Olive — Hotel in Goidhoo

Warning - very long review!!||The people - The best thing about Olive is Jordy - an infinitely patient and empathetic person whose passion is to make your stay memorable. He’s also a one-man army!! A gem of a person, who you can depend on completely if you need help. I certainly did. With unravelling COVID situation around the world, I got stuck due to a cancelled incremental reservation at another place. Jordy ensured I was not stranded. This spirit of helping is commendable and perhaps the best thing about this boutique property.||The room - We got a room large enough for a family of 3 adults not to feel cooped up. This, I believe, is also the best room of Olive. It oversees the private beach and the ocean. The left side oversees the farmland and the forest beyond. There is a small balcony that runs across the two sides of the room and is cozy enough to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee with the breathtaking view of the ocean. Cleanliness at arrival is exceptional. The bed is super comfortable, firm and very big - just the way I like! No TV and no phone (you should not miss this). No refrigerator and no iron in room (you may miss. I missed the iron a lot). Hair dryer could be better - not well suited for length of women's hair. The air conditioner worked very well and it needs to, given the Maldivian weather! The bath area is also extremely clean - a window allows for the bathroom to be refreshed easily. To summarize, room infrastructure is very high quality. Perhaps the closet can have another rack to create a bit more space to keep things over...was challenging for the rather long stay we had.||The service and amenities - Deep cleaning of room happened only once every few days and we had to remind for doing that (so you keep the same towels, bedsheets are not changed and bathroom is not cleaned). Linen is not changed until asked for! Since, we were all adults, it did not cause too much of a bother. You are expected to clean the cups in the room for your stay. These are not refreshed. One litre water per person is in the room and can be refilled at cost to you. Limitless drinking water available during meals (eventually I figured this is a rarity in Maldives). If you use sugar free products carry your own. I had my own Splenda, so didn't have a problem. Also, no toiletries are provided. We had to go buy some!! Fortunately I had carried enough as I use sulphate free products. Not making these things available is fine but the customer needs to know ahead of time, so they come prepared. Since Goidhoo is a small place, the small shop offering products may not have the brands, you normally use. My advice is to take all the stuff that you routinely use with you. Laundry is at cost. Having a laundromat may help long stay people.||The internet - Since, I was not on a holiday it was tough to get my work done on days when it was cloudy. On most days it worked but never seamlessly (I am talking video calls). The hotel wifi did not reach most of the room but I’d been pre-informed that wifi was patchy. So, I was ready for it and bought an Ooredoo travel card which worked ok most days. Maldives can certainly work on its connectivity though. Olive had these cards handy for guests who need them. There are more horror stories of Ooredoo when I tried to renew my data but we'll leave that for now. Suffice to say, I just bought a new travel card.||The food - very average and if you are a foody you will be hugely disappointed. The cook (I can't call him a chef!) is a very warm fellow and a humble person but his repertoire is very limited. There were days I thought I should just get in the kitchen and cook for everyone!! Can certainly be more interesting and varied at the same price point. I would have also preferred more veggies but I can understand that this may be a limitation on an island. The fish served also seemed limited to Tuna and Devilled fish. Anyhow, since I am on one meal a day, it did not matter much. My son though certainly missed having good food. The coffee and tea were pretty good and since I am a very beverage person, it did help a whole lot.||The staff - This is a small and very tight team and everyone I met was humble, kind, and nice. However, Azim (if I get the name right) was a very gruff person and had a passive-aggressive manner. I also noticed that he did not talk properly to elderly people or young. His interactions with them were anything but polite in absence of an authoritative person. He did not appear to be around a whole lot in the second half of my visit. So, hopefully, it is good riddance for Olive which otherwise is a team of wonderful people.||The location - Goidhoo is a farming island with a population of less than 600. The town center has a school and a big football field right next to it. The football field seems unused - would have been great to see a few games here! Goidhoo people appear to be friendly and shy at the same time! They do smile back at you but I don't think they like to make conversation with strangers. The island is powered by solar panels and I loved that it has green power. I only saw a couple of cars that did not seem to be used often. However, tiny electric scooties were very cute and used by locals when they don't want to walk. Cycles are also there. There seem to be a couple of restaurants that we did not try as we were not sure how different would they be from the culinary experience we were already having! There seems to be only one salon (did not use) and a tailor shop (would have loved to use but had nothing to stitch!) As you would have figured this is a small place with few people and that is what I loved about it. When you get to the Hotel/Guest House's private beach usually you are the only person admiring the beauty of everything around you. My favourite time was 5:30 to 7:30 local time (just before and after sunset). I cherished these moments as they let my mind wander and a wandering mind helps me rejuvenate. The colours of the water, the vastness, and the beauty of the place are quite unique. If you are annoyed by seagrass, this is not the place to be because the island has enough and more of it. It did not bother me much.||The activities - Jordy will ensure you are safe while trying out activities that you have never done before. For a person like me who doesn't know how to swim, it was great to do snorkeling (feeling assured that I am not going to die in that water!). Kayaking, fishing, dolphin watching are all things you can do and if strong enough try kitesurfing...the place is awesome for it. ||In summary despite the shortcomings, it is a place that will make a place in your heart. It is a place where you can make memories, a place to rediscover yourself and as Wordsworth says in the Solitary Reaper “the music in my heart I bore, long after it was heard no more”. Au...

NIGHTMARE OF A HOTEL!!!! THE WORST SERVICE OF MY LIFE!

