New Hilton Maldives property opening 7/1, awards wide open

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Thrifty Traveler flags the fact that there is a brand new Hilton property opening in the Maldives on July 1st, 2022 and awards are wide open, with nearly every day on the calendar available for an award stay between now and December 20th and then again most days from January 20, 2023 through the end of April are also available as standard award nights. This could be a great opportunity to get excellent value out of free night certificates.

an aerial view of islands in the ocean

The Deal

  • The Hilton Maldives Amingiri Resort & Spa is opening July 1, 2022 and award nights are wide open.  At 110K Hilton Honors points per night for a standard room award, the property isn’t cheap, but this could be a great use of Hilton’s 5th night free or free night certificates earned from the Hilton credit cards.

Quick Thoughts

The Hilton Maldives Amingiri Resort & Spa isn’t open yet, so all we know of how it will look is the renderings. However, those renderings look quite nice. Overwater villas are standard room awards and each room type at this property has a private plunge pool of its own.

a house with a pool and a deck
Rendering from Hiltcon.com

While I’m sure this new property won’t be as luxurious as the Waldorf-Astoria and won’t have an underwater restaurant like the Conrad Maldives, I imagine it is hard to go wrong at a new resort in the Maldives. Indeed, last year Greg and I visited Le Meridien Maldives shortly after it opened and we were blown away (and it’s worth mentioning that I’ve known people who have gone more than once in the time since it opened and who love it as much as we did). Room rates at Le Meridien are typically cheaper than they are set to be at this new Hilton property and base rooms at Le Meridien did not include plunge pools. While I think the level of service at Le Meridien is hard to match, I imagine that this new Hilton property is likely set to be a step up in terms of luxury.

Add on top of that the fact that standard room awards are wide open through the end of the schedule apart from the Christmas / New Year holiday period and a small handful of spring dates and I imagine this will be of interest for many readers. While I’m not surprised that standard room awards are wide open in July when the property first opens, it is a pleasant surprise to see awards so widely available in 2023. It would be pretty easy to snag a 5-night stay next year and get the 5th night free, paying a net of 88,000 points per night.

a calendar with numbers and text

Those award rates certainly aren’t cheap, but given how often Hilton sells points for half a cent each, one could buy the points for a 5 night stay for about $440 per night, which is about half off of the rates they appear to be asking. Those who have Hilton free night certificates, particularly those with certificates that can be used any night of the week, will no doubt be happy to put them to use here.

Speaking of cost, the Hilton Maldives Amingiri Resort & Spa will be accessible via speed boat transfer from the airport. That can be a plus or a minus. On the positive side, it’ll be a little bit cheaper to get to this property at $300 per adult round trip (versus the ~$420 that Greg and I paid for round trip sea plane transfers to Le Meridien). For those who don’t like the idea of a sea plane, the speed boat can be appealing (I read a story on Flyertalk of guests arriving after to a resort after a particularly turbulent flight who was in tears and needed assistance walking; we encountered no notable turbulence on the way to Le Meridien but we did hit some uncomfortable bumps on the way back to the airport). The flip side of course is that proximity to the airport / main city can mean more traffic both overhead and in the nearby seas, which can detract some from the isolated feeling for which the Maldives is so famous.

If you have Hilton points or free night certificates and desire to travel to the Maldives, this certainly seems like it could be an exciting opportunity. I doubt the award availability will stick around in perpetuity, so it likely makes sense to book sooner rather than later if interested. Just be sure to keep an eye on the cancellation policy.

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