Komandoo Island Resort

1 reader found this review helpful

The maldives is a great place to visit and I've been there many times. The photos of the island from above look lovely. but hiding from view is a local island with a mountain of exgavated sun, The two telephone mask and mosque with daily sirens are not what you expect from the Maldives. Waste from this island washes up on the beach daily. The marketing is completly wrong and I'll be writing to the Maldives tourist board about this total mis-representation. The management team husband and wife are completely fed up with the complaints and are rude and dismissive. They do not care and do not venture out of their accomodation fear of meeting guests.
My advise to anyone is not to go here as their are many great maldivian islands

after spending the first week on Kuredu, they offered us a week on komandoo,It was not nice, lots of rats around, kuredu might be bigger but its cleaner and the villas are much nicer, cant see how they called komandoo a up grade, In fact we didnt spend the whole week there they gave us, i asked to go back to kuredu after two nights and was a lot better.
G Norledge

17 readers found this review helpful

My wife and I have just returned from our third visit to Komandoo and our seventh visit to the Maldives. Whilst it is true to say that Komandoo is still one of our favourite islands, I am sad to have to report that it is being destroyed by inept and incompetent management.
I suppose it was inevitable that the proximity of Kuredu would eventually impact upon the vastly superior sister island, but I never anticipated that it could be as bad as we have just experienced. On our arrival, we learnt that of there were some 40 people on Komandoo who had been given free upgrades from Kuredu. We were told that this was only for a few days at a time because of an overbooking problem on Kuredu but this was simply not true. We spent the first 12 of the 14 days of our holiday in a bungalow next to two people from Scotland who had been shipped across purely because they complained that they thought Kuredu was "too big".
Another group of six had been shipped across for the remainder of their holiday because two people in the group had booked a beach villa and were not allowed to eat in the same restaurant as the others who had booked Jacuzzi Villas. To be fair, when you book Kuredu you are not told about the restaurant you are allowed to use is dependent upon the class of the accommodation which you have booked. However, to solve this problem by shipping a group of six people to Komandoo for the rest of their holiday is a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. Why not simply allow the rest of the group to use the other restaurant?
The insurgency from Kuredu continued for the duration of our holiday - each boat that arrived brought fresh freeloader and their luggage. As our villa faced the pier there was no way to avoid seeing this and this wound us up even more - see photo of 16 people being shipped in with their luggage and the picture of Christina the guest relations manager in the bar snipping of their Kuredu plastic wristbands with a pair of scissors.
On one occasion, we spoke to a man who tried to book Komandoo but was told there were no rooms available. He booked Kuredu instead but on his arrival he was intercepted on the jetty and told that Kuredu was overbooked and was asked whether he would mind going to Komandoo instead! As a result, he paid some £4400 for a two-week holiday on Kuredu and was presented with a £6,600 holiday on Komandoo instead. To add insult to injury, because he had booked all-inclusive at Kuredu he had his bar bill thrown in. Ironically, this was a holiday which he tried to book and pay for in the first place.
Another gentlemen was incensed because he has booked a two centre holiday and paid £1000 more for his second week at Komandoo. He was pretty annoyed to then be shipped over with a dozen other people who had been given their time on Komandoo for free!
Komandoo is an island which supposedly values its repeat custom. As this was our third visit to the island, we were invited to the manager's repeaters cocktail party and I used the opportunity to tackle him about people being given an extra $3000 worth of holiday for free when compared to us. He was decidedly noncommittal and blamed the problem on the policy forced upon him by the general manager in Kuredu, who now has overall responsibility for both resorts. On our previous visits the two resorts were run entirely independently and this problem never arose. Nothing was done to compensate us for this amazingly crass policy, so I tackled the manager again some days later. Again he blamed the general manager's policy, so I insisted on speaking to him. He said there was nothing he could do about it as this was the policy forced upon him by the owners. To sum up, therefore, you have a manager on Komandoo with responsibility but no authority who hides behind the manager on Kuredu. The manager on Kuredu hides behind the "policy" forced upon him by the owner. I asked to speak to the owner and was told he would telephone me, but needless to say never did.
To make matters worse, every morning and afternoon a boat full of snorkellers was brought across from Kuredu to destroy the tranquillity of our house reef. The house reef at Komandoo is very nice, but you are now going to see many fish when they are being scared away by a cruising dhoni and some 30 snorkellers thrashing about noisily in the water. I have read on here of complaints about the call to prayer from the neighbouring island being noisy and intrusive. Believe me when I say this is nothing compared to a group of snorkellers from Kuredu yelling at each other in the water.
My advice to you if you are thinking of booking Komandoo for your holiday is simply don't bother - it's much cheaper and simpler to book Kuredu and then have a good moan when you get off the boat. You seem to have an almost guaranteed chance of getting upgraded for free. Needless to say, this makes those of us who booked Komandoo and paid considerably more for the privilege feel exploited and rather stupid. In my opinion, if the management pursue this policy (which I'm told has been in place since 1st January) then the repeat visitors on which this island has always depended will simply vanish.
In times when money is tight, visitors are simply not booking the more expensive island and seem to be opting for Kuredu instead. As a result, it seems that management has looked at the under booking and decided to deliberately oversell Kuredu to compensate. As the price of both islands has increased considerably recently, the company will be making more money overall with this policy at the expense of its loyal clients. To put this in perspective, the repeaters cocktail party on the second week of our holiday was very sparse indeed and I was informed by one staff that this week they are expecting around 30 repeat visitors when there were over 60 in the same period last year.
Learn from this, management: if you exploit your repeat business through your greed then you will soon have no repeat business. Frankly, this is pretty much what you deserve. We certainly have no intention of returning while this policy is in place. It is one thing to be taken advantage of in this way, but it is quite another to come back again and have one's nose rubbed in it!
If you are visiting Komandoo in the next 12 to 18 months, please post comments on this website and let us know whether this is still happening. We would love to return to the island again, but not while this is going on.

