The hotel front desk has a long and honorable, even cinematic, tradition of service.
For all of its utility and celluloid fame, however, the days of the traditional hotel front desk may be numbered through out the world. For many years, most of the deluxe resort hotels in the Maldives have whisked guests directly to their villas and conducted the check-in formalities in the comfort of their villas. Now mid-market hotel chains have also revamped their lobbies and replaced, imposing front desks with little pedestals manned by customer-service agents generally known as Resort Hosts. Some hotels have dispensed with stationary and furniture altogether. They’ve turned the task of checking in guests over to roving “Resort Hosts” equipped with portable computers.
The front desk we knew and once loved have long gone here in the Maldives in the more deluxe hotels and medium range hotels. And thats a good thing , realizing that it’s a false barrier between the staff of the resort and the guest. It no longer works and are not in use with many deluxe hotels of the Maldives proving that it’s time to say good-bye to Hotel Front Desks.
The Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru, Angsana Velavaru, or the One&Only Reethi Rah are doing just that. The lobby there is for having some welcome refreshment and to welcome the guest together with the management or to give the guest sense of the place on arrival. We find pedestals in a small areas where lobby personnel can handle the check-out formalities, the pedestals are designed to allow the hotel employee to step forward and assist guests with other needs too. Hotels like W Retreat & Spa Maldives offers check out any where option, in this case the guest do not need to go to the lobby or the pedestal for the check-out.
Almost all the properties of the Maldives have the lobby and their welcome pedestals too, some features smaller, walk-around pedestals and some hotels pedestals don’t even exist. Hotels such as Huvafen Fushi, a luxury resort of the Maldives offer personalized butler service for checking the guest to present with a great arrival experience and the butler service agents are named after the legendary name “Thakuru”.
