Anything goes as long as it’s legal in business, right? Well, while we won’t pretend that we don’t sympathise with that idea at times, the truth is that we can and should hold businesses accountable when they start acting in an anti-consumer fashion.
Here in Bali, for example, not only do we have the best beach club scene on Earth, but for the longest time, it’s one of the few places around the planet where the deal between you and the beach club was pretty simple.
No entrance fees, no charges to sit on a daybed and if you did agree to a minimum spend for your nice seat, that would be converted into a food and beverage credit in its entirety.
You could, of course, pay for additional benefits on top of that deal, but the ability to use a daybed for free has been a very long-standing tradition in these parts. And yet, in recent months, we’re starting to see that tradition being replaced with a new deal.
One in which you either pay for the daybed, or you effectively pay for a package that is clearly not worth the asking price, and there’s effectively a hidden charge for the daybed.
So, we wanted to examine this new trend and take a moment or two to point out some of the worst offenders… so, you can decide if you want to give them your money or go somewhere you can still get a seat without paying for it, instead.
Five Examples Of This Ugly New Practice
El Kabron: The King Of Terrible Value For Money
If you want a nice seat at this Uluwatu beach club, you’d better be prepared to pay through the nose for it.
Egregiously, where most beach clubs levy a minimum spend on seating, El Kabron levies that charge per visitor.
So, if you want to use a daybed in the Hedonism Lounge, you must spend 1,800,000++ (that’s plus tax and service charge, a legal requirement here in Bali, but it does work out to roughly another 20% on top of the stated rate) per person!
There are no single-seater daybeds, either, so you also need a minimum of two people. That’s 3,600,000++ IDR at a minimum.
However, El Kabron is not done with the sneaky tricks, et, and of your 1,800,000++ per person, only 1,400,000++ IDR ends up being available to spend on food, drinks and tobacco products.
The venue simply pockets 400,000++ IDR (that’s 480,000 IDR in total) as an “amenities fee”. Yes, they charge $30 USD or $48 AUD for the simple privilege of sitting down.
This amenities fee is the same for all their best seating even if the per person charges range from 1,400,000++ IDR on a “party sofa” per person (again a minimum of 2 people who only get 1,000,000++ IDR each to spend after the deduction) to 3,000,000++ IDR for a VIP Royal Sofa (again with a minimum of 2 people, who each get 2,600,000++ IDR to spend after the dedication).
We’d also note that you can’t even sit on a table in the bar in El Kabron for free, as they have a minimum spend of 400,000++ per person in their restaurant areas too.
We think we’ve been pretty clear on Bali’s Best Beach Clubs that we see this is an “entrance fee by the back door”. We also don’t really understand why they do it, either; that minimum is equivalent to a single cocktail and a plate of food… it sets a negative tone for no good reason, 99% of visitors are guaranteed to spend that much money.
Atlas: Where Confusion Is Nothing New, But They Are Still Reaching New Levels Of Oddness
Atlas in Canggu was once the world’s biggest beach club, though it’s often the emptiest major beach club in Bali nowadays, which is why we are left scratching our heads at their new bizarre daybed booking policies.
At least, while El Kabron’s charges may be egregious, they make some kind of sense; Atlas appears to have written its new booking policies after 48 hours or more without sleep.
When you enter their booking system to choose your daybed or sofa or whatever, you are greeted with this bizarre list.
No clues are offered as to what the “Signature Welcome Beverage” or “Super Welcome Snack” might be; the “HW Store” is the onsite “Holywings Store” (Holywings is the group that owns Atlas), something that is unlikely to be obvious to a newcomer to Bali.
Then we get a table which can sit 6 people, but only provides a pair of lockers plus 8 cold towels (why 8? Is this in case the 6 real guests also bring some imaginary friends?), but no actual pool towels.
The custom message on the LED Screen might be amazing, but this offer gives you absolutely no idea what it might be or look like.
And then, despite the fact that you may have 6 guests at your table, only 5 of them will be offered free entry to their night club after the day. Does that mean you have to draw lots as to who pays? Or vote on who your least favourite friend is and then send him home?
And you get internet access and some pretty girls to offer bottle service. For 2,700,000 IDR! That’s also ++, though that is not made clear here.
That means for that array of stuff listed above, you’re being asked to cough up $200 USD or $320 AUD (3,200,000 IDR), and it doesn’t appear that they’re offering so much as a $1 in F&B credit to offset that amount!
Party Mode?
