Guest reviews on Google
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Natalie Atemasova
2 months ago
It was a great vacation. The staff is helpful, pleasant, and friendly and truly wants to make your stay better. The house reef is gorgeous. Absolutely fantastic. They provide free snorkeling gear. The water villa is wonderful. Cleaning is twice a day. The food is delicious and varied. Highly recommended!
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Skhulile “S-kay” Mdaka
2 months ago
Me and my wife had chosen Maldives for our honeymoon and specifically Sandies Bathala. I can confidently say we don't regret making that decision.
One word: Hospitality! If there's one thing I always truly felt is how hospitable the staff were and it's across all services, whether we are talking about the restaurant, the bar, reception etc. They all were so hospitable.
I wanted to make special mentions to a few staff members:
* Mirsaid - My fellow Man Utd fan, from the time we stepped into the resort to the last day, he really showed genuine care and hospitality. On our first day we mentioned that it was our honeymoon and that though we had booked 3 days on the beach bungalows and 2 on the water villa. He and his manager were so kind enough to allow us to increase the number of days in the water villa - this all free and it just set the tone for our stay. Thanks once again, besides that after the only unfortunate experience both him and the manager were kind enough to acknowledge the shortcomings and try to correct for the unfortunate experience. That only talks to being concerned about your customers - Well Done.
* Alice - Wow, me and my wife had never done snorkeling. I could swim but my wife couldn't at all. We booked for the private snorkeling and some swimming lessons. Alice was so kind and patient with us, teaching us at a good pace and more than anything ensuring that we are confident with snorkeling. She really made the snorkeling lesson to be one of our best experiences in the Maldives. She was even kind to take us some underwater pictures and videos - footage that now will stay strong in our memory of the Maldives. Well Done Alice! It was this experience that actually allowed me to gain confidence to try suba diving (more on this below).
* Shebe (hopefully this is the right spelling) and Sebastian - both from the dive centre. They both so welcoming for a first time scuba diving session for me. Specifically Shebe even went ahead to teach me even more about suba diving including some high level knowledge about the local islands in the Maldives. Shebe even managed to take some awesome footage of me scuba diving, memories that will forever stay awesome in my mind and when I think of the Maldives. Well done Shebe and Sebastian.
I had some other awesome experience such as the Marine Biology lesson by Matteo and Alice, the hospitable manner of Ibrahim in the restaurant, the hospitable serving by Didi during out time in the water villa. Helal and the other guys at the Island Bar, always serving us with a smile! The chefs, I just forgot their names, but the way they always served with a smile was awesome. Divi and R (forgot her name) from the Spa, thanks for the awesome service and great massage! David from reception too, from taking our feedback and also for the send off when we were going back home.
All in all, thanks for the awesome experience to the Sandies Bathala staff! Well done!
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Daisy Mabuya
3 months ago
We went there for an anniversary trip and my fiancé had purchased me a new ring. The hotel didn't do anything to make it special, even though their website is littered with 'romanatic' room set ups.
There was no room service, even at the water villas which were far from the main restaurant and bar. The bar closed at 22:00 and we couldn't drink at the pool.
The excursions were amazing, the on-site seamstress made really great garments for us and the people we met made the stay awesome but I wouldn't go back to Sandies.
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Whale sharks excursion
We went to the water sports to ask about whale shark excursion. We talked to Sabrina — tour guide and asked if the chances are good to see a whale shark (whale excursion was 170$ per person, mantas was 75$ per person). She said “chances are very good”, we still asked what if won’t see it, the response was “it happens rarely”, but if so they would take us to see mantas or turtles. We had to wait until 12 people wanted to go too. When we reached the place, guides couldn’t spot it, so they took us to mantas, we swam for 15 minutes only. All the process lasted 5 hours to only swim 15 minutes with mantas and money was wasted. We told Sabrina directly that we are not satisfied, she advised us to talk to the reception. Mirsaid (receptionist) shared this information with manager, we met him and explained that as we saw mantas only it would be fair to pay for mantas, and waive the rest of the amount. As they breached our privacy earlier, I consider it would be fair enough to accommodate us. Manager said that the boat they used was a 3rd party’s boat and they spent money on that, so they cannot waive that amount. I don’t understand how the information about the 3rd party is related to our case, but he just kept on saying “we are sorry for privacy breaching, but we cannot waive the charges as we used 3rd party’s boat”. It shows management’s attitude towards the guests, “sorry” is just a regular word for them.
The best they could do for their visitors is to improve the excursions’ rules. We understand that there is no 100% guarantee that you will see the animals you booked the excursion for. Nevertheless, considering the significant cost, it may be worth offering a partial refund or trying to give the guest another try!!!
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Elena Martellucci
a month ago
Amazing experience here.
The island is small , there is only the resort and it was perfect to me.
Food amazing, room very good and the staff is kind.
I will be back for sure!