Mercure Maldives Kooddoo Resort

Our stay at Mercure Maldives Kooddoo Resort was an absolutely amazing and relaxing experience. The resort, hospitality, and attention to detail made our Maldives trip truly special.

A very special thanks to Anastasia Shumakova, our host, and her entire team for going above and beyond to make our stay so comfortable and memorable. They paid attention to every little detail and were always there to make sure we had a wonderful experience.

Whether it was the day plan, breakfast, lunch, dinner, or the activities, Anastasia and her team put in so much effort to make everything enjoyable and seamless. Their warm hospitality genuinely made a difference to our stay.

We would definitely recommend Mercure Maldives Kooddoo to our friends and family, and we would absolutely love to stay here again if we visit the Maldives in the future. Truly a wonderful experience!

We came to this hotel to celebrate our wedding anniversary and were hoping for a relaxing and romantic getaway in the Maldives.

We were not expecting a luxury experience. This is a four-star hotel, and we understand that it is not a five-star or ultra-luxury property.

But there is a difference between not being luxurious and providing poor service, poor communication and poor problem resolution.

Unfortunately, our three-night stay turned into one problem after another. By the time we left, we were honestly more exhausted than relaxed.

More upselling than hospitality

Our host was Ilsa. Before arriving, I specifically told her that we were celebrating our wedding anniversary and asked if the hotel could arrange any small surprise or romantic touch.

Unfortunately, the first “surprise” we received was a sales pitch.

Spa treatments, photography, room upgrades, private dinners, paid activities—you name it. The upselling was relentless. We heard the word “chargeable” so many times that it became almost comical.

We understand that hotels offer additional paid experiences. That’s completely normal.

But when almost every interaction turns into another sales opportunity, it starts to feel less like hospitality and more like being treated as a source of revenue.

The buggy service was shockingly unreliable

One morning, it was raining heavily. We needed to get to the restaurant and then to the spa, so timing was important.

We called for a buggy and were told it would arrive in 10 minutes.

Thirty minutes later, it finally arrived.

When the buggy arrived, Ilsa stayed inside rather than helping us with our umbrellas. She took a towel and wiped her own seat first, while our seats were completely soaked.

I asked if she could wipe our seats as well.

Her response was essentially: “It will rain again anyway, so there’s no point.”

So I took the towel and did it myself.

Once we were inside, she insisted that we close our umbrellas. I explained that the buggy was open on all sides and that I didn’t want our umbrellas damaged by the rain.

She clearly wasn’t pleased. She then drove aggressively through the rain, leaving us soaked.

Apparently, wet guests were acceptable, but wet umbrellas were not.

We actually missed our diving departure because of the buggy

Another day, we had a dive boat leaving at 2:00 PM.

I called for a buggy at 1:35 PM and was told it would arrive within 5–7 minutes.

It arrived at 2:05 PM.

The dive boat had to wait for us, and the entire group was left waiting because of the hotel’s transportation service.

This is not about expecting five-star service. Hotel should simply be able to get its guests to the scheduled activities on time.

The Italian restaurant situation made no sense

On our first day, Ilsa took us to the Italian restaurant and told us that reservations were required.

We immediately tried to book. The restaurant was full that evening, which was understandable.

But after checking, we were also told that the following day was fully booked and that the only available table was on our third night.

We were only staying for three nights.

So apparently, we were supposed to wait until our final night to eat there.

We asked our host to check again several times. Eventually, Ilsa told us that the only available time was 8:45 PM.

We declined because Italian dining at that hour would mean finishing very late.

Then we were told something even stranger: availability for the following day would only be known the following afternoon.

After repeatedly asking them to find a solution, we eventually got a 7:00 PM table.

When we arrived the next day, however, we found that a huge number of tables were completely empty.

We later heard that restaurant reservations were prioritized for guests purchasing paid activities or services that generated commission for the hosts.

If that’s actually the system, it is extremely disappointing.

The insect problem was unacceptable

Our first impression of the room was not exactly great.

There were ants on the bed and beetles on the curtains.

We contacted the staff and asked them to come and inspect the room. They then arranged for the pest control team to treat it.

The chemical smell was extremely strong and lingered for around three hours.

And the next morning?

There were still insects in the room.

Later, I developed an itchy rash on my back. My husband, sleeping in the same room, had no reaction.

When I reported this, Ilsa told me that it was probably my own allergy.

We were told that we could visit the partner hospital, but that we would have to pay ourselves and claim through our insurance after returning home.

