How we check a listing
Four facts decide most Maldives bookings, and all four are routinely wrong online. These are the ones we verify ourselves.
Transfer
The single most misreported number in the country. We check the mode (speedboat, seaplane, domestic flight plus boat, or public ferry), the duration against the operator’s own timetable, and whether the transfer runs after dark — seaplanes do not, which strands late arrivals overnight in Malé more often than anyone advertises.
House reef
“House reef” is used to mean anything from a wall you can swim to off the beach to a patch of rubble a boat ride away. We record whether the reef is reachable unaided from shore, and we say so when it is not.
Rates
We publish the property’s own current rack rate and the board basis it includes. We take no commission and sell no rooms, so we have no reason to quote you a number that moves.
Beach and season
Maldivian islands erode and accrete with the monsoon. Where a beach narrows or is sandbagged for part of the year, that goes in the write-up, whatever the brochure photography shows.
When we get it wrong
Tell us. Corrections are free, they always will be, and they are not contingent on any commercial relationship.