Malsa Shiyam: Growing through hospitality, leading through award-winning service
For Aminath Malsa Shiyam, Assistant Guest Relations Manager at The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands, hospitality has been a journey shaped by work, learning and people. Her recognition as Concierge / Guest Service Personality of the Year at the Hotelier Maldives Awards 2026 marks a point in a career that began with an internship and has grown through front office operations, guest relations, team leadership and mentorship.
Malsa started her hospitality career in 2016 as a front office intern. Her first full-time role was at One&Only Reethi Rah, where she worked as a receptionist in the front office. She later joined The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort, where her journey with Marriott International began. After two years there, she joined The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands as part of its pre-opening team.
“I started with the pre-opening team here as a guest relations agent, and promoted to Supervisor and now as an Assistant Guest Relations Manager,” she says.
Her career progression reflects a path familiar to many hospitality professionals in the Maldives: entry through operations, growth through exposure, and advancement through consistency. For Malsa, the award is not a conclusion, but a reminder of the responsibility that comes with working in guest service.
“Winning this award is a true honour for me, both professionally and personally as well,” she says. “However, this recognition is not mine alone. It also represents all the Ladies and Gentlemen, my team, my leaders, and everyone here at The Ritz-Carlton Maldives itself.”
The Hotelier Maldives Awards recognise individuals and teams across the hospitality sector, and the Concierge / Guest Service Personality of the Year category focuses on professionals who shape the guest journey. In a resort context, this work often begins before arrival and continues until after departure. It requires coordination across departments, understanding of guest preferences, attention to operational details and the ability to respond when expectations are not met.
At The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands, Malsa’s role sits at the centre of these daily movements. She begins her day early, usually with coffee, before moving into the operational rhythm of arrivals, departures, billing matters, villa allocations and front office support.
“Basically, I am there to guide the team in the day-to-day operations, arrival departure moments, let it be billing related,” she says. “So I’m there to assist in that regard and also in terms of the villa allocations. And any challenges that we are facing in front of this side, consider me there.”
The work is not limited to handling requests. In a resort operating at the level of The Ritz-Carlton, service depends on the ability to understand what guests may need before they ask. This requires systems, communication and judgement. For Malsa, personalisation is not about isolated gestures, but about making recognition part of the daily service culture.
“At The Ritz-Carlton, ‘wow’ moments are a big part of our culture,” she says. “We believe in creating indelible marks for all of our guests. So going above and beyond and creating those small moments that is personalised is very important in our culture.”
One of the tools used by the team is the daily “wow calendar”, through which departments identify and plan moments of recognition for in-house guests. These moments are reviewed each day so that they remain relevant to the guest and connected to the overall stay.
“WOW Calendars is definitely something great that we do here at The Ritz-Carlton,” she says. “Unlike any other property that I have been in, we go through the wow moments that we do for each of our in-house guests daily to make sure that we leave something special for them, personalised from each and every department.”
The process involves more than planning amenities or gestures. It requires follow-up, coordination and the discipline to ensure that departments work from the same understanding of the guest. For Malsa, this is where guest relations becomes both operational and human. The work depends on being proactive, but also on knowing when a guest needs space, when they need support, and when a recovery action is required.
Service recovery is one of the areas where guest service professionals are most tested. Even at properties with established standards, issues can occur. How those issues are handled can define the guest’s perception of the stay. Malsa approaches service recovery as a daily operational priority, not only as a response to complaints.
“Sometimes things may go wrong, definitely,” she says. “But I believe it’s about going that extra mile to recover them and doing something more to recover from the inconvenience that we cause.”
A key part of this process is the daily operations meeting, where departments come together to discuss guest issues and agree on recovery actions. The meeting includes operational departments such as security, housekeeping and food and beverage, allowing issues to be addressed with input from the teams involved in the guest journey.
“One of the highlights of my daily routine, I would say, is attending the ops meeting every day, where we go through any issues that we face through the guests,” she says. “We gather there and discuss on what we can do as a service recovery and what we can do to recover them to create those meaningful experiences throughout their journey.”
Her approach to service is guided by principles that have remained consistent since the start of her career. She speaks often about consistency, care and people. These are not abstract ideas for her; they are tied to how she works with her colleagues and how she wants to lead.
“I would say consistency and genuine care and the people,” she says, when asked about the principles that have guided her growth. “People are so important to me because it’s a work ethic that I always had since the beginning.”
This people-centred approach extends to her leadership style. At The Ritz-Carlton, employees are referred to as Ladies and Gentlemen, a phrase that forms part of the brand’s service culture. For Malsa, the phrase also reflects the responsibility leaders have towards their teams.
