Pullman Maldives Maamutaa - Nov 20

An amazing resort.

We spent 8 nights here in February 2023 and enjoyed it enormously from beginning to end. Maamutaa Island is beautiful; it is terrific that the Pullman is the only development on the island, and can thus be solely responsible for its upkeep; and the buildings have been well planned and thoughtfully integrated into the environment. It is also well laid out and easy to navigate your way around. Getting there from our home in NE Thailand was a bit of a trek — flight to Bangkok, overnight airport hotel, flight to Male, flight to Kooddoo, motorboat to Maamutaa. But it all worked fine, and we didn’t have to wait long for the Maldivian connection to fly south. [Warning: the Male domestic departure gate can be a bit of a zoo. But it appears there is a massive new airport build under way]. We had pre-booked and paid for Ooredoo SIM cards which we picked up as soon as we landed and which offer great data connections both in Male and on the island of Maamutaa. Our homeward journey was also okay — we had to overnight in Male and requested an afternoon flight from Kooddoo, which we were given (at 4:15pm). Our over water Ocean Pool Villa (we were upgraded to a sunset view villa — a pleasant surprise) was superb. Well laid out, plenty of outdoor living and deck space with relaxed covered seating and sun-loungers. The bathroom is worth a mention: spacious, and wonderfully functional with both outdoor and indoor showers. An absolute delight. As part of the all-inclusive package, the room bar and snacks are replenished twice a day. There’s a Nespresso machine too, knowing which in advance, we packed our own favourite capsule flavours. The food was exceptional, especially given it is all-inclusive. The breakfast at Melange is world class — frankly quite comparable to much bigger five-star hotels in Bangkok or Singapore. And the buffet lunch and dinner spreads here are excellent too, particularly the Asian and middle-eastern cuisine of which there is always a great choice. We largely ate at Melange, although we had a couple of pleasant lunches and a dinner at Souk Oven. Here, I do think one should be able to book a table at lunchtime — on both our visits we were unable to get an outside table which we would have much preferred We dined once at Phat Chameleon which was enjoyable too. As for the bars, Saffron is great — especially if there is a good sunset. And it’s a very attractively designed location. Hub, by the pool next to Melange, is also relaxing both lunchtime and evening, although it can feel a little short-staffed at times. The Sol Rising bar at Souk Oven doesn’t really live up to being called a bar — it’s just a few tables outside the restaurant, and I feel it could do with the addition of a bit of atmosphere somehow. The selection of wines included at the bars and restaurants is pretty impressive. Getting around the resort is easy enough. I took lovely early morning walks around the whole island (about 45 minutes) which were great as the walk along the beach on the west side is shaded by the trees before about 8/9am. During the day it’s a bit hot in the sun to walk anywhere unless you are just going for a swim or water sports. But the buggy system works pretty well generally. Bikes are an alternative, but the US$10 a day charge (I can rent a motorbike for less than that in Thailand) seems highly excessive — surely with cheap Chinese bikes like they offer, they could afford enough bikes to let anyone have one for free for their stay? A bit irritating… We were very impressed with the staff attitude and level of training. Pre-stay, the staff were very responsive to emailed questions, with personalised replies rather than just formulaic responses (I asked whether Ooredoo SIMs work okay on the island and got a reply from someone saying they personally used one and they were very happy with reception on Maamutaa). At the resort, it would be hard to fault the staff anywhere at all. Everyone was very customer focussed, friendly, attentive, and participative in ensuring guests were well taken care of. Many staff recalled us by name, and remembered our favourite table or favourite drinks. I’m really bad at remembering names; all the staff were frankly stand-out, and we thank them all for making our Pullman stay such a delight. But I would like to commend Hassan, who I believe told us he is assistant F&B manager: he was visible everywhere throughout our stay — breakfast lunch and dinner at every restaurant and bar; at other locations too he was highly visible, interacting with guests the whole time. Always interesting to talk to about anything at all, and very personable indeed. Kudos to him. Which brings me to my suggestions for improvement. Maybe relatively minor, but what struck me as opportunities to enhance the customer experience:- — Other than Hassan’s constant presence, I was surprised that we were never approached by any other members of the management team during our 8 night stay. We never met the GM of the hotel, or the F&B manager, or the guest relations manager… I would also think that having one or two guest relations staff wandering around at meal times suggesting activities to customers would be a good revenue generator (“Did you know we have a sunset cruise / guided reef tour, etc. today? Would you like me to sign you up for it?”). And maybe a GM’s cocktail party 3 times a week with one-third of the rooms invited each time? A chance to mingle and meet others in the management team as well as other guests. Such things we have experienced at other quality resorts seem lacking here… — On 5-star cruises, a tour around the ship’s operational back office is common. And in a sense Pullman Maamutaa is like a cruise ship. I would love to have been offered a tour around here, showing and explaining how the resort manages water and power supplies, food sourcing and storage, maintenance of the island’s flora and its reefs and local waters, etc., etc. I am sure many of the resort’s upmarket guests would be interested in this sort of thing. We still rate the resort five stars because we had an exceptionally enjoyable stay, the staff were terrific, the food was excellent, and “all-inclusive” here really means just that. I would be happy to return any time.

Cannot rate the accommodation highly enough.

This hotel and location is absolutely spectacular