Greetings from Centara Grand Island Resort & Spa Maldives and thank you for choosing to stay with us on your recent trip to the Maldives.
Thank you so much for being patient with us whilst we conducted a thorough check on this matter. Though this was not a pleasant experience, we really appreciate your feedback on the Banana ride watersports activity held in our resort. To say we are equal parts concerned and disappointed would be an understatement. We can appreciate the concern as a guest, this situation must have caused you and your family. We sincerely apologize for the impact the response from the resort had caused you. We investigated the incident in great depth to understand what went wrong and how we can strengthen our responses in similar situations moving forward. Here is what we uncovered:
We would just like to make it clear, that this was not an overboard accident, nor an incident. A Banana ride is not a boat and not stable as a boat. Depending on sea conditions (waves) and the movement of the guests riding the Banana, there is always a chance that a Banana ride will capsize, and that the guests will fall into the water. Some guests force it even on purpose. A Banana ride is a watersports activity, not an excursion. For this reason, every guest wear swim wear and a life vest and receives a briefing that also includes an instruction of what to do in case the Banana ride would capsize. Some of the guests explained that they are non-swimmers. For this reason and because the sea was not calm on that day, the captain rode the boat slower than usual. Still, it can happen. Our guide from Best Dives Maldives, Hussain had immediately got into the water to help the guests to get on the boat. Of course, it may take up to one minute before the guide reaches the guests, as the boat has to turn and drive to the guests, which is a distance of about 15 meters. At this time, our team had confirmed that the guests were okay, there was no panic, nobody swallowed water and two of the guests had continued the Banana ride.
Despite the correct safety protocol has been followed by our team, we know that this does not change the trip. We completely understand your disappointment of the issues raised and we will take back the areas that we can address for action as a team. It is rather sad to us that it had come to this, and it is never easy for us to accept that guests leave us unhappy and then more so when our brand reputation is at stake.
We hope we met your expectations on resolving the issue surrounding your recent experience. Your feedback is extremely valuable to our business. If you feel your concerns were adequately addressed, we kindly ask you to consider updating your negative review on Trip Advisor to reflect your most recent experience with our resort. Thank you very much for your confidence in us and we hope to see you again soon!
Regards,
Centara Grand Island Resort & Spa Maldives Team and Management