What do Maldives booking terms like house reef, BB, HB and FB mean?

Golden hour view of a wooden deck by the sea in Maldives, with stunning sunset colors.

Glossary

The words that change the bill

29 Maldives terms, defined — and what each one actually changes about what you book.

The short answer

A house reef is the coral reef a resort island owns, swimmable from shore without a boat. BB is bed and breakfast, HB adds dinner, FB adds lunch, and AI adds a defined drinks list. On a one-resort island these four letters decide most of what you spend after the room.

Maldives booking language is unusually load-bearing. On an island with one resort and no alternative restaurant, the difference between HB and AI is most of your food budget; the difference between a resort with a swimmable house reef and one without is whether snorkelling is free or a booked excursion; and the difference between a seaplane and a speedboat can be a whole day of a five-night trip.

Each entry below gives the definition first and then what it changes, because a definition on its own does not help anyone choose. Where a term feeds a real decision, the entry links to the page that makes it.

Board and meal plans

Bed and breakfast (BB): A room rate that includes breakfast only. Every other meal, and all drinks, are charged as you take them.; BB is the cheapest headline rate and usually the most expensive way to eat on a Maldivian resort island, because there is no third-party restaurant to walk to. On a remote island, BB plus two resort meals a day frequently costs more than the half-board rate for the same room.; Maldives meal plans explained →
Half board (HB): A rate that includes breakfast and one other meal, normally dinner. Lunch and all drinks are extra unless the resort states otherwise.; Half board is the default sensible choice on most Maldivian islands: it covers the two meals almost everyone eats at the resort and leaves lunch flexible. Check whether it is a fixed menu, a buffet, or a credit toward à la carte, because those are three different products sold under one name.; Half board vs all-inclusive →
Full board (FB): A rate that includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. Drinks are normally excluded, which is the difference between full board and all-inclusive.; Full board without a drinks package can still produce a large bill on an island where a bottle of water carries a resort markup. If you are comparing full board against all-inclusive, the only variable that usually matters is what you drink.; Maldives meal plans explained →
All-inclusive (AI): A rate that includes all meals and a defined selection of drinks. In the Maldives the selection varies enormously between resorts, and premium spirits, wines and some restaurants are routinely outside it.; All-inclusive is the least standardised term in Maldivian pricing. Two resorts can both sell 'all-inclusive' where one covers every restaurant and a full bar list and the other covers a buffet and house pouring only. Read the inclusions list, not the label, and note that festive gala dinners are usually charged on top even on AI.; Maldives all-inclusive explained →

Villas and accommodation

Overwater villa: A room built on stilts over the lagoon, reached by a jetty, usually with steps or a ladder into the water directly from the deck.; It is the category the Maldives is known for and the one most often bought without checking what is underneath it. A villa over sand has no snorkelling from the deck; a villa over reef does. Jetty position also decides how far you walk to dinner, which matters more on day four than it does at booking.; Beach villa or water villa →
Private pool villa: A villa with its own plunge or infinity pool on the deck or in a walled garden, not shared with other guests.; The pool is the most expensive single upgrade in Maldivian accommodation and the one that changes a wet-season trip most. In the dry season, with a calm lagoon at your steps, it is frequently redundant; in September, with a rained-off afternoon, it is the difference between a lost day and a different one.; Is a water villa worth the upgrade →
Beach villa: A room on the island itself with direct or near-direct beach access, usually with a garden or terrace rather than a jetty.; Beach villas are cheaper, cooler, closer to the restaurants and better for families with small children than overwater categories. What they give up is the water-from-the-deck access that is the reason most people book the Maldives in the first place.; Beach villa or water villa →
Adults-only resort: A resort island that accepts guests above a stated minimum age, commonly 16 or 18, across the whole island rather than in one restricted area.; In the Maldives the policy is island-wide, because the island is the resort. That makes adults-only a meaningfully different product from a hotel with an adults' pool, and it is why adults-only islands stay quiet in July and August while family resorts in the same atoll run full.; Maldives adults-only resorts →

