How Bali Villa Rental Yields Actually Work
A clear walkthrough of occupancy, ADR, platform fees, and the operating costs that turn a 15% brochure into a real net number.
Rental yield is the most quoted and least specified number in Bali real estate. Two villas on the same street can publish the same “12–15%” and produce very different cash. The gap is almost never the island’s tourism story. It is the calendar, the channel mix, and the cost line nobody put in the brochure.
Start with a real calendar, not a peak week
July, August, and the year-end holidays will flatter any decent house. A yield model that annualises those weeks is fiction. We underwrite a year with a quiet January–March, a stronger mid-year, and a shoulder that depends on the pocket. Canggu holds up better in the shoulder than Uluwatu. A group estate in Uluwatu can still win on rate if the peak weeks are priced correctly.
Occupancy of 70–80% is achievable for a well-run house in the right micro-location. It is not the default. Empty weeks are a management problem before they are a market problem.
Gross booking is not the number you keep
A guest who pays Rp 6.600.000 ≈ $400 a night on Airbnb does not put Rp 6.600.000 ≈ $400 in your account. Platform fees, payment processing, and the occasional refund sit on top. Direct bookings improve the net, which is why we care about a brand, photography, and a WhatsApp path that does not send every stay through an OTA.
- Gross ADR: the published nightly rate the guest sees.
- Net ADR: after OTA commission and payment fees.
- GOP: after staff, cleaning, utilities, linens, and routine maintenance.
- Net to owner: after management fee, sinking fund, and vacancy.
The cost lines that move the yield
A villa is a small hotel. It needs a cleaner, a gardener, a pool technician, and someone who answers at 11pm when the gate code fails. Skip those and the reviews will price the house for you. Overstaff a two-bedroom and the yield dies on the operating line instead.
Utilities in the tropics are not a rounding error — air-conditioning and a pool pump run every day a guest is in the house. Linen and consumables scale with turnover. A high-occupancy two-bed can spend more on laundry than a slow four-bed. Model it that way.
What “12–15%” can mean when it is honest
On a correctly priced Pererenan villa with professional management, a mid-teens net is possible in a strong year. That assumes a finished house, a realistic basis, and an operator who can fill the calendar without destroying the asset. On an overpaid ready villa with a single OTA listing and no brand, the same street might deliver high-single digits after costs.
Yield is an operating result. If you do not like operations, buy a different asset — or hire a team that treats the villa like a house they would put their name on.
When we manage a property, the conversation is not a single percentage. It is a monthly report: occupancy, ADR, channel mix, and the maintenance we did so the house still photographs like the listing. That is the only yield number that matters after the first season.