Is a travel company changing my Maldives holiday Island a significant change?

JB2018

I have had an email from my travel agent to say the resort  (island) I had booked to stay in the Maldives will be closed for the remainder of the year so they have moved me to another resort (island) - and they have classed this as an insignificant change and therefore will no provide a refund.  I disagree, each island is very different and to me this is a significant change.
We were originally due to travel in June, but obviously couldn’t at which point we could have had a refund, but the resort was offering to honour the booking price for dates in November - which we took them up on. Now it’s not open, so why should we accept a transfer o island not of our choice, and not be offered a full refund?

sharpe106

I know most companies terms and conditions state that a change of hotel to a similar standard is classed as insignificant. I would have thought a different island is a bit more significant, you are going to a completely different area. What do the terms and conditions state about change of destination?

JB2018

The terms and conditions say change of accommodation is insignificant. It’s in a different atoll and doesn’t have a house reef. 

bagand96

Bit of a difficult one, as it's a fairly unique situation. Most travel agents/tour operators will have a clause in Package Holiday T&Cs stating that they can change accommodation to one of the same standard, without it being considered a "major" holiday change.

The difficulty here is the fact that in the Maldives the "island" can be the entire hotel.  It's not as if you booked Rhodes and they're changing it to Kos. I would in the first instance go back to them and try and negotiate and see if you can persuade them to change their stance.  You mention not having a "house reef".  I've no idea if that makes it majorly different or not, but if you can gather as much information you can as to why the replacement is substantially different from the original, that would help you.

silvercar

Start a conversation with them. Tell them that you want a house reef and maybe they can find one with a house reef that is open. To be fair to them they may not have realised that it was important to you.

Grumpy_chap

Only the OP can say whether a different island is significant.  If the holiday is just to lounge on the beach, then I can't see that it makes much difference.   If being on a different island means there is something that can not now be done, that is significant.  I have no idea what a house reef is or whether it would be significant.  In the current situation, you might need to accept more variance than you might ordinarily.

silvercar

Grumpy_chap said:

Only the OP can say whether a different island is significant.  If the holiday is just to lounge on the beach, then I can't see that it makes much difference.   If being on a different island means there is something that can not now be done, that is significant.  I have no idea what a house reef is or whether it would be significant.  In the current situation, you might need to accept more variance than you might ordinarily.

Different hotels/ atolls have very different vibes. Some are very laid back and some are really "dress up for dinner".
House reef is the coral reef that separates the island from the deeper see. Generally having a house reef means the coral is near the shore/ beach or at least within swimming distance. If your hotel doesn't have a house reef you need to get a boat out to the coral.