Reef and water

House reef: The coral reef belonging to a resort island, reachable by swimming from the shore or a jetty without taking a boat. A good house reef has living coral, a reef edge close enough to swim to, and safe entry at most states of the tide.; It is the single biggest difference between two resorts that look identical in photographs. A resort with a swimmable house reef gives you unlimited snorkelling at no cost; one without means every reef session is a booked boat trip with a fee and a schedule. Distance to the reef edge, depth of the lagoon at low tide and current at the drop-off are the three things to ask about.; What makes a good house reef →
Lagoon: The shallow, sheltered stretch of water between an island's beach and its surrounding reef edge. Maldivian lagoons range from a few metres wide to several hundred.; Lagoon width decides how far you swim to reach anything worth seeing, and lagoon depth at low tide decides whether you can swim at all. A wide, shallow, sandy lagoon is excellent for small children and poor for snorkellers, and the same island is described as both by different reviewers for that reason.
Reef edge: The point where an island's shallow lagoon ends and the reef falls away into deeper water. Most of the marine life a snorkeller wants to see is at or beyond this line.; Swimming distance to the reef edge is the most useful single number about a resort's snorkelling, and almost no resort publishes it. Thirty metres is excellent; four hundred metres across a shallow lagoon means you will be taking the boat.; What makes a good house reef →
Hanifaru Bay: A protected marine area in Baa Atoll where manta rays gather in large numbers to feed on concentrated plankton, typically between May and November. Access is regulated by visitor numbers, timing and in-water conduct.; It is the archipelago's signature marine event and it cannot be bought in the dry season at any price, because the plankton that draws the mantas is the same plankton that clouds wet-season water. Proximity is not access: book a resort with an established permit arrangement rather than one that is merely in the atoll.; Baa Atoll →

Geography

Atoll: A ring-shaped coral formation enclosing a central lagoon, formed around a sunken volcanic island. The Maldives is made up of 26 natural atolls containing more than a thousand islands.; The atoll decides your transfer, and the transfer decides your first and last day. It also decides which marine life is realistic: mantas at Hanifaru are a Baa Atoll proposition, whale sharks a South Ari one, and no resort can supply either from the wrong atoll.; Which Maldives atoll suits you →
Resort island: An island occupied by a single resort, with no local population. Most Maldivian resorts are one island, one property.; One island, one resort means there is nowhere else to eat, drink or shop, which is why board basis matters more in the Maldives than anywhere else. It also means the resort's character is the whole of your holiday's character, with no way to step outside it for an evening.; Resort islands vs local islands →
Local island: An island with a resident Maldivian community, where guesthouses and small hotels operate alongside normal village life. Local law applies, including restrictions on alcohol and on swimwear outside designated beaches.; Local islands cost a fraction of a resort island and are a genuinely different holiday, not a cheaper version of the same one. The rules are the point: travellers who book one expecting a resort with a lower price tag are the ones who are disappointed.; Resort islands vs local islands →
Sandbank: An exposed bar of sand with no vegetation, appearing and disappearing with the tide. Resorts use them for picnics, photography and private dining.; A sandbank excursion is one of the more reliably worthwhile add-ons and one of the more variably priced. Ask whether the resort has its own or shares one, and whether it is reachable at the tide state you will be there for.

Getting there

Seaplane transfer: A scheduled floatplane flight from Velana International Airport to a resort's own platform, operating in daylight only and subject to strict baggage weight limits.; Daylight-only is the constraint that costs people a day. A flight landing after about four in the afternoon usually cannot connect to a seaplane, which means an airport-hotel night at your expense. Seaplane transfers are also priced per person, are often several hundred dollars each, and are almost never included in a quoted room rate.; Seaplane vs speedboat →
Speedboat transfer: A private or shared boat transfer from Velana International Airport directly to a resort, available to islands within roughly ninety minutes of Malé and operating at night as well as by day.; A speedboat runs when a seaplane cannot, which removes the late-arrival failure mode entirely. That is worth more than it sounds on a short trip: for a five-night holiday, losing a day to a missed seaplane costs twenty per cent of the trip.; Seaplane vs speedboat →
Domestic flight transfer: A scheduled flight from Velana to a regional Maldivian airport, followed by a speedboat to the resort. Used for atolls too distant for a seaplane, such as Addu in the far south.; It adds a connection and a second baggage handover, and it makes the total journey longer than either single-leg option. In return it reaches atolls that most travellers never see, and it runs on schedules that are less weather-dependent than seaplanes.; Addu Atoll →
Dhoni: A traditional Maldivian boat, originally sail-powered and now usually fitted with an engine. Resorts use dhonis for excursions, diving and short inter-island transfers.; A dhoni is slower and more open than a speedboat, which is pleasant for a sunset cruise and less pleasant for a ninety-minute crossing in the southwest monsoon. If a resort's transfer is by dhoni rather than speedboat, ask how long it takes.

