A few days ago I read a sentence: "Elegance is in the manners and in the way you deal with people, not in a Riedel glass or Frette luxury linens". It is EXACTLY how I would describe Joali Maldives! The whole resort is absolutely awesome! It is clean, luxurious and comfortable! BUT the service and competencies of some of the personnel is below any acceptable standard! I guess this is what happens when someone with lots of money but no experience in a hotel industry decide to open a hotel.
I will mention about 3 problematic points: 1) booking process and the quality of the Reservation Team service, 2) Jadugar (butler) service and 3) cutting our stay short.
1) The booking process was just a nightmare! I made reservation via booking.com, providing all necessary information, including credit card information. Meanwhile the Joali Reservation Team was calling me for 3 weeks almost every night, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT to get the credit card information (it is a 13-hour difference between Maldives and West Cost USA). When I sent them an email saying that they were calling me in the middle of the night, they ignored their misconduct completely and answered: "we will let our Butler Team know, that you prefer email contact". REALLY?! Do you, Joali people think bothering a customer in the middle of the night for 3 weeks is just a matter of contact preferences?! I don't have any contact preferences. Phone is as fine as email! But don't call me almost every night, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!
2. At the arrival, Joali automatically assigns a "Jadugar (butler") for you, and in our case, interacting with our Jadugar ruined the whole stay. He was so fake, insincere and pretended that it felt really weird and uncomfortable to talk to him!
3. The hotel cut our stay short! Prior to our arrival, Joali confirmed a departure time abound 2:00 PM.
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