RQ: Conrad Maldives Blocks Awards?

A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a message about apparent award blocking taking place at the Conrad Maldives.

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You can access Conrad Maldives here.

READ MORE: Hilton Honors Rate & Bonus Points Promotions

We were in touch with the Hilton spokesperson regarding the situation earlier in the week but haven’t received a reply/comment about the issue.

Here are messages from the reader:

Question about booking Conrad Maldives during Christmas. I noticed all rooms sold out from 20-30 December but called reservations at hotel and they have availability but cannot book points. Is this hotel known for holding rooms so you cannot use points?

They have standard beach villa but will not let me book via Hilton.com only through their reservations which they say cannot use points. Called Hilton diamond representative and they said wait to see if they release. Just checking to see if this was something you have seen in the past. I have the St Regis booked with points but prefer Conrad. Thanks

Yes available, they sent me a quote for standard villa which I booked last year with points 95,000 per night

Quote from the hotel:

Yes. That is $23K for 7 nights in a Beach Villa for a stay in late December.

Conrad Maldives Standard Rooms are Beach Villas:

The “standard” room at the Conrad Maldives is Beach Villa that goes for 95,000 points per night regardless of the underlying price. The Beach Villa with a Pool that is a Premium room is a bit higher cash-wise but more than triple the number of points.

Availability December 201 – January 2022

There is no availability from December 21, 2021, until January 6, 2022. The hotel has blocked both paid and awards for those dates.

They may have instituted a minimum stay requirement that prevents the calendar from showing the number of points required for each night.

Conclusion

Something is going on over there. I believe the hotel tries to ensure that there are no award redemptions on those high occupancy dates and/or they prefer selling the inventory directly to existing guests or through dedicated agents.

They should, however, make unsold Beach Villas available for award redemptions, or they are not playing by the rules set by Hilton.

I stayed at this property once back in 2008 (how time flies!), and it was my first stay in the country. I was not too impressed with it back then, but many things may have changed over the past 13 years.