Early booking of hotels in the Maldives is increasingly popular with tourists.
Exotic island booking site wiotto.com will tell you what early booking is, how it works, and whether there is a real benefit to it. The Wiotto team has been working in the Maldives market for over 8 years and is happy to share their experience.
What is early booking?
Booking made more than two months before the trip can be called an early booking. This approach is convenient for hotels for two main reasons:
- The hotel understands the occupancy of the rooms in advance and can take measures in time to sell out the rooms on empty dates. The hotel, so to speak, is confident in the future.
- The hotel receives payment in advance on its accounts and can distribute the money according to need.
Why early booking in the Maldives is beneficial for tourists
- Hotels in the Maldives often offer discounts on villas if booked in advance. The best deals can be found six months before arrival. Discounts for the high season (late December – March) can reach 30%, and in the low season (April – early December) up to 70%. Even a 5% discount is a significant savings, given the cost of a holiday in the Maldives. So, in one week of rest, you can save several thousand dollars.
- By booking in advance, you have more choice and a much better chance of booking the villa you like and fits your budget. There are not many resorts in the Maldives, and the demand for them is growing every year. On holidays and high season, hotels are sold like hot cakes. In November-December, it is unlikely that you will be able to book a hotel for January-February in terms of price/quality ratio. Either very expensive options remain, although even they can be sold out, or resorts that are not popular.
How does early booking work and how much does it cost?
We tell you how to make an early booking of the Maldives, using the example of the site wiotto.com. It should be noted that having booked a villa, it is not always necessary to pay for it immediately. These and other details will be discussed below.
When is the best time to book?
It is most advantageous to book a hotel in the Maldives six months before the trip. During this period, hotels tend to offer the biggest discounts. The closer to the travel date, the lower the discount. And vice versa. Booking too early may not be profitable either. Many hotels for a year or more have not yet formed prices for villas, so the choice of hotels is much smaller and there is a chance to book a less profitable offer.
How to choose a villa in the Maldives
Wiotto catalog has over 160 hotels and guesthouses of the Maldives. This is the biggest and best part of what the islands have to offer. Specially selected filters in the catalog will help narrow down the range of hotels to the most suitable for you. For example, you can select resorts with water villas, a kids club, a tennis court, a house reef, and so on. The most popular filters are: Near Male, Adults only, Underwater restaurant, Seaplane.
Among other things, hotels can be sorted by cost. Immediately in the list you can see the discount, how much the transfer costs and the cost of the villa for one person per night.
How much does it cost to book a hotel?
In fact, the process of early booking is no different from booking, say, a week before the trip. However, there are nuances in payment and cancellation of the reservation.
- Depending on hotel policy, travel must be paid 5-30 days prior to arrival. If you book a villa, for example, 6 months before you move in, then it is not necessary to pay for it immediately upon booking. You will have about 5 months to pay. At the same time, all this time the reservation will be guaranteed to be yours and no one else will be able to book the villa. In fact, at Wiotto you do not have to pay extra for early bookings.
- In case of cancellation of the reservation, if you did not pay for it, you just need to inform the manager that you want to cancel the reservation. If the reservation is paid and you want to cancel it before the period of 5-30 days before settling, then you will be refunded in full. The only possible thing is that your bank may charge money for their services. If the period of 5-30 days has already begun, then the closer to the date of arrival, the higher the cancellation fee. Not all funds will be returned to you, and the amount will depend on the specific hotel and its conditions. At the time of booking, at your request, Wiotto managers will provide a cancellation scheme and penalties charged.
The experience of Wiotto and our clients suggests that booking a villa in the Maldives is best done approximately six months before arrival. You will not only save on bookings, but you will also be able to choose exactly the hotel and villa that you like. A convenient system of payment and cancellation of the reservation will insure you against unforeseen circumstances.
