Villa rental company, property manager or DMC: what each is licensed to do in Bali

Bali villas are sold, managed and filled by businesses that call themselves rental agencies, villa management companies, property managers and destination management companies, often for the same villa. Indonesian business classification separates them, and only one is allowed to package tours, guides and transport. This page reads the 2025 codes in OSS, the 2025 travel bureau standard, Bali's 2020 cultural tourism Perda and the road transport law.

Seven words in the guest-services chain

The terms in OSS and the regulations.

Six roles, six codes

The villa side

KBLI 55203 is short-term accommodation in private houses let to tourists and run by their owners; 55901 is third-party management of accommodation, excluding owning and operating hotels directly and general management consulting without operations; 68292 is managing residential property for a fee. None of the three descriptions mentions tours, guides or transport. The management codes. Agency or manager.

The travel side

KBLI 79121, the travel bureau, plans and assembles tour packages, sells them through agents or directly, supplies guides for the packages it sells, supplies tourist transport, books accommodation, meals, venues and attraction tickets, and handles travel documents (OSS — KBLI 2025 79121 (2026)). OSS lists it for medium and large businesses only, at medium-high risk, with a standard certificate from a certification body, licensed by the governor — or the Minister for a PMA. The travel agent (79110) sells packages bureaus make, and excludes intermediation for accommodation only; guide services are 79903. Both are low risk.

Guides, insurance and transport

The 2025 standard for a travel bureau requires an equipped office with clear title, health and accident insurance for staff, more than five packages of which at least three are its own, travel insurance for tourists stated in each package, insured guides and an insured tour leader, and staff with competency certificates; the provincial office verifies within 14 working days (Permenpar 6/2025).

Bali's 2020 cultural tourism Perda defines a guide as “Warga Negara Indonesia” who gives guidance on attractions (Pasal 1 angka 30); a guide must carry the KTPP card and hold competency and Balinese-culture certificates (Pasal 22), on pain of up to three months' detention or IDR 50 million (Pasal 37). The ministry's list of positions open to foreigners includes tour managers, not guides (Kepmenaker 228/2019).

Moving tourists for hire is public transport. Public transport of people is carried only in public vehicles (UU 22/2009 Pasal 138(3)); transport for tourism is a non-route service (Pasal 151) in public passenger cars or buses with special markings (Pasal 154(2)); the operator needs a non-route transport permit (Pasal 173), and driving without it carries up to two months or IDR 500,000 (Pasal 308). Bali's Perda adds a Bali-branded design, colour and logo for tourism operators' vehicles (Perda 5/2020 Pasal 9).

What that means for a villa

• Recommending a licensed bureau or guide keeps the villa inside its own codes.
• Selling its own day tours with guides and a car is the travel-bureau activity, with its scale limit, certificate, insurance and transport rules.
• A driver on the villa's payroll taking guests sightseeing for a fee is tourist transport for hire.

What this page does not cover

• Online travel platforms' merchant rules. Commissions.
• Boat and water-sport operators.
• Plate colours for tourist vehicles, not in the texts read.

Common questions