“I believe that being there for them, supporting them, guiding them is something so important,” she says. “I believe that I am a people’s person and I aspire to be a people’s leader, so being someone that they can rely and trust is who I wish to be.”
Her professional identity also includes learning and development. In addition to her resort operations role, Malsa is involved as an EHL Lecturer and Learning Coach, supporting students undertaking a diploma in hospitality. She describes this as both a responsibility and a learning process for herself.
“I’m truly grateful to be representing EHL, which is the world’s first hospitality university in the world in Switzerland,” she says. “We conduct a course here for students to complete their diploma in hospitality itself and I’m lucky enough to be able to be a facilitator for them while also working.”
For Malsa, mentorship is not separate from her work in guest relations. It is part of the same commitment to people. Her teaching role gives her an opportunity to pass on experience to students, while also requiring her to revisit hospitality subjects beyond her daily operational scope.
“I believe it’s so important to pass on your knowledge and experience for the young generations as well,” she says. “On top of it, I believe for me personally as well, it has definitely been something that I can grow in because there’s a lot that I don’t personally use in my operations that I’m to teach the students.”
This has required preparation and study. Rather than seeing teaching as a one-way process, she views it as a platform for her own development.
“I need to spend a lot of time to study, to learn different subjects that I’m not very familiar with,” she says. “So definitely a growth for me and also a growth for the young generation and the students who are to complete this course.”
Her journey also holds significance for young Maldivians, particularly women, who are considering careers in resort hospitality. The industry continues to offer pathways for Maldivians across operations, finance, engineering, culinary, commercial and leadership functions, but entry and progression require commitment. Malsa’s message is built on her own experience of starting as an intern and moving forward through each stage.
“As a Maldivian woman in leadership in this industry, I hope my journey inspires them to go forward in the career in this industry itself,” she says. “I started just as an intern, very eager to learn and a lot to experience as well. So never be afraid of taking the next step. Because with the right mindset, I believe you can do it too.”
Her words reflect an understanding of what it takes to grow in hospitality: taking responsibility, learning from operations, accepting challenges and continuing to develop. For many young professionals, the path may begin in an entry-level role, but those roles often provide the foundation for leadership. Malsa’s own career has been built in guest-facing departments, where each day brings operational pressure, guest expectations and team requirements.
The pre-opening phase of The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands remains one of the defining periods of her career. Joining a resort before it opens requires building systems, forming teams, learning standards and preparing for the first guests. Looking back, Malsa sees that period as a collective achievement.
“When I look back from starting at the pre-opening at this property and how far we have come, I’m very proud because of how far we have come as a property,” she says. “How we have evolved within the departments as well and within ourselves. I’m so proud to see the changes that had happened since the beginning.”
She also acknowledges that the process was not without difficulty.
“Definitely it was challenging, but we overcame those challenges and we built something so special together,” she says.
As she looks ahead, Malsa’s focus remains on learning and growth. The award has brought recognition, but she does not view it as an endpoint. Instead, she sees it as encouragement to keep developing her career in hospitality and to continue supporting the people around her.
“Personally, I would say it also motivates me and encourages me to learn and keep growing, because this does not stop here,” she says. “I would be looking forward to keep learning and growing.”
Her message to her team is the same one she applies to herself.
“I always tell my team as well, there’s always a lot more to learn. You never learn enough,” she says. “I truly believe that learning and growing with the right mindset, it’s there. So for myself as well, I would say I’m just very eager to learn and keep growing in this career.”
When asked what legacy she hopes to leave, Malsa returns to the same theme that runs through her career: people. For her, success in guest service is not only measured by guest recognition or operational outcomes, but also by whether colleagues feel supported, guided and able to trust their leaders.
“How I want to be remembered in this industry is being a people’s person, a people’s leader,” she says. “Being there for the Ladies and Gentlemen, supporting them, guiding them, and being someone that they can rely and trust on.”
In an industry where service standards are often discussed through procedures and brand language, Malsa’s career shows the role of consistency, presence and mentorship in delivering guest experience. Her recognition at the Hotelier Maldives Awards 2026 reflects not only her work with guests, but also her contribution to the team culture that supports that work.
From her start as an intern in 2016 to her current role at The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands, Malsa Shiyam’s profile is one of steady progress in the front office and guest relations discipline. Her story also reflects the wider opportunity within Maldivian hospitality: that careers can be built through learning, that leadership can grow from operations, and that guest service remains, at its core, a profession shaped by people.
