I hadn’t been back to Indonesia for close to a year and was surprised that some of the hotel chains had started to display prices in IDR instead of the usual USD on their websites before I saw the sign below at the InterContinental Jakarta.
Marriott properties in Indonesia were very bad using “fictional” exchange rates when converting displayed USD prices to IDR for payment. I once caught Ritz-Carlton Mega Kuningan ripping off its customers by 10% and wrote about the incident here.
Some hotels were claiming previously that I could always pay by USD if I was not satisfied with the IDR conversion offered.
Now paying by any other than the official currency of Indonesia is banned. If the hotels are still trying to offer fictitious rates (Hyatt still displays USD rates and Grand Hyatt Jakarta’s rate always used to be of by 3% to 5%), you can fight back.
Conclusion
This is welcomed change. IHG still displays prices on USD, but I have not had their properties trying to rip off using fictitious rates like Marriott properties and Grand Hyatt Jakarta (Hyatt Regency Bali too that is now closed) did or in case of Hyatt may still do.
I am not visiting Hyatt during this trip, so cannot confirm what their rate is. Make sure that you are not allowing these properties to use any other than the live rate when converting from USD to IDR.
