What If I Arrive Maldives Without A Hotel Reservation?

Maldives gives free tourist visa on arrival at the airport, but you should have a valid passport (with at least 3 months before expiration), a confirmed hotel reservation and confirmed departure ticket. Even if you do not have a confirmed hotel reservation, in most of the cases but not always, you are allowed to enter the country. Department of Immigration and Emigration reserves the right to depart anyone tourist arriving without confirmed accommodation reservation. It is also advisable to keep some cash (US Dollar) in hand as the Immigration Department sometimes allow you enter if you have enough cash instead of confirmed hotel reservation. Some tourists keep the reservation voucher saved on mobile phone or email inbox, that is also not a good practice.



At the airport you will keep representatives from different hotels and guesthouses. If you do not have a reservation you they do help you but the prices are unreasonably higher. Many tourists do not have any other option once arrived to Maldives. But, it is regretful when you find out real price you could get if you made a booking on advance.

Maldives is a popular destination. Sometimes every hotel bed is occupied, every vessel full and tourists even pass the night up in the airport. If you do not wish to end like this you would need confirmed hotel reservation.

Despite these drawbacks the fact is there are considerable numbers of tourists arriving Maldives without hotel reservation. May be it was just their personal situation that did not allow them to book on advance or that they did not know how it end up. This is not the practice only in Maldives, may it is worse in many other places. For those who did not know about this, hope this information helps.

Update on 28 July 2021

Following the Covid19 pandemic the Department Of Immigration has implement more strict policies for entry to tourists. The policy is frequently changing according to Covid19 conditions in the country. The Immigration Department advices tourists to check the recent updates before flying to Maldives. From time to time some nationalities get temporarily from entering to Maldives. Recently there were several tourists who were denied entry to Maldives due to fake hotel reservations. It is highly advisable to book direct with hotel or a local travel agency which enables the Immigration officials to call directly to hotel to verify the reservations.



Maldives Visa for Tourist, Work and Business
Still a lot of people are overpaying for Maldives holiday
248 tourists denied entry to Maldives on a single day