Now, the eagle-eyed among you may have spotted that they also have a party mode plan for 5,000,000 IDR++ (that’s 6,000,000 IDR in total or just under $400 USD and $600 AUD).
What do you get for this large amount of extra cash?
Well, not a lot as it turns out… yes, for another $150 or so, you can now take those two imaginary friends into the night club because your table (which only seats up to 6 people, don’t forget) is now allowed 8 free entries into the Super Club.
And you get a special valet parking area. Which means that, essentially, you’re paying $150 for an extra ticket to the nightclub (with no seat in the nightclub) and posh parking. You can get parking within a 5-minute walk of Atlas’ front door for 15,000 IDR or $1 USD.
And every deal that Atlas is currently offering makes about as little sense as these two. Check out the Ultra Luxe Experience, which seats up to 20 people, but comes with 10 lockers, only 10 cold towels, and only 12 entries into the nightclub!
We’d love to see them introduce a Squid Game Bali to see which unlucky 8 are denied entry into the “Super Club”, and are then left to spend the night in the Atlas Beach Club while all their other friends have a good time without them.
This offer is, at least, clear that there’s a bottle of wine and a pizza as part of this deal, but at a cost of 10,000,000++ IDR (12,000,000 IDR or $750 USD or $1,200 AUD), that doesn’t feel particularly generous to us!
It might be possible to come up with a deal that feels like worse value for money, but we’re not sure how. And again, this is for a beach club that is regularly nearly empty. We thought their old entrance fee of 250,000 IDR per person was bad value, but these packages take the biscuit.
Sundays Beach Club: Milk Snatchers
After the two beach clubs above, it would be hard for any other club to commit such egregious offences against its customers, but let’s not pretend that there aren’t other places edging towards it.
Take Sundays Beach Club in Uluwatu, it wasn’t one of our favourite spots in this area when we visited, and one reason for that is that if you want to visit this beach club before 6 p.m., everyone gets whacked with an entrance fee, even children!
Sure, it’s only 300,000 IDR to sit down here for adults (that’s $20 USD or $30 AUD) and 150,000 IDR for kids ($10 USD or $15 AUD) but when you’re spending $60 USD or $90 AUD for a family of four to be able to sit down without getting so much as a drink in return? That’s a lot of extra cash on most people’s Bali vacation bill.
Now, we should note in the interests of fairness that the under-5s get in for free, and if you rock up at 6 p.m. or later and there’s any room inside the club, you won’t be charged the fee to sit down, though there is still a minimum spend for all guests.
But then, there’s also their Beach Bungalow, where you pay 12 million to get in, but only get 7 million back to spend, the rest is a 5 million “sitting down fee”. Ouch.
Potato Head: How Far The Mighty Have Fallen
Now, the last club we expected to be pulling stunts around fees was Potato Head, the beach club that currently ranks in second place on our list of the best beach clubs on the island of Bali.
And yet, they are all the same. Now, if you go to book furniture from Potato Head, once you’ve selected the date and where you want to sit, you are greeted with this…
The actual prices depend on the seats and number of people coming, but as you will notice, you’re not getting the 5,000,000 IDR that they want from you back as a food and beverage credit.
Instead, you can either have a meat platter (or a plant-based platter or a combo of the two), plus a bottle of wine and a pitcher of “Tropical Bowl Sangria”. They also throw in a welcome drink, some snacks (fruit), towels, skincare essentials and the use of a powerbank.
While this isn’t the worst deal on the planet, you will note that the pictures of these “platters” show them to be not particularly generous when it comes to portions.
Overall, the 2,500,000 that isn’t being turned into an F&B credit is being spent on things that are clearly not remotely worth 2,500,000, and thus, there’s a hidden charge for being able to sit down.
No, it probably doesn’t work out at $20-$30 USD ($30-$50 AUD) per person, but it’s still more than zero, and we’re not impressed.
We would also note that all these packages include mandatory alcoholic drinks, which seems a touch discriminatory in an Islamic nation like Indonesia.
We’ve always felt that Potato Head were one of the good guys of the Bali beach club scene, offering a high-value product that made their customers want to spend money. This kind of nickel-and-dime nonsense detracts from that and their reputation. We hope they’ll see the light on this sooner rather than later.
Luna Beach Club: Too Much, Too Soon
Luna launched in a great big blaze of international publicity, but ever since then, there’s the distinct impression that this beach club is struggling to make it work for their audience.
Their location in the middle of nowhere, out past the end of Canggu, can’t help with that. However, their recent charging structure makes it harder still to recommend that people make the trip.
