The Indonesian immigration authority is taking serious steps regarding hotels, guesthouses, and villas that accommodate foreigners. The Directorate General of Immigration has launched a new digital platform where all accommodation providers in the country — including those in Bali — must register their foreign guests. This update also applies to private villa and apartment owners.
So, what will change for tourists during check-in? Spoiler: almost nothing.
The main new requirement for property owners renting to foreigners is to upload a scan of the guest’s documents into the Foreigners Supervision Application (APOA) and specify check-in and check-out dates. This will create a centralized digital database of all foreign travelers in Indonesia — a move long requested by immigration officers.
Now, immigration officials have the right to request the data of any guest at any time.
“Thanks to more structured reporting, it will be faster and easier to detect illegal activities that may threaten public order and national sovereignty,” said Yuldi Yusman, Director of Supervision and Immigration Law Enforcement.
In reality, passports were already being collected at check-in in most hotels and guesthouses. Accommodation providers were obliged to report foreign guest information to local police stations. However, many villa owners and small guesthouse operators without an official hotel license often ignored this requirement — partly to avoid taxes and fees.
The mandatory registration of foreign guests is aimed at helping both immigration authorities and the Bali provincial government identify unlicensed landlords. Those who refuse to comply and remain “in the shadows” may face a fine of 25 million rupiah (around $1,600) or up to three months in jail.
There’s another feature of the new digital register that benefits the government: finding a foreigner who has broken the law will now be just a few clicks away. But for law-abiding tourists, not much will change.
“The app is still not available on the App Store, so we’re not sure where to get it yet — we’re waiting for clarification from our lawyers,” says Nikolai F., owner of a family-run hotel in Ubud.
“But most likely, there won’t be any drastic changes. Even check-in time probably won’t be affected. We’ll just continue taking passport photos and inputting them into the system later when we have time. But those who sublet villas will definitely have to come up with something.”
As of March 24, 2025, the official immigration database recorded 78,077 foreign guests registered across Indonesia — a number that is significantly lower than the actual number of international tourists who visited the country in the first three months of the year.
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