Holy shit.
Is it still Christmas? Here I’ve been the last few months, hyping up the Seychelles—Cheval Blanc Seychelles just opened (we’re going in April), Fregate’s on the way, plus a few other secrets—while begging North Island to dump Marriott. And what do you know? They actually listened. You did it, you crazy son of a bitch. You did it.
As of July 1st, 2025, our beloved North Island returns to independent ownership. Will this be a good thing? Fuck yes. Joining Marriott because things weren’t going great was like repainting the Titanic as it sank because you didn’t like the colour scheme. North Island’s been stuck in Bonvoy purgatory since 2019 when they ditched Wilderness and thought aligning with the same company that runs Four Points Flex by Sheraton was a solid move.
Sure, I’ve said before that independent management has its pros and cons. Passion and personalisation on one side, but sometimes those corporate bigwigs do know a thing or two. But we’ll worry about that later. Ding dong, the Marriott witch is dead. Maybe now I can return to recommending this beautiful island once again.
Naturally, in the middle of all my celebrating, I realised I’d paid a non-refundable deposit just last week for our stay in April. Sucks to be me.
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Written by Tom Cahalan on 24th Feb '25
Tom is the co-founder of Dorsia Travel, a luxury travel writer, a safari addict, and a professional complainer.
