Pondok wisata (KBLI 55130) in English: the owner-occupied homestay

The Balinese family compound with rooms for guests has its own code and its own standard. The line from a villa: the owner lives there.

The pondok wisata standard, item by item

A pondok wisata is the Balinese family compound with a few rooms for guests — the homestay, in the licensing system’s own category. It is a different business from a villa, with its own code and its own standard, and the line between them is whether the owner lives there.

What makes it a pondok wisata

The standard defines it as accommodation in a house lived in by its owner, standalone or within one compound, partly let to tourists, to empower the local economy (Permenpar 6/2025 Lampiran I, KBLI 55130, item 2(b)), covering daily-paid lodging run by an individual in a house the owner lives in, part of which is let, giving tourists the chance to share the owner's daily life (Permenpar 6/2025 Lampiran I, KBLI 55130, item 1). It is rated medium-low risk (Permenpar 6/2025 Lampiran I, KBLI 55130, heading), and its code is one of homestay (55130), youth hostel (55191), camping (55192), villa (55193) and other short-term accommodation (55199): micro, small and medium only (PP 28/2025 Lampiran I.L, KBLI 55130-55199).

What the owner must have

The obligations are a health-worthiness certificate (SLS) and a self-assessment document (Permenpar 6/2025 Lampiran I, KBLI 55130, item 6(a)-(b)), with health and accident insurance for employees (Permenpar 6/2025 Lampiran I, KBLI 55130, item 6(b)(2)). A pondok wisata that seeks certification meets more: at most 5 guest bedrooms, separate from the household's, each with at least one bed (Permenpar 6/2025 Lampiran I, KBLI 55130, item 6.3.1(a)); at least one guest bathroom or toilet, with lockable doors (Permenpar 6/2025 Lampiran I, KBLI 55130, item 6.3.1(b)); at least one manager of good conduct, healthy and competent (Permenpar 6/2025 Lampiran I, KBLI 55130, item 6.2(a)); and design and materials in good condition and reflecting local identity (Permenpar 6/2025 Lampiran I, KBLI 55130, item 6.1(h)).

The house itself needs clean water, telecommunications, adequate electricity, simple wastewater disposal, and good ventilation and lighting (Permenpar 6/2025 Lampiran I, KBLI 55130, item 6.1(a)-(d), (f)). The service list includes check-in and check-out with a record of guest identity, and reporting foreign guests to the authorities (Permenpar 6/2025 Lampiran I, KBLI 55130, item 6.3.2(b)-(d)), and clean and safe food and drink, laundry, eco-friendly activities, and information on local activities and products (Permenpar 6/2025 Lampiran I, KBLI 55130, item 6.3.2(j)-(m)). Management includes guest rules in line with the law, local wisdom and local adat custom (Permenpar 6/2025 Lampiran I, KBLI 55130, item 6.4(f)) — the one place the national standard writes the desa adat into a license.

The guest-identity duty is the practical one. A homestay taking foreign guests keeps their identity on record and reports them; a buyer of a compound with a homestay history can ask to see that register as evidence the business actually ran under its license.

Why it matters to a buyer

Two situations bring it up. A family compound offered for sale or lease may be operating as a pondok wisata; its license is tied to the owner living there, so it does not pass to a buyer who will not. And a plan to “register as a homestay” to avoid the villa rules runs into the definition: a whole house let without its owner is not a pondok wisata. Our reading of the two definitions side by side. The villa standard.

A licensed homestay is still taxed like a hotel at the regional level: the hotel-services tax names “pondok wisata” among its providers (Law 1/2022 (HKPD) art. 53(1)(d)), at a rate of at most 10% (Law 1/2022 (HKPD) art. 58(1)) set by each regency. Being small does not take it out of the tax. The same article also reaches villas, and private residences used as a hotel (Law 1/2022 (HKPD) art. 53(1)), so a house let to tourists without any license is not outside the tax either. The villa rental tax.

And the license does not replace the land and building rules. Any business license under the risk-based system sits on the basic requirements of spatial-use conformity (KKPR), environmental approval (PL), and the building approval and fitness certificate (PBG and SLF) (PP 28/2025 art. 12(1)): a family house that adds guest rooms is a change of use for the zone and the building approval, which the homestay standard does not deal with. PBG and SLF.

Supervision and sanctions are the same as for any tourism business: the regency or city tourism office, for domestic (PMDN) medium-low-risk tourism businesses (Permenpar 6/2025 art. 7(5)), with warnings, suspension and revocation (Permenpar 6/2025 art. 12(3)). Permenpar 6/2025.

This is commentary on the official text, not legal advice.

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