The difference between the two figures is usually taxes, green tax, breakfast, the speedboat and the excursion you were always going to do. Any of those can be inside the advertised rate or outside it, and the advert rarely says which.
This is a method for comparing properly. It takes about ten minutes and it regularly changes the answer.
The seven lines
Work these out for each guesthouse, for your actual party and your actual dates. Do not compare per-night figures. Compare the total for the trip.
- The room. Nightly rate multiplied by nights. Check whether the rate is per room or per person, and whether it is for the number of people you are bringing.
- GST. Goods and services tax applies to tourism services in the Maldives. Some guesthouses quote rates with it in, some add it at check-out. Ask which.
- Service charge. Commonly 10%, and it behaves the same way: sometimes inside the quoted rate, sometimes not.
- Green tax. A per-person, per-night environmental levy. Since January 2025 the published rate is $12 per guest per night at resorts and $6 at guesthouses on inhabited islands with 50 rooms or fewer.
- Breakfast. Included or not. If not, roughly what does it cost, times the number of mornings, times the number of people. A guesthouse that includes breakfast is quietly cheaper than one that does not by a meaningful amount over a week.
- The transfer. Both directions, per person. This is where the biggest surprises live, and it is worth its own section below.
- The things you will actually do. Be honest. If you are going to the Maldives and you intend to do one boat trip, that boat trip is part of the price of the trip, whether or not it is part of the price of the room.
For two people over six nights at the guesthouse green tax rate that is $72. It is the single most commonly forgotten line in the whole comparison, and it is charged per person, so it scales with your party in a way the room rate does not.
The transfer is where comparisons break
Two guesthouses on the same island have the same transfer cost, so it seems like it should cancel out. It does not, for three reasons.
It might be included. Some guesthouses include transfers, some quote them separately, some arrange them and pass on the fare. On a shared speedboat at around $50 per adult each way, two people are looking at roughly $200 for the round trip. That is a bigger swing than most of the nightly-rate differences you are comparing.
It might not be a speedboat. Public ferries to local islands cost a few dollars each way rather than fifty. They also run on limited schedules, not every day on every route, and take much longer. That is a real saving if your dates work and a real problem if they do not.
Your flight might not fit the schedule. This is the expensive one. Local islands have a small number of scheduled departures a day. If your flight lands after the last boat, you need either a private charter, which can run into the hundreds, or a night near the airport plus a taxi and a meal.
So before you compare anything, check the boat times against your flight times. A guesthouse that is $15 a night cheaper stops being cheaper the moment it costs you an unplanned night in Malé. How arrival time decides which boat you make.
A worked comparison
Two guesthouses, same island, six nights, two adults. Every figure here is an illustration, not a quote from a real property.
| Line | Guesthouse A | Guesthouse B |
|---|---|---|
| Advertised nightly rate | $82 | $100 |
| Room, six nights | $492 | $600 |
| Taxes and service charge | Added at check-out | Already in the rate |
| Green tax, 2 people, 6 nights | $72 | Already in the rate |
| Breakfast | Not included | Included |
| Return speedboat transfer, 2 adults | $200 | Included |
| One ocean excursion, 2 adults | $300 | Included |
| What you actually pay | Considerably more than $492 | $600 |
Guesthouse A is 18% cheaper on the line you are shown and materially more expensive on the line you pay. That is not a trick anybody is playing. It is just that different properties quote different things, and the advertised number is the one that gets compared.
The point of the exercise is not that inclusive pricing always wins. Sometimes it does not: if you were never going to do an excursion, a package containing one is not a saving. The point is that you cannot know until you put both options on the same seven lines.
Questions to ask before you book
Send these to any guesthouse you are considering. A good one will answer all six in a single message, and how quickly they answer tells you something too.
- Is the rate you have quoted the total for my dates, for my party, including all taxes and service charges?
- Is green tax included, or added at check-out?
- Is breakfast included?
- Does the price include the airport transfer, both ways, and for how many people?
- My flight lands at [time] on [date] — which boat does that put me on, and will I need a night in Malé?
- What does the excursion I am interested in cost, for my party?
If the answers come back vague, that is information. The properties that quote clearly are usually the ones that operate clearly.
Things that are not on the comparison but are on the bill
- Card fees
- Some properties charge a processing fee on card payments. Ours is 3.5%, and we would rather you knew before you arrived than after. Ask what theirs is.
- Cash and currency
- Many local-island properties take US dollars in cash. Whether they take cards, and which, varies. So does whether there is a cash machine on the island.
- Lunch and dinner
- Breakfast is often included; the other two rarely are. On a local island you are eating in local restaurants, which is a good deal cheaper than a resort and a real cost nonetheless. Some guesthouses arrange half board or full board, which is worth asking about if you would rather not think about it.
- Water
- Not a large cost, but a daily one.
- The second excursion
- Almost everybody who plans one boat trip does two.
What none of this decides
Cost is one input. It is not the reason you are going.
An island with a reef you can swim to is worth more than $50 a night to someone who came to snorkel. A property with three rooms feels different from one with thirty, and neither is better in general.
Work out the true price of each option, then choose on the thing you actually came for. The method above exists so that the choice is made on what matters rather than on which advert quoted the smaller number.
Frequently asked questions
What is green tax in the Maldives?
A per-guest, per-night environmental levy. Since January 2025 the published rate is $12 a night at resorts and $6 a night at guesthouses on inhabited islands with 50 rooms or fewer. It is charged per person, so it scales with your party.
Is green tax usually included in a guesthouse rate?
It varies, and it is the most commonly forgotten line in a Maldives budget. Ask directly rather than assuming.
How much is the speedboat to a Maldives local island?
It depends on the island and the operator. Shared speedboats commonly run around $50 per adult each direction; ours is $50. Public ferries cost a few dollars but run on limited schedules and take much longer.
Why is one guesthouse so much cheaper than another on the same island?
Usually because it is quoting fewer things. Once taxes, green tax, breakfast, transfers and an excursion are on both sides of the comparison, the gap is generally far smaller than the advertised rates suggest.
Are inclusive packages always better value?
No. A package including an excursion you would not have done is not a saving. It is better value when it contains things you were going to buy anyway, which for most Maldives trips means transfers, breakfast and one boat trip.
How much should I budget for a week on a local island?
There is no useful single number, because it depends on the island, the season and how much time you spend on the water. Use the seven lines above on the specific properties you are considering; it is more accurate than any average.
How we quote
We built our pricing around this problem, so it is only fair to show our own working.
One price for two adults covering the room, breakfast every morning, both speedboat journeys and one morning out on the water, with all applicable taxes and service charges in it. Three from $680, six from $880, nine from $1,050 nights.
Total package price for two adults. Includes all applicable taxes and service charges.
Put that through the seven lines against anything else you are considering. That is the comparison we would like you to make, and it is the reason we quote this way. See the three packages.