Maldives.net.mv – OBLU by Atmosphere at Helengeli, Maldives opened its doors on November 2015 as the second resort by Atmosphere Hotels & Resorts. OBLU showcases contemporary Maldivian architectural design with a trendy, fresh & vibrant color palette. It is Rein W.M van Zandvoort who is at the helm of the resort as the general manager.

With his instrumental success in the launch the group’s first resort, at Atmosphere Kanifushi, it’s no surprise that the company tasked the experienced and talented, van Zandvoort as the general manager (GM) for the launch of the newly rebranded, OBLU by Atmosphere at Helengeli. Helengeli resort flaunts genuine value as the key essence by delivering top class service, cuisine and an overall unique but quality product.

van Zandvoort has worked for nine years in the Maldives with immense experience in pre-openings and management of successful resorts. There is no room for doubt about his ability and wealth of experience and capacity to deliver with the OBLU by Atmosphere at Helengeli island resort.

We were honored to interview, pick his brain and grasp a more than few pointers from the experienced and talented GM, on his unique set of management skills and style and his morals and ethics in a professional perspective.

Company Policy

One of the first things that Zandvoort is quick to point out is that, the management merely upholds and follows the philosophy and policy, of the parent company. Hence, whatever he is able to do is almost always is, because the company policy, allows for it. He believes that company’s joy of giving is what makes the difference to the guests.

Relationship with Staff

Zandvoort is definitely not your average general manager of a resort. His ability to relate and connect with the staff, allows for unique family like relationship between his colleagues, that in turn, enables them to work with him from their hearts rather than merely as a job. One such example of his care and concern for the staff, is shown, when he decided that third party contractors such as boat crew (not direct staff of the resort) who were not entitled to the Ramadan bonus, deserved it equally and held a dinner night and handed out Eid cards and gifts to all of them.

The Town Hall meetings that he holds with the staff are not held in a private area but somewhere that even guests can enter into and experience firsthand how the staff lives on the resorts are treated by the management. These meetings are so important to the GM, that he decided even though peak season is in November, they would still hold the meetings. It was at one of these meetings that he rolled out his new idea of a special award for persons with creative and passionate minds who strive for a difference. The award was named after the first Maldivian to sail around Maldives solo and aptly called, Gabbe Award.

It would also be impossible for guests to not notice how differently the staff of OBLU dress as well; with their unique identity and now trademark sun glasses and comfortable uniforms (and as the GM pointed out, competitors already are copying the sunglasses look). These are some reasons why the resort has an extremely low staff turnover, according to the GM.

Dealing with Guests

Guests arrive at the INIA airport and more often have to wait copious amounts of time until their boat transfer to the resort is ready. Once more moving away from the common standard, the GM decided to present food vouchers to the guests. Then, once they step on the boat, they are given cool towels and there is relaxing music playing onboard. The crew of the boat are the most significant facet of the whole experience. They are friendly and introduce themselves and explain the safety features before hand out water bottles and snacks.  The crew continue to interact with the guests throughout the 50-minute ride across the ocean, to the resort. One small mark of the success of the model being utilized by the GM for the past 8 months, is that, there already is one family who will return for the 4^th time in December 2016, simply because they loved the complete experience at OBLU by Atmosphere at Helengeli.

The experienced GM sees guests as individuals who had to be catered according to their individual needs. Though Helengeli offers an all-inclusive package, the package products, are ever evolving and adapting and meeting the needs of the guests. As pointed out by the GM, they offer far more individual products within the package than other resorts and the package is very transparent with no hidden markers or chargers as surprises for the guests when they check out. This is unlike the traditional model of all-inclusive that most resorts practice.

Traditions, Environment and Community

GM Zandvoort, has his own moral beliefs in protecting and preserving culture, traditions and the fragile environment of Maldives. In this light, he works with local communities to create traditional events such as Bodumas and music, for occasions such as Eid, that guests get to experience. This allows local communities to express their talents and skills as well as revive their culture. The GM believes that a lot of modern day resorts have very little Maldivian culture or tradition to show.  He is also on the verge of establishing a charity program with the local communities in the very near future.

The veteran GM explained that preserving the environment was key to the Maldives and hence for the first time in a Maldivian resort, he created Reef Guards along with Life Guards. The Reef Guard uses a jet ski to keep a watchful eye on the status of the house reef of the island and ensure that guests are not endangering themselves or the reef. These guards educate and promote safe measures when exploring the beautiful pristine waters and house reef of the island. This creates awareness and allows guests to relate far more closely with the fragility of the island nation of Maldives.

The unorthodox GM had once suggested the Ministry of Tourism if they could consider implementing a regulation that pushes all resorts to have a water bottling facility on their island. He said that in a year approximately 400,000 bottles of water are created on his resort and if 120 resorts of Maldives decided to keep a plant to utilize glass bottle water and reusable bottles rather than plastic disposable ones, it would have a huge impact on the environment and waste management of the nation. He sees every human being as a caretaker of the environment with an obligation to preserve it for future generations by doing as much as they could.

He also believes that natural island habitation and trees should be left as natural as possible. He is weary of how some resorts introduce alien species of birds and plants onto to their islands; this he says is not Maldivian.

Zandvoort the Person

Rein W.M van Zandvoort stands out, in his ability to communicate and relate to almost anyone. Within the ten years he has spent in Maldives, he adamantly reads the news and updates himself on current affairs simply so that he could engage in conversation with his colleagues, even more. This allows him to understand the staff and keep an open door policy to his office for staff to interact in a far more family like relationship than the norm. As he frequently says, the happier the staff the better service they provide the guests.

With countless new ideas to change the status quo of how resorts are run in the Maldives, he is currently working with local artist to create tradition infused sculptures to be kept on the island. This creates a new platform for Maldivian artists other than musicians and painters. He is also working on a small coffee table book on fashion and hair style and Buruga (head covering of Muslim women) styles of Maldivians.

Zandvoort sees himself as an equal to all his colleagues with the only difference being the different jobs each person does, rather than a GM that manages from an office room. It is a great pleasure to see a Maldivian resort with a leader that has visions that will advertently help preserve and protect the Maldivian tradition and culture and environment. A manager that has shown his colleagues that they each are an individual person who have the opportunity to display their individual unique talents and ideas. It is of no surprise, that the past 8 months have already been massively successful for OBLU by Atmosphere at Helengeli; the future looks very bright and exciting with the vastly talented and creative, Rein W.M van Zandvoort, at the wheel.