Best of the Maldives: Most Experienced Group GM – Patrick de Staercke

\ Leave a Comment \ by

Patrick de Staercke

Patrick de Staercke’s Maldives general management goes back nearly as far as Maldives Complete (2010). Lori and I might have stayed at more resorts than anyone, but he has managed more than anyone – 4 (Vilamendhoo, Komandoo, Hurawalhi, Kuredu). We first met Patrick in the earlier days of Maldives complete (see photo below) when Maldives Complete was just getting going, hardly anyone had heard of a blog and “social media” was still in the early adopter stage. He was one of the GMs who appreciated the site’s comprehensiveness and welcomed us very warmly. Over dinner, we mused about all sorts of possibilities for guest offerings and resort enhancements. Many managers in the hospitality industry tend to hop around globe in their career, but Patrick has made the Maldives a second home with an unmatched tenure. We always catch up briefly at the World Travel Market trade event in London, but it is great that he has provided a Maldives exclusive interview to provide a snapshot of his professional life in paradise…

  • What was your first ever job?
    Working in my student bar at colleague I was 16 years old in Seaford Colleague Sussex England. We were paid in beer just great.
  • What was your first job in hospitality?
    When I was 18 I had a job in Lausanne as waiter and pot was for 6 months and loved it.
  • What has been your favourite sighting on a house reef?
    I love octopus so cool how they change color .
  • What has been an idea (eg new dish, a new activity, a new offer) that completely failed?
    Remote control boats do not do well in sea water who knew?
  • What tropical or Maldivian treat are you most addicted to?
    Sipping cocktails in the sun and sending pictures pretending that this is what a GM does every day.
  • What treat from home do you most miss having easy access to?
    My wife and child.
  • What are your favourite parts about opening a new resort versus taking on an established one (and what is your favourite part about taking on an established one)?
    The favorite part is the end and the product you have produced gets the feedback we are getting now is just a wow. All that hard work sweat, team work, is paid off when the guests are blown away from the resort but also the service. Job well done.
  • If you had $1 million to add one single feature to Kuredu, what would it be?
    I would have to invest in two areas as they are just as important upgrading guest rooms but also staff rooms as they are the reason to a resorts success.
  • What’s one question I didn’t ask that you either wish I asked or were surprised that I didn’t ask (and what the answer)?
    ‘Do you have what it takes to make a difference?’ My proven track records show I will make a difference in enhancing both customer satisfaction and bottom line figures. What’s the secret to my success? Well that’s why I am so valued at CCR and have to keep that a secret?

Patrick de Staercke 2

Posted in: Best of the Maldives \ Tagged: , , , ,

Best of the Maldives: Coconut Waffles – Vilamendhoo

\ 2 Comments \ by

Vilamendhoo coconut waffles

Waffle, waffle, waffle! There’s a day for everything, it seems, and today happens to be Waffle Day (a Swedish tradition).

I always wonder why more resorts don’t add a touch of the exotic to ordinary dishes. Which is why when I like to fuss over the exotic soupcon added to the soup, or the delicate tropical ingredient added to the delicacy.

One example is Vilamendhoo’s coconut waffles. All resorts have a breakfast buffet and most serve have a pancake and waffle station. Just a touch of coconut turned Vila’s from an ordinary offering to an extraordinary extra.

Läcker!

Posted in: Best of the Maldives \ Tagged: , , , ,

Best of the Maldives: Climbing Trees– Vilamendhoo

\ 2 Comments \ by

Vilamendhoo climbing tree

For a more natural hang-out over water, take stroll down “Climbing Tree Alley” at Vilamendhoo. The nearly horizontal palm trees are nearly as iconic a shot of paradise as the sunsets and the turquoise lagoons. The palms start to grow this way by the water’s edge when erosion undermines the stability of their root system and on the water’s side and the start to gently tilt and eventually grow in that direction. You will find such orthogonal specimens across the Maldives, but Vilamendhoo has a particularly extended stretch of them along the northeast side which they have named after many people’s favourite activity on these arboreal jungle gyms.

Vilamendhoo climbing tree 2

Posted in: Best of the Maldives \ Tagged: , , , ,

Best of the Maldives: Chinese Fondue – Vilamendhoo

\ Leave a Comment \ by

Vilamendhoo chinese fondue 2

Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese cuisine is right up there with Maldivian and Indian curries as a common cuilinary feature of Maldive restaurants. In fact, it’s hard to go anywhere in the world without a Chinese dining establishment. I’ve eaten in many and I’ve not yet come across a specialty featured at Vilamendhoo of a ‘Chinese Fondue’…

“Seafood, beef, chicken and vegetables which you will cook in a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of your table. Truly delicious! Choice of chicken, vegetable, tom yam or miso soup. $40.00 Per person.”