I really don't understand why a hotel with such horrendous service has so many good reviews. It makes me wonder if management was changed recently, because what I read is nothing like what we lived in this hotel. POOR ENGLISH and LACK OF MEMORY AND COMMUNICATION from the manager Ahmed. 95% of the times I felt like he couldn't understand most of the things I said even when I made an excruciating effort to speak very clearly and slowly. He also couldn't express himself clearly. This was massively frustrating and times consuming as you can imagine, and so very hard to get anything done properly. BREAKFAST IS HORRENDOUS! Breakfast options are white bread, unsalted butter and strawberry jam both put on a plate on the counter. Also, some weird dish they make that no one was eating, corn flakes, watermelon juice, coffee and tea. These were the only options. LUNCH AND DINNER MEALS are below average. Not good enough for a hotel. Smoothies were the only good thing. VERY FORGETFUL AND DISTRACTED MANAGER. Numerous times me and my husband felt like this person was extremely forgetful and distracted. Absolutely unacceptable! YOU HAVE TO ORDER FOOD 2 TO 3 HOURS BEFORE MEALTIME, AND OUR MEAL ORDER FOR A 4.5-HOUR PICNIC IN A DESERTED ISLAND WAS FORGOTTEN. I have been to so many hotels around the world and I have never seen this! One day we decided to plan a picnic for the next day at 11am. We paid $100 for a 5-min boat transfer to go and come back, two little boxes of fruit, and a beach parasol. Due to breakfast not being worth waking up for at 7am, we decided not to have breakfast the day of the picnic. Mealtimes window is only of an hour, for example breakfast between 7am and 8am. Hotels are usually 2-3 hours window. Anyway, so after deciding to not eat their breakfast for the obvious reasons, we then decided to ask if we could take to picnic a meal each inside a food container, as well as the fruit. But us not wanting to wake up at 8am just to leave our room (yes, because the room has no telephone) to place a lunch order for the picnic I then asked if I could place our lunch order the night before. Mr. Ahmed said I could which I then did, and so I watched him write down our food order on a notepad there and then. The next day when we came downstairs there was a picnic cooler box already closed waiting for us. So I trusted our food order I'd asked to add to our bill was inside the cooler box, as well as the fruit. When we arrived at the deserted island, we opened the cooler box to find there was only two little boxes of fruit. Taking into account we didn't have breakfast (!) AND we were going to stay in the sandbank (no cafes, no restaurants, nothing) for 4.5 hours. So we had no food but only a few pieces of fruit until about 5pm. That's right!! 5pm!! Because when we arrived at the hotel I asked where was the food which order we placed the night before. Mr. Ahmed insisted I had not placed the order the night before. He not only forgot, but also insinuated I was crazy and a liar. He clearly can't manage a hotel! My husband also said I did place the order and Mr. Ahmed did note it down. So Mr. Ahmed angry without saying another word turned his back on me, abruptly pulled his son by the arm to the exit and apparently told him to call the Chef who was sitting at home. Taking into account Mr. Ahmed never came back to apologise or give us an explanation of what just happened. I didn't understand because he talked in Dhivehi. Only a few minutes after another member of staff informed us the manager's son went to call the Chef. We waited for about 40 minutes for the Chef and nothing, until we gave up on waiting because we were obviously starving and so we decided to go to a local restaurant. Food was much better and so...

AIRCON WASN'T WORKING on the last few days of our stay for some odd reason. NO WIFI IN MY ROOM. I would have to sit outside in the restaurant to get internet. Internet was very, very slow. By the 5th or 6th night WE REFUSED TO EAT AT THE RESTAURANT or purchase anything at all from the hotel due to the treatment we were getting and poor food quality. WE REFUSED TO STAY AT THE HOTEL FOR OUR LAST already paid for 3 NIGHTS... and so did another Scandinavian couple who found the hotel service horrendous too. THERE WERE A COUPLE OF TIMES WE NEEDED ASSISTANCE DURING THE DAY AND THERE WAS NO STAFF IN THE HOTEL. THEY MADE US MAKE THE BILL PAYMENT TWICE! - Since Mr. Ahmed is clueless of what he is doing he doesn't know how to work with the card machine either. This resulted in us wasting 3 hours of our sleep because we had to make numerous calls to owner and my bank the night before we checked out... and also TRYING to communicate with Ahmed which can be very time-consuming due to his English being poor. So the night before the check-out, we made the payment with card. I type the pin, I see "processing...", "accepting..." and "approved" on the card machine screen, but no receipt came out for some odd reason after I pressed "yes" after it asked if I wanted a receipt. Mr. Ahmed and the owner insisted payment didn't go through. I insist payment went through because I knew what I read on the card machine screen. I go to my bank app and I see payment left the account, and so I sent the screenshot to the owner Jordy. Jordy calls his bank and his bank says there's no payment so far. I call my bank and my bank says payment definitely left my account. I call Jordy again and tell him what my bank said. He then still resquested I do a SECOND payment the next morning. We were afraid they'd not let us leave the island if we refused to do a SECOND payment, so we comply trusting a refund would be made once these people realise first payment did go through. 3 days later I call Jordy, the owner, to find out if he already received the first payment. Between 3 to 4 hours later he comes back to me saying first payment was indeed made. Thankfully the refund was made, but how about the time wasted, headache and emotional stress we went through thanks to their unprofessionalism?

We met a Brazilian couple who were also guests at Olive, who shared some of the same opinions as us. 1. Place doesn't look as on photos. 2. Bad english/ lack of communication/ manager not able to speak properly and clear. 3. Lunch and dinner way below average./ horrendous breakfast

Be aware this is a local island inhibited by a Muslim community. There's some super lovely and friendly people there, but some others will definitely make you feel they don't want tourists there!

AVOID THIS HOTEL AT ALL COSTS! AND DON'T BOOK WITHOUT READING THIS REVIEW. IF YOU READ AND YOU FEEL LIKE THE LOW COST OF THIS PLACE IS STILL WORTH THE STRESS AND HEADACHE, THEN I WISH YOU LUCK, BECAUSE YOU...