Money

Green tax: A per-person, per-night environmental levy charged by the Maldivian government on guests staying in tourist accommodation. The rate differs between resorts and smaller guesthouse properties.; It is charged per person per night on top of the room rate, so it scales with party size and trip length rather than with what you paid for the villa. On a fortnight for a family of four it is a real line, and it is one of the charges a quoted nightly rate routinely excludes.; What Maldives prices really include →
T-GST: The Maldivian goods and services tax applied to tourism sector supplies, charged as a percentage of the bill. The rate has been revised more than once in recent years.; T-GST applies to the room, the food, the drinks and the excursions, so it compounds across everything you spend rather than sitting on the room alone. Because the rate has changed repeatedly, confirm the current figure at booking rather than relying on an older guide.; What Maldives prices really include →
Service charge: A percentage added by the resort to the bill, distributed to staff. It is standard across Maldivian resorts and is applied in addition to tax.; Service charge and T-GST are both percentages and they stack, which is why a quoted rate and a final invoice can differ by more than travellers expect. Ask whether a quoted price is net or gross of both before comparing two resorts.; What Maldives prices really include →
Festive surcharge: An additional charge applied by most Maldivian resorts over the Christmas and New Year period, typically from around 15 December to 7 January, usually accompanied by compulsory gala dinners charged per person.; It is the largest single price movement in the Maldivian year and can more than double a nightly rate. Gala dinners are frequently charged even to guests on all-inclusive plans, which is the most common source of a Maldives bill that exceeds expectations.; The Maldives in December →
Rack rate: A resort's published standard rate before seasonal discounting, promotions or package pricing. Most travellers pay less than rack rate outside the peak periods.; Seasonal discounts in the Maldives are usually expressed against rack rate, so a 'forty per cent off' offer is forty per cent off a number nobody pays in low season. Compare the final total for your dates rather than the size of the discount.

Seasons and weather

Iruvai: The Maldivian name for the northeast monsoon, the drier and calmer of the two seasonal patterns, running roughly from December to April. It brings settled seas, lower rainfall and the year's best underwater visibility.; Iruvai conditions are what dry-season pricing is buying: calm transfers, clear water and a high probability of sun. It is also why the dry season has no manta aggregation — the clarity and the mantas are mutually exclusive.; Maldives seasons explained →
Hulhangu: The Maldivian name for the southwest monsoon, the wetter and windier pattern running roughly from May to November. It brings short heavy showers, more wind on western exposures and the plankton blooms that draw manta rays.; Hulhangu is where the archipelago's 30-50% discounts and its biggest marine events both live. The rain arrives as intense thirty-to-sixty-minute downpours rather than continuous overcast, which is the single most misunderstood fact about Maldivian weather.; Maldives rainy season →
Nakaiy: A traditional Maldivian weather calendar dividing the year into 27 periods of roughly thirteen or fourteen days, each with its own expected wind, rain and sea conditions. Nine fall under Iruvai and eighteen under Hulhangu.; Nakaiy is more granular than 'dry season' or 'wet season' and it is the vocabulary local staff use. Its main practical value to a traveller is as a question generator: asking a resort what the current Nakaiy is doing gets a more useful answer than asking about the month.; Maldives seasons explained →
Shoulder season: The transition periods between the Maldivian peak and low seasons, broadly April and late October to November, when rates sit between the two extremes.; Shoulder season is where price and weather move out of step, and that is exploitable in one direction only. April's rates fall before the weather turns, which is good value; November's rates rise before the weather improves, which is not.; Maldives by month →

Knowing the words is step one

Step two is knowing which of them matter for your trip. Tell the Specialist what you care about and it returns a shortlist with the trade-off named on each resort.

Ask the Maldives Specialist

The travel agency behind Ask Maldives

What travelers say

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Reviews relate to Skydream Travel Design’s travel-planning services and reference destinations beyond the Maldives.

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