Don’t Get Caught In Bali Villa Scams!

Booked your flights, found some accommodations options; however, be careful not to get caught up in one of these Bali villa scams! This post is going to tell you about a scam which we managed to avoid and some top tips on how to find a villa in Bali!

This post is all about how to avoid a Bali villa scams.

My story:

The search:

My partner and I were going to go to Bali for a month. We decided that we would like to try renting a villa in Ubud for the entire month so started doing some research. One of our requirements, was that the villa needed to have good wifi (which can be a bit hit and miss in Bali).

We did some research on AirBnB and also Booking.com and created a shortlist of potential villas. We then messaged them all to see if they could send through speedtests etc to prove the WIFI speed (they all said strong WIFI, but the speedtests showed differently). From that information, we picked one on Booking.com. Booking.com did not require payment until closer to the stay.

Contacting the villa:

Luckily, I was going to be in Bali for 2 months, and I would arrive the month before my partner.  Because of this, we asked if it would be possible that I (in the first month) view the villa to check everything was ok.

At this point, the management of the villa agreed and told me that they would wait for me to contact them when I arrive, to organise a viewing.

A couple days later, the management team messaged me with the following message:

There was no promotional price on Booking.com – this was the set price. They had just decided to up their price to more than double what the original price was!  I said to them, that it should be what was on Booking.com and they told me to cancel the booking and rebook.

I waited some days without responding to them, and after a couple of days another message came through that actually, they had spoken with the management again, and now the price we paid was valid.

Very fishy! This instantly made us think something strange was going on! I also no longer believed that they would actually keep their word for that price, or that they wouldn’t try and charge extra when we were finally there. (Adding it on as either utilities/ damages etc).

Anyway, I was going to be flying to Bali a few days later, so we made the decision that we would wait and see, I would go and visit the place and check it out. That way, I could also get a feel of the people who were managing this property to see if I could suss the situation out.

Arriving in Bali/ visiting this villa:

Once I arrived in Ubud, I contacted them to view the villa. They agreed to meet me on Saturday afternoon at the villa. I arrived around 5 minutes early and walked my way down to the outside of the villa. The villa gates were all locked up and no one seemed to be around.

I could peer over the wall into the villa and garden and the whole place looked as if it hadn’t seen a person for some time. This gave me a bad impression, as if they knew I was coming, surely they would have cleaned up at least a little. It was the same place as what was advertised, but the pictures must have been taken YEARS ago!

I messaged again, again and again… still nothing. Finally, someone called me and apologised saying he was unavailable. He told me that another person in the management team had just left and was on their way. When I asked, roughly how long they would be, they said around 5-10 minutes.

So I waited…and I waited…. Nothing. 10, 20, 30 minutes later and still nothing. I gave them the benefit of the doubt that maybe they were stuck in traffic, but when an hour and a half had passed, I realised no one was coming.

Anyway, all of that was enough for us to confirm that we hadn’t found a villa and that we needed to look for another.

I can now see that this villa isn’t even shown on Booking.com anymore, so I cannot even link it for you!

Some takeaways from this experience:

• Don’t bother looking at places which are NEW on Booking.com and have no reviews. (which was the case for this villa)
• If they contact wanting to change the price, this is a red flag.

Finding a new place:

However, following this, I had a very pleasant experience. As I was already in Ubud, we went back to our list of potential villas which we had made at the beginning of the search. I then contacted the top 3 to ask for a viewing.

These villas were all great, with friendly staff, the villas looked like in the pictures and there was no funny business with the price. I could test the internet speed and really see which villa would be the best fit for our stay in Bali.

Even though all of these villas gave us the option of paying off booking.com for cheaper, my partner and I decided it was best to still book via booking.com in order to have some security. Otherwise, it is one person’s word against another with cash in hand.

In the end, we stayed at Villa Padma on Jl. Tirta Tawar. It was the perfect location, just a short walk from the city centre, fairly quiet, with wonderful staff and cheaper than the ‘scam’ villa. We had a one bedroom villa which also came with a little living area, basic kitchen and swimming pool. Breakfast was served every day in our villa and there was a selection to choose from (which was great seeing as we were there for a month).

We were very happy with our final choice, would definitely stay there again and were so happy to have avoided the Bali villa scam!

Some Things To Be Aware Of When Booking Accommodation In Bali:

• When you think of a kitchen (in the West, we typically think of a microwave, oven, burners, fridge, freezer etc. This is typically not the case in Bali (and a lot of Asia) as most cooking will be done on burners. So, if it doesn’t state it has a microwave and oven etc, it probably doesn’t.
• Depending on your expectations, you may have to lower them on what you think the furnishings and finishings in the accommodation will be like. There is usually nothing wrong with them, but the quality may not be as good as in the west. So think, when it rains, it may leak a little etc.

My recommendations when finding a place in Bali and avoiding Bali villa scams:

• If you are going to be staying in Bali over a month, I would highly recommend doing it the way we did. Arrive and then look around.
• I understand that this is not something everyone can do, especially if you are just going on holiday. In that case, I would focus on villas which have A LOT OF reviews on booking.com or Airbnb and reviews which are longer. Not just – very nice/ beautiful.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions to the host. They should be willing to answer you. Doing this also allowed us to realise that this villa wasn’t correct. If we hadn’t messaged them before, we would have just arrived and been in a bit of a messy situation!

I hope your villa/ accommodation search goes well. If you are looking for other accommodation in Bali, you can check out my other recommendations for other areas of Bali (with cheaper accommodation options – not villas) in this blog post here:

[Related post: 7 top destinations Bali]

Happy accommodation hunting, stay wise and stay safe,

Love,

This post is all about Bali villa scams.