Chinese expression for ‘bon appetit’ is ??? (mànmàn ch?!) which translates as ‘eat slowly’ which is easy to do with a relaxed fondue preparing each item individually.

Posted in: Best of the Maldives \ Tagged: , , , ,

Best of the Maldives: Eco-Penalty – Vilamendhoo

\ 2 Comments \ by

Walking on Coral Prohibited

This distinction could be a ‘Least of the Maldives’…’Least Tolerant of Eco-Abuse’. From making the most of broken coral (nature breaks enough with storms and other normal underwater goings on, thank you) to and island that is looking to make the very least broken coral…at least at the hands of (or more typically, at the feet of) unthinking guests.

Vilamendhoo has instigated a $500 fine for touching a whale shark or standing on coral. It is not just faux bravado either as the resort has $1,500 collected so far from infringing guests. The funds collected are used for reef preservation investments.

If I ever do a ‘Maldives Monopoly’ game, then one Community Chest card would have to be ’Step on coral…pay $500’.

people walking on coral

Posted in: Best of the Maldives \ Tagged: , , ,

Best of the Maldives: Value Cooking Class – Vilamendhoo

\ 2 Comments \ by

Vilamendhoo cooking class

It’s the optional extras that get you.

Just when we think we have gotten a great deal just within our budget, we come back a bit over-extended from all of the irresistible extras from souvenirs, diving, drinks and excursions. Special activities and special meals always seem to be a particular weakness for us and tote up some extra charges. But at Vilamendhoo, you can do both a superb activity and get a great meal all for $25! It is their Maldivian cooking class. You will work with one of their Maldivian chefs learning some of their traditional recipes as well as try your hand at preparing them for yourself.

Mastercard-friendly Master Chef!

Vilamendhoo chinese fondue

Posted in: Best of the Maldives \ Tagged: , , , , , ,

Best of the Maldives: Side Mount Diving – Vilamendhoo

\ 1 Comment \ by

Vilamendhoo side mount tank

“Bruce, you might want to try this.” That’s how Lori greeted me when I met up with her after her dive at Vilamendhoo after seeing side mount diving for the first time.

Side mount diving has a number of advantages for certain situations. It is very popular with cave divers for whom the tank can get in the way of narrow passages. But also, the configuration more easily allows for double tanking for people who want very long dives. It can also be advantageous for divers with back problems especially maneuvering out of water.

The configuration requires special skills training both in the equipment and in diving itself. My wife Lori went on a dive with the Euro Divers dive master Hussein Ali who is a certified instructor in side mount. He teaches the PADI course offered there ($229 for course and $80 for certification) and the resort offers the equipment for guests interested in this unconventional approach

Tanks a lot!

Vilamendhoo side tank diving

Posted in: Best of the Maldives \ Tagged: , , ,

Maldives Tour 2012 – Day 5: Vilamendhoo

\ Leave a Comment \ by

Vilamendhoo tour

Best in class.

Any fighter (weight class), racing driver (engine class) or school athlete (age class) will tell you that the key is being best in class. Vilamendhoo makes a serious bid for the best 4 star in the Maldives. Leading contenders before for me were Kuramathi and Komandoo, but both of those have joined the inexorably rising premium tide and have re-positioned themselves in the increasingly crowded 5-star category. Despite a sparkling, top-to-bottom revamp, ‘Vila’ has stuck to its 4-star designation.  The value extends beyond the room prices as all of the resort prices are reasonable. For example, their lobster dinner on the beach is only $60 (£37).

While Vilamendhoo has joined the herd stampeding to ever higher standards in the Maldives, it has broken away from the pack, part of a rare breed of superb 4-star properties there. The 4-star move is a smart one for customer delight. Rather than be yet another 5-star, it stands out as a 4-star. The key to customer satisfaction is exceeding expectations. And anyone coming to Vila expecting a 4-star resort is going to have their expectations exceeded. Everything is at least 4-star quality or better. And they have splurged on some typically 5-star touches like drench showers and an overwater spa. Lori and I have stayed in the poshest of posh hotels and are pretty fussy with our dining and sleeping, and we would be very comfortable and happy spending a long visit at Vila.  I identified a further 6 Best of the Maldives candidates during our stay to be posted over the next few months.

Quality and value aren’t the only areas where Vila straddles having your cake and eating it. It also deftly hedges the raging ‘children’ debate (some love Maldives as a great destination for the family, while others prize the tranquillity that they fear children disrupt) by offering two areas – one welcoming children and the other exclusive to adults only. This solution is as effective as it is diplomatic. Visiting both pools, both bars, and both restaurants, they did each have a different vibe. And that is great…different strokes for different folks.