Then manager, Luis, told us that the dermatology consultation would actually be complimentary.

Two hosts. Two completely different answers.

Not exactly reassuring when you’re dealing with a health issue during your holiday.

When Ilsa later asked about our stay, I mentioned the skin problem.

Her response?

“There are no insects in the water villas.”

That left me wondering: If I hadn’t booked a water villa, would I simply have been expected to live with the insects until check-out?

We moved to a water villa—and then the air conditioning failed

Eventually, we were moved to a water villa.

Unfortunately, the air conditioning didn’t work properly.

The remote control wasn’t functioning, the temperature couldn’t be adjusted, and the room became unbearably hot. We were sweating inside the room.

We called maintenance and waited around 30 minutes before someone came.

Once again, part of our holiday was spent waiting for someone to fix a problem in the room.

The hotel eventually moved us to a sunset water villa as compensation.

It sounded like a nice gesture—until we discovered that the new room had gaps that allowed the wind to come through.

At night, the wind was so loud that lying in bed felt like sleeping in a cave.

Not exactly the relaxing anniversary experience we had hoped for.

Check-out: suddenly the buggy service was extremely punctual

Our flight wasn’t until after 6 PM, but we were told that we had to leave the room by 12 PM.

There was no meaningful late check-out option.

Even though we are Accor Gold members, we were told that because the room had been booked through Booking.com, late check-out was not available.

If we wanted to keep the room, it would cost USD 100.

What really amused us was the buggy timing.

During the stay, waiting 30 minutes or more for a buggy was apparently normal.

But on our final day, at 11:50 AM, the buggy was waiting outside our room precisely on time.

When it comes to getting guests out, suddenly the transportation system works perfectly.

We only discovered the Chinese-speaking hosts at the very end

One of the most frustrating things was discovering, almost at the end of our stay, that the hotel actually has Chinese-speaking hosts.

Yet we were never offered one.

We speak some English, so we were able to communicate. But I can only imagine how difficult this would be for Chinese guests who don’t speak English well.

If something goes wrong, having no obvious way to communicate your concerns is a serious problem.

The constant sales pressure ruined the experience

The upselling never really stopped.

Private dinners, spa treatments, photography, room upgrades, activities—there was always something else being offered for an additional charge.

Even restaurant staff were promoting paid services.

There is a big difference between making guests aware of available experiences and making them feel like every interaction is an opportunity to sell something.

This hotel crossed that line for us.

The biggest problem: we couldn’t even reach the GM

After all these issues accumulated, I wanted to speak directly with the General Manager and give proper feedback.

Instead, our requests to speak with the GM were effectively blocked twice by Ilsa.

We were unable to properly escalate our concerns until the last day of our stay, when we finally met the General Manager and explained everything.

We stayed for just three nights.

And somehow, in those three nights, we experienced problems with transportation, restaurant reservations, insects, air conditioning, communication, customer service and constant upselling.

That’s quite an achievement.

We came to the Maldives for a romantic anniversary getaway.

We didn’t expect five-star service. We didn’t expect perfection.

But we did expect basic four-star standards: clean rooms, functioning facilities, reliable transportation, clear communication and reasonable customer service.

Instead, we spent far too much of our holiday dealing with problems that should never have become our problems in the first place.

A beautiful location cannot make up for poor service and poor problem handling.

Beautiful destination, but based on our experience, I would strongly recommend thinking twice before booking this hotel.

Our Sunset Over Water Villa was spacious and well appointed. Staff were amazing with nothing too much trouble. From the moment we arrived Shubham kept in contact via WhatsApp, even on his days off! He sorted all our bookings for activities and the restaurant and kept us updated on what was coming up. Ida and Vineeth from the Spa were amazing. So many complimentary activities which was a great way to just try things like Sound Wellness. Food was excellent with a good variation each day for meals and the theme dinners allowed you to taste different foods if you wanted. The Vista restaurant was great and had the best gnocchi ever - melt in the mouth literally! Being able to swim and snorkel from the villa was a real treat and the variety of fish seen was brilliant.
No complaints about housekeeping either. Unobtrusive and efficient as well as ready to help out by putting the beach umbrella on deck up and down each day. Honestly the photos you see are exactly what you get. Pristine blue water, white sand - just a piece of paradise. The direct charter flight was a bonus, with early check in and late check out a real plus, although be aware that the all inclusive package doesn't include those periods so ensure you have extra funds. Really appreciated the adults only and all inclusive deal. Do yourself a favour and book a trip .