As the Maldives reopens its doors to international tourists again, Soneva Resorts, like many other properties across the atoll nation, has rolled out health and sanitation protocols to ensure a safe stay for visitors.
While Covid testing or quarantine is not required for foreign visitors entering the Maldives, luxury resort brand Soneva has opened a new Covid-19 testing centre on the island of Maafaru, which lies a 15-minute speedboat away from Soneva Jani. The facility uses the Roche Lifecycle 96 machine and can process up to 700 tests per day, enabling tourists and locals the ability to get a Covid-19 test result in less than 24 hours.
Guests at Soneva's Maldives resorts will be given a face mask and tested for Covid upon arrival. They are required to stay in their rooms or villas until the test result comes out, which could take between six and 24 hours. If they test negative, they can roam freely and will be asked to undergo daily temperature checks.
These extra precautionary measures are introduced by the luxury resort brand's efforts to "ensure peace of mind for our guests", said Sonu Shivdasani, founder of Soneva Resorts.
However, the additional health measures including swab tests introduced for guests in the wake of the global pandemic will not make a stay at Soneva pricer than before, Shivdasani told Travel Weekly Asia.
"Prices haven’t been changed as we have decided to conduct additional Covid-19 tests for safety of our guests and hosts. In the event if the guest will test positive for Covid-19, the resort will ask Covid positive guests, their family, friends and others travelling together to isolate in their
villa," he said.
Guests under isolation still get to enjoy privileges at the resort, as Soneva will immediately waive the daily room rate of the villa for the next 14 days and charges only for meals and other incidentals. They can still make full use of their in-villa facilities and have access to full in-villa dining service as well as general housekeeping services delivered in line with strict delivery and service operating procedures.
An in-resort medical team is at hand to look after Covid-19 positive guests and observe them, Shivdasani added, and if there are no serious complications, guests will be allowed to socialise in the resort 14 days after a negative test or 10 days after the outset of the first symptoms.
The tight measures implemented have led to "more on the books at Soneva Fushi for August than we had at the same time last year" and customers are also booking longer stays at the resort, said Shivdasani.
"As borders reopen, and our main markets are allowed to travel to us, it could be our best August ever," he said.