The View From the Beach

The villa market in neighboring Lombok seems to be showing some signs of life. Lombok has always been sort of Bali’s sleepy next door neighbor — with most people touching ground on the main island only long enough to hop a ferry to the Gilis. But, little by little the hotel scene has been growing and accommodations across the board improving. The airport’s inclusion on the list of destinations capable of granting visas on arrival kept the destination open as a possible first arrival point. Unfortunately the primary market for that service — Australia — has been less than lukewarm on the whole Indonesian experience for the last year or so.

So, with some suprise, I’ve been seeing several interesting villa properties emerge in the last couple of months. The new 18 hole golf course near the departure terminals for the Gilis is one factor and part of a growing trend towards providing luxury services.

Watch this space…

This was another weekend of checking out new properties. Friday night I got my first look at the recently-completed villa Indah Manis. Though they are still finishing off the spa, the villa is largely complete and ready to go. This is a lovely 5 bedroom property in Pecatu Hills. The villa is divides into two private units, a 4 bedroom main complex and a separate 1 bedroom “honeymoon suite.” With two pools, a gym, a spa, a billards table and a guest office, this villa has just about everything you could want. It’s the latest in a trend towards “destination villas,” that is, villas where which are a destination in and of themselves. BHM is just completing the set up operations for this property (we manage this one) and we expect it to be taking guests shortly after the New Year. No photos yet, but stay tuned…

Meanwhile the rest of the BHM team was taking a management stay at Villa Coraffan in Canggu (see photo below in the entry concerning the Villa Coraffan launch party). I dropped by today for lunch. It’s a great casual villa. Cool, comfortable and a perfect place to lounge around the pool. Villa Coraffan has 4 bedrooms with a media room which converts into a 5th bedroom. Two of the bedrooms have a “crow’s nest” — ascend a steep narrow staircase from within the bedroom and enter a tiny balcony — room for one — which looks out over the rice fields. You can bet I’d be curled up there with a book the whole time I was at the property.

The variety in accommodations is really one of the most special aspects of the whole villa experience and I am sure one of the main reasons people keep coming back again and again…

‘Tis the season, or rather, nearly so. The Christmas/New Years’ period is one of the island’s two tradition Peak Seasons (the other being August). Looking at the number, 2006 is shaping up to be an excellent year. While it is doubtful Elite Havens will exceed the record 2005 performance, we will get very very close.

The strength of the seasonal bookings is consistent with the way the market here has firmed up across 2006. The first Quarter put on a very poor showing, but things began to bounce back in Q2; by Q3 things were moving at an excellent rate.

Looking forward, the first Quarter of 2007 is already showing signs of out-perfoming the same period in both 2006 and 2005. We’re keeping our fingers crossed, but the Bali market seems to be very resilient to disruption — particularly at the luxury end of the market where we tend to focus all our activities.

The trends hold true both for our agency business (Elite Havens) and our wholesale business (BHM). But, in all fairness, BHM’s gains are also partially attributable to the increase in inventory in 2006 — we’ve basically doubled the size of the catalog — and to the increase in the number of agents in our network.

Rentals is not the only group that is doing well as we move through the last Quarter; Sales enquiry volumes are up. The sales market is complex and there are a variety of factors at work here. Certainly, though, we’re getting a boost from our new sales website, www.EliteHavensSales.com, which began generating a phenomenal number of page views right out of the gate (over 1,000 pages a day in its first month — amazing).

Adding it all up, I can’t help but reach the conclusion that Bali villas, Bali vacations and Bali properties are hot again. I plan to sit back, be merry and enjoy the season.

Sitting here at The Istana at the conclusion of a 2 night management stay. The Istana is a 5 bedroom property located atop the cliffs near Uluwatu Temple in the very southern portion of Bali. The villa has a fabulous view West, over the Indian Ocean. It makes for some of the most spectacular sunsets…

We (BHM) periodically do management stays at the villas we operate. The stays are intended to put the staff through their paces, to evaluate F&B and service levels, and to spend some time walking the property and discussing issues with the villa management. We try to do these twice a year, but it’s a challenge to find open slots on calendars and with people’s schedules, etc. It is also, frankly, one of the great perqs of this job…

The Istana has a staff of 22 persons and a restaurant style F&B service. As a result, quality control, training and day to day management issues are constantly a challenge. The fact the the villa is replete with wood and open to the sea breezes also brings non-stop maintenance issues. 2 pools, a proper service kitchen, genset, etc., etc., also add to the maintenance burden.

At the conclusion of this stay, it’s fair to say in hindsight that all is in suprisingly good order. We’re making a few menu changes and are actually decreasing some F&B prices, but aside from that and some changes to landscaping policy, all is well and we’re ready for the Christmas Season rush.
To learn more about The Istana, visit the website at www.TheIstana.com.

To learn more about BHM, go to www.BHMVillas.com.

Villa Coraffan in Canggu is having their Open House event this afternoon. Coraffan is a BHM marketed villa and the Open House events are held as part of our normal launch process. This is a chance for all the Agents in the system to drop by and view the property. Not only is it a good chance to get to see the property firsthand, but often agents bring a camera to capture a few unique photos for their websites. The Open House events are also a great chance for the people in the industry to network over cocktails and canapes…

Villa Coraffan is a 4 bedroom property (with a media room which can server as a 5th bedroom). The villa was just completed this sumemr and has only started taking guests. It’s fully staffed, includes a great pool, a gym and rice field views. The villa is located in Canggu and is close to the Canggu Club. We expect this property to do well.

Visit the villa’s website for more images and info.