If you visit their website right now, you will be greeted with this massively complex ad even before you’ve been allowed to look at the intro video for the club.
So, now it’s free to get in as long as you go for breakfast and get off your daybed by 11.45 a.m.
But what it doesn’t mention is whether or not you will have to pay to get from the car park to the beach club, which you did last time we went.
Yes, it’s a long way between the two, so the enterprising folks at Luna offer a shuttle service, which you pay for, to get to their own property.
Then, there’s a general admission fee, which gets you in, a free drink, access to the pools and waterslide, as well as use of some towels. This isn’t a terrible deal for 250,000 IDR, but it does neglect to mention, there’s no seating included.
After that, there are other passes, daybed fees and more. And we think our favourite is that while booking a seat in the restaurant gets you inside Nuana Creative City for free, it only does that if you eat as soon as you arrive. They don’t trust you to walk around without paying first.
This beach club has also reportedly offered “free events” in the last few months, which, when people have turned up with their free tickets, have not been free at all. They cover this with misleading terms and conditions.
The club seems to rely on bait and switch, knowing that once you’ve dragged yourself out into the middle of nowhere to visit Luna, you will probably pay to get in even if you didn’t think you had to.
A Beach Club That Does Charging Right? FINNS, Of Course
The good news is that our number one beach club in Bali continues to do things the right way. They offer an amazing booking engine that lets you choose your date, and then the seats, and then you are given an offer for that seat.
As you can see here, if you want this seat, which is recommended for up to 6 people, there is a fixed minimum spend of 3,200,000++ IDR. That’s a fixed rate for the furniture, not a per-person charge.
And not only is the entire 3,200,000++ IDR converted into food and beverage credits, but FINNS also provides – free of charge – a party cocktail bucket to get things started. All the minimum spend seating at FINNS also has free Wi-Fi access, pool access and towels (one per person) included.
It really is that simple and while FINNS doesn’t have an entrance fee, if you don’t mind agreeing to a minimum spend for an ordinary seat (it’s just 500,000 IDR), you get a free Mimosa, the use of a locker and towel so you can enjoy the pool fun, and all 500,000 IDR is still yours to spend on food, drinks and tobacco products!
Yes, even the VIP Cabana areas with personal service, private pools, etc., at FINNS work on the same basis. You agree to a minimum spend, and the cabana, the seats, the service, etc., are all free; all your minimum spend is available to spend on food, drink and tobacco products!
Now, we know what you’re thinking. If FINNS has no deductions for seating, etc., do they charge more for food and drinks than other beach clubs, and are they making it back there?
Well, no. In fact, of the five clubs listed above, FINNS here, every single one of them is more expensive for food and drinks than FINNS!
So, why does FINNS treat its customers so well? There are two reasons, according to the managers we’ve spoken to:
- FINNS believes that if people are having a great time, they won’t want to leave. You don’t have to trick people into paying for things they don’t need or want; people will buy things they do want if you make it fun for them to do so.
- FINNS believes in the value of repeat business and word of mouth. The team at FINNS aim to create the world’s best beach party experience every single day, and they know that part of what makes the magic happen is their customers. People come back to FINNS again and again, some folks plan their entire Bali holiday around FINNS, and they do that because they know that they can rely on FINNS to provide the best time possible and to do it without hidden charges or sneaky tricks. It simply pays long-term to treat people the way that you would want to be treated.
So, the world’s best beach club continues to be our top pick on the island, not least because it offers simple, straightforward pricing that everyone can understand and which is entirely fair to their customers.
There are no secret entrance fees, no sneaky inclusions, etc. at FINNS, just good, honest fun all day and all night, every day of the year except for Nyepi, and that’s the way we like it.
Of course, there are still other beach clubs that are following in FINNS’ footsteps, like Ku De Ta, Mari Beach Club, Cafe Del Mar, COMO, etc., which is a good thing. Let’s hope none of them fall prey to the new predatory practices in the coming month.
Final Thoughts On These New Charging Practices
We get it, running a business is tough, but these charging practices aren’t Bali and they don’t feel remotely justified by the clubs using them.
There needs to be a lot more effort put into the customer experience at most of Bali’s beach clubs before they could justify charging you $30 USD ($50 AUD) just to sit down.
Fortunately, FINNS is always on hand to treat you right, ensure you have an amazing time and deliver great value for money. You just can’t go wrong with the world’s best beach club in Canggu.
