating...

  8. Stvr Guest

    No offense bro sometimes your pockets are pretty bottomless remember that time you paid for the Etihad Residence?

  9. Brendan Guest

    It's worth pointing out that the cheapest 1 bedroom suites at other St Regis resort locations (Bahia, Princeville, etc) usually run about $2k per night....since this place doesn't seem to have non-suite rooms, it isn't terribly off their usual price point. Not to say it isn't absurdly expensive, that part is true.

  10. Tim Guest

    Kelly stay 10 days what's $25,000 chump change for all of Ben's fans.

  11. Darren Guest

    I think you need to take one for the team and review a 1 night stay for us.

  12. Kelly Guest

    It looks breathtakingly gorgeous. Well worth saving up for? What does everyone think is the best time of year to visit the Maldives?

Featured Comments Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Aaron Brody Guest

I am staying here here on an employee rate ($350/nt) at the beginning of December. Yes $350/nt. Any insight on food/activity costs?

0
Ellandro Guest

We are going for our Honeymoon in November -- cashed out our points, will report back:)

0
eddieb Guest

Just booked this on points for spring 2017.

0
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