Thats really bad. Overselling lower rooms and upgrading is one thing,,,overselling the higher grade rooms and downgrading is very poor practice indeed.,,,,Or shunting you off the island. Not a good policy really:((

We went in April this year and they had overbooked then also.

We were staying in a beach villa and a leaflet appeared on our table for a two day and a one day cruise (On Meeru's boat that they had borrowed).

We jumped at the chance as we had been to Vila twice before so thought we had nothing to lose.

We returned to another beach villa following the one night two day cruise (Which was great).

We then had a leaflet to go to Rangali? for four days but this overlapped our flight home so couldn't do it but did say if there was anything else we would give it a try just for fun.

In the end they caught up with us in the bar and asked if we would move to a water villa for the final few days as they needed the beach villas so we did that instead.

We did enjoy it but we had been twice before so it was a bit of fun for us to try a different room.

However, I do not agree with what they are doing at all as people spend a lot of time and money picking the island and the rooms for their special holiday and this just does not seem to matter at all. I'm afraid that this is more than just a temporary thing. I was under the impression they were going to try to get their own cruise boat to cover the overbooking however, I may have misunderstood :~))))))

Like John says, check out the forum before you book.

When we went to Meeru, another CCR island, a few years ago there was rampant overbooking. Luckily we weren't affected, possibly because I had emailed them 2 weeks previously to request a room and made specific mention of the overbooking situation.

OD

I am watching with baited breath as we return in Feb and are a group of 6 including dive packages, so it will be interesting to see if they try to split the group or offer to move us all elsewhere and what they do about prepaid diving costs.

Sg

It's Meeru all over again. But then they're owned by the same group, so only to be expected I suppose. Is it still as bad on Meeru? They used the same type of offers there as well -2/3 day trips on a boat were the most obvious. You'd think they would have learnt by now, but maybe there are sufficient visitors who don't mind having their holiday disrupted. Personally, I can do without moving room or island once I'm on holiday.

SL

When we were there they'd over booked and were offering Ranveli transfers. They were so full that we wasn't able to upgrade from our Garden Room.

Sounds like I was lucky in July .. got the JBV in the area I asked for with no problems at all

John.

It was or is an issue on its sister island Meeru. It is a standard practice that I believe is wrong. However my only comment from reading many reviews is the following.

No one is ever made to change islands. The upgraded islands have included Mirihi.

Many people can experience a large upgrade after the initial down grade.

Many people are upgraded in both room type and food plan. I.e. Half/full board to AI.

Many people have been positive about the experience and replied it made their holiday including the voluntary cruise.

Noticed that Sarah was upgraded from a JBV to a JWV for the whole two weeks. It does read John that Vila is less generous than Meeru for some reason.