Bali’s pandemic renters face rude awakening as prices skyrocket

At the height of the pandemic, Maria, a refugee from the Philippines, paid 2.8 million rupiahs ($180) every month to rent a hotel room in Indonesia’s Bali, Qazet.az reports.

But when international tourists began returning to the popular resort island en masse earlier this year, Maria’s hotel in Canggu, a coastal village popular with surfers and night revellers, hiked its prices five-fold.

“One day they raised it to 400,000 rupiahs per day without any warning,” Maria, who requested to be referred to by a pseudonym, told Al Jazeera.

“Now I’m staying in a tiny room near [the provincial capital] Denpasar with no air conditioning. It’s all I can afford.”

As Bali rebounds from COVID-19, the cost of accommodation on the island is soaring in a sobering reality check for renters, many of them foreigners who sought shelter in Bali during the pandemic.