3 more Maldives overwater villas now bookable with Hilton points & free night certificates

Hilton integrated hundreds more Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) properties today. We covered that here, but there’s a particularly notable development if you’re interested in staying in an overwater villa in the Maldives.

Up until now, there were very few Maldives hotels where you could use points or free night certificates in any hotel loyalty program to book straight in to an overwater villa. A couple where you could do this were Hilton properties – Conrad Maldives Rangali Island and Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi. Well, with the SLH integration there are now five more Maldives properties bookable with Hilton points and, most importantly, three of those let you book straight into an overwater villa using points or free night certificates.

The five new Maldives properties that are part of SLH are:

• Velassaru Maldives
• Baros Maldives
• Huvafen Fushi Maldives
• Amilla Maldives
• Milaidhoo Maldives

It’s those latter three hotels that have overwater villas available for award bookings. When initially searching, I wasn’t seeing any availability on desktop, but Nick noticed availability when using the Hilton app. I subsequently saw availability on desktop too, but if you’re seeing nothing on desktop, try checking the app and vice versa.

Huvafen Fushi Maldives

Huvafen Fushi Maldives has the Lagoon Bungalow with Pool bookable for 150,000 points per night. Room rates are $1,250+ depending on dates, so that means you’d be getting great value for your points, especially if you can take advantage of the 5th night free benefit.

Amilla Maldives

Next up is Amilla Maldives. This property actually has two types of overwater villas bookable with points and free night certs which hopefully bodes well for finding award availability. Both the Sunset Water Pool Villa and Lagoon Water Pool Villa room types can be booked with 120,000 points per night versus a cash price of ~$1,000 per night.

Milaidhoo Maldives

Last, but not least, we have Milaidhoo Maldives. Their Water Pool Villa room type can be booked with free night certificates or 130,000 points per night. Cash prices on the dates I looked were more than $1,800, so that represents excellent value from a cpp (cents per point) perspective.

How To Get To These Properties

Something to bear in mind is that even if you can book a Maldives overwater villa with free night certs or points, you’ll still have other costs. One of the most significant costs will be getting there in the first place. In addition to flights to Malé, you’ll have to take a flight or boat to the hotel you book.

Huvafen Maldives

• Shared speedboat – $300 per adult round trip
• Private speedboat – $750 each way (up to 6 passengers per boat, per way)
• Private luxury speedboat – $3,000 per way (up to 6 passengers per boat, per way)

These prices are subject to change, so check the latest pricing here.

Amilla Maldives

• Shared seaplane – $800 per adult round trip and $400 per child round trip
• Domestic flight (Malé to Dharavandhoo Airport) + 10 minute speedboat ride – Price unknown

These prices are subject to change, so check the latest pricing here.

Milaidhoo Maldives

• Shared seaplane – Price unknown
• Domestic flight (Malé to Dharavandhoo Airport) + 15 minute speedboat ride – Price unknown

This hotel’s own website provides flight information here, but doesn’t specify pricing.

Breakfast

You’re a captive audience at these properties, so you can’t just walk down the road to a local eatery for a meal. That can make dining costs a significant expense during your stay, but thankfully Hilton status can help reduce those costs. That’s because if you have Gold or Diamond status you’ll get complimentary continental breakfast.

Question

Have you ever stayed at any of these properties? If so, what was your experience like? Let us know in the comments below.

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