Review of W Maldives 5*

I choose to stay at the W Maldives because it is ranked one of the top SPG properties in the world and is the hotel you see all over the SPG flyers. However, after spending a week at W Maldives I was completely disappointed with my stay. The hotel needs a lot of work to meet top notch hotels in the Maldives. I would not recommend it to anyone who asked where to stay in the Maldives. It started off badly when we arrive for our seaplane from Mali to the island, we were told the seaplane which we booked in advance wouldn't be able to bring my luggage with us and it would have to come on the next flight. I wasn't just angry I was at a whole other level, I wanted to get to my room put on my bikini and sunscreen and lay by the water but no I would have to wait 4 hours for my luggage. They apologized for the inconvenience and I asked since I would have to wait could we be offered lunch at a restaurant while we wait. Oh no no they couldn't do such a thing, it wasn't there fault our luggage couldn't fly with us. I am SPG Platinum, 75+ nights a year and they completely dismissed that and didn't care. I love W Hotels don't get me wrong, I have been to W Bali (LOVE LOVE LOVE) W Hong Kong, W Londo, W Verbier, W Guanzho, W Amsterdam… but this one, which is supposed to be one of their best, I was completely disappointed. One thing which I was very frustrated by was when I went to the sunset bar to have overly priced drinks that don't look anything like what you see on Instagram, the staff who weren't working were playing in the water in front of us. I understand they live on the island, and they have off hours but other hotels like the Park Hyatt Maldives allow their staff to play in the water early morning as to not affect the guest. I couldn't get over this because I wanted to take gorgeous sunset pictures like most other guests at the bar and had the staff playing football in the water in front of me. I went to the Gym one morning, as I try to stay in shape on vacation, get this the staff has the right to use the gym. So mid morning when I went to workout, the staff was using the machines so I couldn't use them. What hotel have you been to that allows the staff to use the same areas as the guest to work out, who are spending thousands to be there? The breakfast was ok but really nothing special. If you have ever been to W Bali this hotel doesn't even come close in terms of a breakfast layout. W Bali is the best of the best, service is top notch, food is out of this world. W Maldives fell short on everything, services was none existent and it bothered me how they never picked up dishes or checked if you needed coffee, we would have to wave them down staff member should we need anything or just do it ourselves as they stood around and chatted. I will say when we arrived the chef was brand new and had just arrived that day, he spoke with us on numerous occasions about changes he was making so it may be different now. Another dangerous and major issue is the staff driving the carts, they have NO consideration for the guest. I understand they use the carts to deliver food to the rooms, drive guest to their room or change laundry in the room, but they have no consideration for guest walking on the walk way. I was almost thrown into the water by the cart zooming by. Staff really needs to be trained. Also, we put our dishes outside after dinner and they stayed outside for 2 full days until we brought it to someones attention. Unlike other Maldives hotels like the Park Hyatt or Sheraton, the W Maldives really needs to up its standards.