Bali Governor Wayan Koster brought together representatives of eight online booking platforms and demanded that they stop promoting villas and other accommodation without permits.
Starting on 1 August, the Ministry of Tourism will begin removing around 1600 properties that have still not obtained licences from Agoda, Booking.com, Airbnb and Tiket.com.
“I summoned eight platforms and sat their representatives down in front of me. They are the ones selling tourism services in Bali, including unlicensed villas, which they offer to the whole world,” Koster said. The governor promised tough measures against platforms that continue to list illegal properties.
Koster says there are tens of thousands of houses and villas on the island that are rented to tourists without permits and do not pay tax. Most of them are in Badung, Denpasar and Gianyar.
The platforms have been given a condition: a property may appear in search results only after obtaining a permit. Koster previously demanded that the platforms check whether properties have an NPWPD, a local tax number that shows whether they pay tax to the provincial budget. The Ministry of Tourism requires owners to have an NIB business registration number and a KBLI business activity code.
Bali’s Hotel and Restaurant Tax (PHR) generated 2,89 trillion rupiah from 1 January to 27 May 2026, compared with 2,62 trillion over the same period in 2025. The hotel component rose from 1,7 to 1,8 trillion rupiah, while the restaurant component increased from 885 billion to 1,039 trillion.
At the same time, tourist numbers fell: international arrivals were down 4%, while domestic arrivals dropped 11%. Occupancy at five-star hotels in Kuta remains at 80–90%. Koster attributes the discrepancy to guests moving from illegal accommodation to licensed properties that pay tax.
The deadline for legalisation was postponed twice: owners were initially given until 31 March 2026, and it was then extended until mid-summer. The platforms were required to notify owners one month before removing their listings. In February, Koster separately asked Airbnb to remove unlicensed properties and those with unpaid taxes from its listings.
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