Soneva Jani Christmas offer

I’ve never bothered to write about special offers before, but seeing you’re all such a special lot…

As I’ve mentioned before, the Maldives prices go a tad crazy over Christmas.  One day, you’re paying $4,000 per night for a base room category, then suddenly, you get to the night of the 20th/21st, and that sum barely covers you until lunchtime.  And let’s not forget the mandatory Christmas Eve buffet supplements and any other creative surcharges their finance team dreamed up during their last brainstorming session.  So, when I first saw this offer from Soneva Jani, I assumed it was a pricing error.  Alas, it’s not; it’s designed to make it attractive for guests to stay over Christmas but then promptly get you to piss off so that the New Year’s Eve crowd can come in and live it large.

Here’s what you’re looking at: if you come from the 21st to the 28th of December and stay in a One Bedroom Water Reserve with Slide, you’re looking at around $38,000.

If you decide to stay from 21st to 29th December in the same room, the price suddenly jumps to over $65,000. That’s because even though you’re only staying one extra night, you get charged the “normal” rate.

As some of you may know, I hated our stay here five years ago, but recent reports are much more favourable, and it sounds like they now know how to, you know, build a room with the new Chapter Two development.  Just consider the Water Reserves as the base room category and work your way up from there.

I’m already booked to return here (and their new Soneva Secret….and Gili Lankanfushi…and Cheval Blanc Randheli….and Velaa) in December, so I won’t be taking advantage.  However, if this trend continues and other resorts jump on the competitive pricing bandwagon, I might trade in my ‘Ghost of Christmas Past’ complexion for a more ‘lobster sporting a Santa hat’ red.