3 readers found this review helpful

This is a beautiful island! You can walk round it in just ten minutes, often without bumping into anyone else. The beaches are beautiful, the snorkeling is fantastic. Its very quite, there's only one bar and restaurant, so if you want lots of entertainment, choose somewhere else. The atmosphere is very relaxed and laid back - nobody bothers with shoes, even in the bar, as the floors are all covered with sand. (Don't pack any high heels or going-out clothes!)
However, there are a few things you should be aware of....
All-Inclusive is not all inclusive!! If you have been to the Caribbean, or other destinations where this means you can drink and eat what you want, when you want, you will be surprised at the conditions imposed at Komandoo. Firslty, it only includes certain drinks. For example, a brand of Rum called Typhoon, produced in the Philipines. If you're into your rum, you'll wince at this. If you want any of the good stuff, you'll have to pay. As one of the bar staff said to me, they wouldn't even cook with the stuff, its so bad :-)
Secondly, all-inclusive doesn't include the mini bar in your room, which is ridiculous. If you're sitting out on your terrace and fancy a drink, you'll have to pay for it - although if you get the same drink from the bar, its free.
The staff will constantly try and sell you things - wine, champagne, cocktails, excursions. This was a bit too full on during our first couple of days, and we had to make it clear that we weren't interested. The service is not quite what you would expect from a 4 star resort, for example if you ring reception for anything you can expect a long wait.
The food was excellent, a great buffett every day for breakfast / lunch and dinner. The staff are all lovely and very attentive. Worth noting though, that if you miss any meals. you have to wait for the next one to be served, as food isn't available outside of the set meal times.
We stayed in a water villa, and it was simply amazing! Very spacious, with a jacuzzi and walk-in shower. It had a coffee-maker, plasma tv and dvd player. The views and the sunsets were fabulous.
However, if you looked closely you noticed that the cushions were a bit tatty and worn, and in the bar the chairs needed a good dusting. You have to overlook this, the sometimes-slow service, and the fact that its a little bit faded at the edges, and just go with the flow.
Its a very, very pretty island and this more than makes up for the down-sides.

we have visted the maldives 7 times the last 3 staying on komandoo. we are returning again this september. we have never been anywhere that we have been looked after as we are on this island. the 2nd time we visted my partner was in a lot of pain though a back injury the staff could not do enough for him to help.(the injury was not done on holiday) last year when we returned we could not believe the first thing we were asked was how was my partners back and how did the op go? we are so looking forward to going back the staff, the villas, the food we can not fault anything on komandoo we have recommended komandoo to frends and they have all said the same, but it will always be our little piece of heven on earth.

