Gaia Sunrise Maldives in Ukulhas

The hotel was not at all what I was expecting. Unfortunately it did not meet my expectations and certainly wasn't worth what I paid for. On the first night I arrived the electricity was cut off for a good 10 minutes and when I asked the management namely Ahmed Azim in regards to it he couldn't provide me an explanation and instead questioned me as to why I was worrying. On top of that the TV was not working throughout all my stay at the hotel because they had not paid the bills for it. The Internet over there is very slow and on my last day it completely stopped working, I'm assuming he stopped paying the bill for the Internet too. The main person who we'd contact Ahmed Azim was not helpful nor reliable at all. I'd say he didn't take care of us or our matters the way you'd expect management to take care of it. If we had issues we wouldn't be able to get a hold of him and would have to ask other staff to call him and we'd then find him sitting outside in the sun. He was not very welcoming and it's an experience I'd never want to consider again to be honest. On the other hand, the other staff member who served our food and cleaned our room was extremely friendly and took great care of us, we really enjoyed his company and the way he responded to any concerns we had, if anything he's the only reason we overlooked everything else with the management. Unfortunately they need to up their game and take better care of their guests.

Be aware that Mr Moosa Naeem, the manager of beach residence, is a powerful man in Ukulhas island. So in case you have any problem/disagreement with him concerning your stay you don't have the "normal" rights that a guest has in any other hotel. Briefly I can say that he threatened us in front of the police and disrespected a decision from the police chief.

If you want to know all the story, here you are. He forgot to schedule our speedboat from the airport (after he sent me an email saying he would do it and someone would pick us at the arrivals). So me, my wife and my daughter (2 years old) waited 10 hours in the airport, without sleeping, very tired and desperate. After a few calls he scheduled the boat for the afternoon but I told him that we were very unhappy with what had happen and we would decide whether to stay in his hotel when we arrived at the island. He said that there was no problem if we change to another hotel. We stayed at beach residence anyway the first night because we arrived at night and we were exhausted. And the morning after we changed to another hotel. Then, when I was going to pay for the night he said we had to pay 100 dollars more for the speedboat. I had no idea what was the price of the speedboat because it was an offer for the reservation of 10 nights and I thought that the hotels had an agreement with the speedboat company. And he never told me the price of the speedboat anyway even when I told him that I was going to decide in which hotel to stay after arriving at the island. So I refused to pay because we had lost one day of vacation (with all the costs associated with that) and got exhausted waiting at the airport because of a big mistake he made. So it wasn't fair to pay for the boat and the night, so he started saying nonsense things and I said I wouldn't pay anything and left. On the last day of vacation he came with a policeman to the hotel where I was sleeping. After I explained everything to the policeman, the policeman told us that he understand our reasons not to pay but the speedboat was a different company and Mr Moosa had to pay for the boat. So I agreed to pay the 100 dollars of the boat but that I wouldn't pay for the night, because Mr Moosa had to pay also for the mistake he had made, that all the costs shouldn't be on me. So the policeman called his chief and said that we were free to go home. But suddenly Mr Moosa threatened us in front of the policeman saying he was going to talk to his friends and wouldn't allow us to leave the island. The policeman didn't react like if he was afraid of Mr Moosa. And I told the policeman that we would need protection to go to the boat specially with a child and he said he would provide it. And for about 2 hours until we leave about 10 people were outside the hotel coming and going in motorbikes like if they were trying to scare us. We had a few more interactions with the policeman, he was trying to negotiate with me and Mr Moosa, but he continued inflexible and so did because I had already lost a lot of time and money with this situation, so I decided I couldn't show any sign of weakness. Anyway at the time of the boat everything was calm and we returned home safely. I hope that this alert may be useful to you in case you are choosing an hotel to stay at Ukulhas. Except the first and last days marked by this unpleasant situation all the other days were perfect. Nice beach, warm sea water, friendly people. I recommend Ukulhas island. And I recommend the hotel SeaLaVie also where we slept and had lunch and dinner most of the days.