A pre-season checklist for Bali villa owners: roofs, drains, pools, damp and the guest experience.
Bali’s rainy season usually arrives in November and runs until March, with the heaviest weeks around the turn of the year. For a villa, the rain itself is rarely the problem. What causes the damage, the bad reviews and the emergency call-outs is the small thing nobody checked in October.
Here is a pre-season checklist worth working through before the first big storm.
Walk the roof before the rain does. Replace cracked or slipped tiles, check the condition of alang-alang thatch and wooden shingles, and reseal the joints around skylights and valleys. Clear gutters and downpipes of leaves, then run water through them to make sure it actually leaves the property. Look at the garden drains too: a blocked channel can turn a path into a stream and send water under a door.
Cut back branches that hang over roofs, power lines and the pool. Coconuts and dead fronds should come down before a storm brings them down for you. Check that retaining walls and steep banks drain properly, because saturated soil is where landslips begin.
Heavy rain dilutes chlorine, pushes pH and alkalinity off balance and raises the water level quickly. Test the water more often through the season, keep the overflow and skimmers clear, and make sure the pump and its electrics sit well above any point where water can collect.
Humidity climbs with the rain. Service the air conditioning, check that bathroom extractor fans work, and keep wardrobes and storage ventilated so linen and leather do not spoil. Have an electrician test outdoor sockets and the safety breaker, and keep spare bulbs and a charged backup for the wifi router, because storms bring short power cuts.
Standing water is where mosquitoes breed, and dengue cases tend to rise in the wet season. Empty plant saucers, buckets and blocked drains every week, and keep repellent in every room.
Put umbrellas by the door, add a few rainy-day ideas to the welcome book, and update your listing so guests know what the season is like. Low-season rates and weekly-stay discounts help fill the quieter weeks.
Let Us Get Your Villa Ready
Aligna Hospitality’s team in Ubud handles seasonal maintenance for the villas we manage. Talk to us about yours.