Stayed here for our honeymoon and couldn’t ask for a destination closer to paradise. Rated as 4 star bit id give it 5.
A quiet island, perfect for R&R, not for party goers!
Diving and snorkelling is superb with great sites really close and own coral reef.
Food amazing with wide and varied choices. The new Mrs. raved about the 4 hand massage in the spa.
Very friendly and helpful staff. Outstanding rooms cleaned at least twice a day.
Couldn’t ask for more and will definitely visit again.

On arrival, our transfer from Male to the island resort was unbelievably trouble free and went so smoothly. The Air Taxi system is really well organised and the 40 minute flight was very enjoyable.
Komandoo is an absolutely beautiful tropical island. It was everything we had hoped for and more besides. The water villa we stayed in was stunning and so comfortable, the staff are so friendly and can't do enough to help.
The facilities generally are superb and if it's total relaxation you are after, then you will not be disappointed. One advantage of the place is the small number of guests, relative to other more commercial islands.
There are just 60 villas of varying kinds on this island so it remains quiet and peaceful and feels like being part of an exclusive club.
Things to watch out for; the welcoming committee (you will feel like royalty) and the flora and fauna. We spent lovely evenings, glass in hand watching the sunset and the gorgeous Heron fishing for his supper.
Don't take lots of shoes. One pair of flip flops is enough so expect sand between your toes at meal times!
We can't wait to go back!

Second visit to Komandoo and can't wait for 3rd.
Beautiful, intimate quiet Island - not for those seeking a busy holiday.
Staff are fantastic and make the island even more special!! Especially amith, Silva and Thilak at the bar.
Honeymooner’s paradise
Great snorkelling, excellent dive centre. Spa is fantastic and a must.
Food is fabulous, as are Asraf and Kaleel who serve it.
Water villas are superb and very luxurious.
I cried both times we left this island!!

We have just returned from Komandoo and I cannot praise it highly enough.
I am recovering from a broken leg and, whilst I would not recommend anyone going on a beach holiday in a similar situation, I can honestly say that, without exception, all the staff were so helpful and I cannot begin to thank them for their help and kindness.
Nothing was too much trouble and Riza, our waiter became my personal butler escorting me back to the table and choosing my favourites from the buffet for me! The food, incidentally, was excellent and very varied.
We had to change from a water villa because I could not mange the walk, so was rather disappointed.
However, once again, the manager -Birgit- could not do enough for us and we were offered a choice of alternative rooms. Our room was spotlessly clean, on the side that faced the 'factory' island, which we didn't find intrusive at all-nice to see a bit of real life going on.
We will return to Komandoo one day so that we can really enjoy it to the full-we were so impressed by the friendliness of the hotel staff, the breathtaking location, and the 'no-shoes' policy. I just can't wait.

We spent 1 week at Komandoo in May 2007 and we thought the place was wonderful.
The food was great, the staff friendly and the diving was brilliant. The house reef is well and truly alive with turtles, rays, sharks and thousands of other fish.
Unlike the week before spent at Kuredu, you could safely dive or snorkel the house reef without fear of being run over by a seaplane. Prodivers knew their stuff and the dive sites were amazing.
One side of the island does have an unattractive view of the tuna cannery and a LOT of rubbish from the inhabited island ends up on the shore on this side but the staff do their best to clear this away as quick as possible.
Our beach villa overlooked the cannery and it wasn't the best but it's also the side with the sea breeze, which was welcome on 31 degree days.
Komandoo is a very small island so be prepared to see the same people day in day out, whether you like them or not! If you want a larger island with a choice of bars then this is not for you - try Kuredu.