In 2010, I went through Jakarta to Makassar to Sorong, coming in on Singapore airlines. I stayed at the Jakarta airport transit hotel. My flight also came in the night before leaving for the 5 AM flight to Sorong. I think I flew on Express Air.
I can only say I prefer limiting my risk (missing the plane, whatever) so I'm more comfortable staying in transit hotels. Others can talk about outside hotels.
The transit hotel is in the airport and you will pick up your bags before going to the transit hotel. You will be going through security again when you enter the "domestic" terminal for the flight to Sorong. After leaving the immediate terminal part of the airport, there is a long hall with some little shops and food places (including KFC in Indonesian! where it's chicken and rice balls instead of potatoes; KFC was literally served as our inflight meal by Express Air). The hotel is along that hall. The room I stayed in was decent and looked out on the airport. It had TV etc and nice bathroom. There was a restaurant in the hotel with some western and some Asian food. Mostly decent for my Western taste abilities
. It was nice to be able to go right into the hotel out of the hustle and bustle of the airport. There were many groups of people such as pilgrims "camped" along the hall who didn't want to pay for a hotel room so there were quite a few people hanging around.
from my experience, my tip is that the transit hotel will "check you in" to your flight for a small fee and you should use this service. It's a very small fee but could be as valuable to me as to you. At like 4 AM, after they tried to check me in to the flight, they found that the airline didn't have me booked on the flight! The Indonesian travel agent I used did happen to answer the phone at that ridiculous hour and confirmed that thye had indeed done everything to book me but yet the airline refused to believe that and give me a seat. The agent tried calling and they weren't budging and I was rapidly running out of time. It was at that time that the hotel guy that had brought me over to check in was able to go beyond the security lines and talk directly to the ticket counter. It was really only through him talking to them that they agreed to take me on the flight. They ended up taking me, charging me some money for overweight bags which I gladly paid, and ran to the plane to get on, to sit in the first seat in first class for the flight. Without speaking the language and with no ticket to get through the security line, I would have been screwed badly. Hopefully this doesn't happen to you but I strongly suggest reconfirming all domestic flight arrangements as early as possible and again just before the flight as best you can. Incidentally, after miraculously getting a wonderful seat, I found I was seated next to a New Guinea man who sniffled and coughed all the way to Makassar, and I thought my dive trip would be over in about 3 days when I came down with his illness. Luckily I made it the whole way by pacing myself and it was incredible diving. Also be careful about getting off the plane and back on in Makassar because it wasn't always clear when they were going to board the plane again. You'll likely spot some of your future LOB mates at that point as we stick out like sore thumbs. The domestic flight back was delayed 4 hours and we were really baking in the airport in Sorong which only has fans and no aircon. People actually nearly passed out from the heat, while the local people stood around in full coats and sweaters. It's a clear example of the wide range of temps our bodies can acclimatize to. The flight itself was a highlight because after eating some unidentifiable peanut based meal from the plane, I shared Jolly Ranchers with the two New Guinea guys next to me who could have been wearing native clothing instead of their western clothes.
I also went back through Singapore and stayed in the transit hotel there too. I initially considered sleeping around the terminal which is huge, but I got crowded out of my area by a huge group of noisy school kids so I was lucky to get a room at the transit hotel. It just depends on how comfortable your flight is. If you have the big money for a good class on the plane, then you are reasonably rested, but if in coach, resting in a room in between flights is well worth it for me.
