Velaa Private Island: Finally Seeing The Light

I’ve written before about how Velaa Private Island is one of the best properties in the world.  It is also, inconveniently, one of the hardest to sell.

And it has never been about the service, the privacy, the two spas, four superb restaurants, the golf course, or the fact that it operates in a different financial stratosphere to most of the Maldives.  It’s the rooms.

Specifically: the aesthetic.

They are objectively excellent in terms of space, functionality and quality.  Storage is generous.  Bathrooms are large.  Pools are great.  It’s very private.  But stylistically…not for me.  Not ugly.  Just very dark.  Like it was inexplicably designed for vampires that travelled to the Maldives to escape the sun.  Very niche.  

Practically speaking, it did everything.  Although an additional toilet wouldn’t have gone amiss.  Or a Toto, please and thank you.  But the design bothered people.  Too many people.  They’d take a look and decide to go elsewhere.  And I get it.  I love a good room design too.  But having been, I learnt to stop fixating on whether a chair is my exact shade of beige. You live with it. And then, slightly annoyingly, you start to be fine with it.  Not love, but accept it.

And that’s exactly why it’s one of our biggest repeat bookings. People hesitate. They go. They come home slightly smug about having “discovered” it. And then they rebook.

Anyway.  After years of my endless complaining (yes, I’m taking all the credit), Velaa has finally started to address it.  They began with the Residences.  One of our clients recently stayed in Kuredhi, one of their four-bedroom Residences, which was refurbished at the end of last year, and the difference is noticeable.  Lighter.  Calmer.  

Now they’ve refurbished the Two-Bedroom Ocean Pool House as well.  The rest are set to follow.  Convenient timing, given that Bulgari and Aman are circling with upcoming openings.

The new direction is brighter and more contemporary without losing the scale and sense of place that makes Velaa feel like Velaa.  It feels less committed to proving a point that it’s in the Maldives, and more committed to being beautiful.  

So.  They’re removing the final objection.  Are we all booking it now?  Good.  Thought so.