What legal licenses a legitimate Bali villa rental agency should have — and how to check them

“Agency” is the word owners and guests use for half a dozen different businesses in Bali: the company that brings bookings, the one that runs the villa day to day, the property manager, the real estate agent and the tour desk. Indonesian licensing does not use the word at all. It licenses activities, each under its own business code, and a company is legitimate for the activities its registration covers — not for the ones on its website. This page sets out which code goes with which role, what the licensing system asks of each, and how to check an agency's papers yourself before you hand over a villa, a deposit or a guest.

Five kinds of agency, five licenses

Start from what the agency will actually do for you, not from what it calls itself. Each row below is a distinct activity in the 2025 business classification, and an agency that does several needs each code on its registration.

Bringing bookings

Accommodation intermediation, 55400, is bringing guests and accommodation providers together for a fee or commission, online or offline, with the commission paid by either side; it includes booking services (Peraturan BPS No. 7 Tahun 2025 (KBLI 2025), class 55400 (2025)). It is the code for an agency that markets your villa and takes a cut of each booking but does not run it.

Running the villa

Accommodation management, 55901, is a third party responsible for the accommodation's overall performance and operation, including day-to-day decisions, acting for the owner and paid a management fee (Peraturan BPS No. 7 Tahun 2025 (KBLI 2025), class 55901 (2025)). On OSS it is medium-low risk; open to large businesses; PMA needs an LSPr certificate: a self-assessment against the hotel-management standard, a health certificate, and for a foreign-investment company a standard certificate from a certification body rather than a self-declaration (OSS — KBLI 55901 detail (2026)).

Managing the property

Residential property management, 68292, is managing a house for a fee or under contract: supervising maintenance and repair, collecting charges, budgeting (Peraturan BPS No. 7 Tahun 2025 (KBLI 2025), class 68292 (2025)). It classifies the manager, not the villa. OSS lists it as medium-high risk, under the trade ministry, with an Indonesian legal entity, a written agreement with each service user, the license number displayed at the premises and in all publicity, and activity reports to the trade minister (OSS — KBLI 68292 detail (2026)).

Selling property, selling tours

Selling or letting property for commission is real estate intermediation, 68210 (Peraturan BPS No. 7 Tahun 2025 (KBLI 2025), class 68210 (2025)). Selling tours, transfers and packages to guests is a different license again: the travel bureau, 79121, covers packages, guides, tourist transport and bookings, and is licensed by the governor with a standard certificate from a certification body (OSS — KBLI 2025 79121 (2026)); its standard asks for travel insurance for tourists, insured guides and tour leaders, an equipped office (Permenpar No. 6 Tahun 2025, travel bureau standard (2025)). A travel agent that only resells packages is 79110 (Peraturan BPS No. 7 Tahun 2025 (KBLI 2025), class 79110 (2025)). Guides are a person-level license: a guide is an Indonesian citizen, with a guide card (Perda Provinsi Bali No. 5 Tahun 2020, Pasal 1 angka 30 and 22 (2020)).

How to check an agency's licenses yourself

1. Ask for the NIB. Every business holds one NIB — the business actor's identity, one per actor, valid while it trades (PP No. 28 Tahun 2025, Pasal 1 and 206 (2025)). It records the company's profile, capital, tax number, KBLI and location (PP No. 28 Tahun 2025, Pasal 207 ayat (1) (2025)).
2. Read the KBLI codes on it. They are listed by five-digit code. Compare them with the table above and with what the agency is offering you, not with what its website says.
3. Check the document is genuine. The NIB is a random number with a security feature and an electronic signature (PP No. 28 Tahun 2025, Pasal 206 ayat (8) (2025)), and OSS license documents carry a QR code, and a regency investment office describes a public app that reads it and displays the license data without logging in (DPMPTSP Kabupaten Bantul, 26 August 2020 (2020)).
4. Match the names. The company on the NIB should be the company on your contract, your invoice and, for a guest, the booking confirmation. A different name means you are dealing with someone else's license.
5. Ask whose name the villa's license is in. The villa code, 55203, is allocated to cooperatives and MSMEs (OSS — KBLI 2025 55203 and KBLI 2020 55193, investment requirement (2026)). If an agency holds the villa license in its own name, ask on what basis, and what happens to it when the contract ends. Whose license is whose.
6. Ask who files the hotel tax. For nightly stays the taxpayer is the business supplying the stay (Perda Kab. Badung No. 7 Tahun 2023, Pasal 25 (2024)). An agency selling stays should be able to say whether that is itself or the owner.

None of these needs a lawyer to ask, and a legitimate agency can answer them in writing, usually by return. The villa-side checks — the villa's own license, its building approval and its tax — are on how to check whether a Bali villa is licensed.

Red flags in the paperwork

• No NIB, or an NIB in a director's personal name when the contracting party is a company.
• Codes that do not match the work — an NIB for intermediation (55400) from a company that says it runs your villa day to day, or a tour desk with no travel bureau license.
• No written agreement from a property manager: for 68292 a written agreement with each client is a listed requirement (OSS — KBLI 68292 detail (2026)).
• A villa held through someone else's name. Since 2026 Bali's Perda bans acting as intermediary or facilitator, or providing the means for nominee ownership (Perda Provinsi Bali No. 4 Tahun 2026, Pasal 14 (2026)). An agency that offers to arrange it is offering exactly that. The nominee Perda.
• A foreign guide. A guide must be an Indonesian citizen, with a guide card.
• “We are on all the platforms” as the only evidence. The tourism ministry said in 2026 that platforms should not onboard new accommodation merchants without an NIB and KBLI code (Minister of Tourism press conference, 26 May 2026, via ANTARA (2026)) — a reported instruction, not a check anyone has shown is carried out.
• Booking terms that refuse refunds outright. A standard clause refusing to return money paid for a service is void by law (UU No. 8 Tahun 1999, Pasal 18 (1999)). Booking terms and consumer law.

A red flag is a question, not a verdict. A small agency can be legitimate and simply registered for fewer codes than it markets; the point is to know which of its services rest on a license and which do not.

Owners and guests are checking the same company

An owner handing over a villa and a guest booking a stay often deal with the same agency, from opposite sides. The owner's questions are about the management role and the contract — rental company, property management company, developer or DMC and the contract clauses that matter. The guest's are about the stay, the bill and the staff — the guest's due diligence checklist. The NIB and the codes on it answer part of both, which is why they are the first thing to ask for. The full map of villa and management codes is on Bali villa licenses and the KBLI codes by activity.

What this page does not cover

• Any particular agency. We do not rate, rank or recommend agencies.
• Commission caps for property agents, which OSS says are set by regulation; we have not read that regulation.
• Licensing of the villa itself. Checking a villa's license.

Common questions