The thing that you have to keep in mind about the Maldives (and this is the root cause some perceived ratings inflation) is that the destination itself is a 6-star destination. You could put a cardboard box on the beach and it would still be close to a 5-star experience compared to many places in the world. In this context, Vila is a bit like Hagen Daz vanilla ice cream. It’s not particularly fancy with all sorts of elaborate gourmet mix-ins. Just sumptuous, delicious ice cream. Again, the Maldives – the waters, the reefs, the sunset, the palm trees – are like the best pie you have ever eaten. The resort is just the scoop of ice cream on top. And Vilamendhoo is a simply superb complement to such a tasty dish of paradise.

Post Script – The little tan blob in the right hand corner of the picture above (for the eagle eyed) was a sting ray passing by during our photo. Below Lori says a closer hello.

Vlamendhoo sting ray

Posted in: Tour \ Tagged: ,

Best of Maldives Online – TA Resort Popularity: Vilamendhoo

\ 3 Comments \ by

Having been an active TA Maldives Forum participant (“Maldives Complete”) for a while now, I’ve noticed that one does see the same sort of things come around as regularly as sting rays at feeding time.  Discussions mosquitos, weather, snorkelling, children, snorkelling children, whale sharks. Many of these have been helpfully turned into FAQs by the Destination Experts (DEs). Obviously, one that comes around very regularly (about one out of every ten posts I discovered) is the question “Which resort?”.  With over a hundred resorts to choose from and a few dozen more in the works, we can all appreciate the dilemma.

But for all of the extensive choice, I found it curious that some resorts seemed to dominate the Forum while other great ones were virtually non-existent.  I wondered whether it was just my perception so I did a little test.  I pulled the Maldives Forum posts for the past six months (August through January) and simply logged any resorts mentioned in the post title.  Not extremely scientific as an indicator, but easy, effective and objective. 

Vilamendhoo came out the most popular resort enquired about. But just only as they pipped Reethi Beach 49 mentions to 48 over the last 6 months. Rounding out the top 5 were Kuramathi (40 mentions), Lily Beach (38), and Biyadhoo (37). The lions share are shown above which you can click on to see in a clearer, larger version.

I was also intrigued by the quite prominent resorts that have never come up on the forum at least as an explicit post. Many were Italian oriented resorts more like to go to an Italian language site – Alimatha, Dhiggiri, Gangehi, Kihaadhuffaru, Madoogali.  Other were pretty exclusive so that the butlers probably book the travel – Banyan Tree Madivaru, Dhoni Island, Nika, The Rania Experience. There was clearly an bias towards the lower priced resorts in terms of mentions.  Admittedly, while there are typically fewer rooms/guest on the more expensive/exclusive islands, the modest difference in bed number was not enough to explain the quite extreme difference in post numbers. 

Trip Advisor Maldives Forum

Posted in: Best of the Maldives \ Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Best of the Maldives: Closest House Reef – Vilamendhoo

\ 8 Comments \ by

Vilamendhoo Reef

(Vilamendhoo Reef photo by Atoll Photography)

I have written on the ‘best’ house reef and the ‘deepest drop off’ house reef’, but one of the most prominent questions about house reefs is which is the ‘closest’. Given the Maldives atoll topology, often the land bit of the island can be surrounded by a quite considerable about of lagoon, which is very shallow waters, before the island structure itself drops off more precipitously into the deeper surrounding ocean. It is this drop off which is most dramatic as lots of marine life cluster and settle on this vertical structure and the larger expanse of water makes room for bigger fish and bigger schools of fish.

The problem can be that when you have a far away house reef, one can spend a good 15 minutes of boring swimming/snorkelling over an expanse of white sand shallow lagoon before reaching the house reef main event. The real snorkelling luxury is the close by drop off. In forums and reviews, people often talk about ‘close house reef’. That refers to the fact that the ‘drop off’ hits pretty close to the beach.

I asked the experts, the Forum contributors to TripAdvisor’s Maldives Forum, which resort had the closest. It’s a bit tricky because the reef can be very close at some parts of the island and then very far away in others. I had enjoyed Filitheyo’s close house reef about 50 meters away, but Forum folks came back with 20m, 10m, 5m and ultimately 3m from the beach. In fact, several resorts were noted that came within ‘3 metres’ of shore…

I have chosen Vilamendhoo because based on looking at all the resorts, Vilamendhoo appears to have the longest stretch of shore where the drop off is that close.

Posted in: Best of the Maldives \ Tagged: , , ,