Wakatobi Resort - Payment?

[WoodyLompoc]

I did a search and didn't find any discussion about this...hopefully I didn't miss anything.

I'm in the process of booking a trip to Wakatobi and since it is in the next 90 days they are asking for full payment up front, which seems reasonable. What gets me thinking is that they first said they wanted payment by wire transfer and then when I asked if credit card was available, the said I could pay by credit card at instapay.id and gave me a link to a very fishy looking invoice on instapay.id in Indonesian currency.

Is this the normal way to do payments? This is my first trip to dive in Asia...all my previous diving has been in the Caribbean and has been handled differently with more direct-seeming payments via credit card. Am I being overly nervous?

Thanks for any info to settle my thinking.

I am at this stage now, just got the invoice. I need to pay in full and I see online that Instapay is sketchy at best. Did you end up using your credit card with Instapay?

 

[aquabluegreg]

I have paid Wakatobi via bank wire transfers and never an issue. In the past year I have seen some wires held possibly because of the dollar amount and increased concerns over money laundering. I typically put as much detail on wire transfers as is possible. Using credit cards to pay for domestic Indo airline tickets has always been a challenge. I have two websites I use but they can be wonky on occasion. As mentioned payments in Indo need to be in IDR. I have not paid Wakatobi using a credit card, only wire transfers for my clients. As mentioned in the thread, the payment is the agent's problem when using a travel agent.

 

[rmorgan]

As Damselfish said earlier in the thread, one advantage to working with a travel agent (in our case, Bluewater) is that all payments (including to Wakatobi) are made through the TA's website, using credit cards.

 

[Dan]

I just made it easy to myself by booking my trip to Wakatobi through @aquabluegreg of Liquid Diving Adventures and pay him with my credit card.

Trip Report Thread 'Wakatobi 11-18 August 2025'

Aug 28, 2025

My buddy has not been diving for 10 years. So we chose Wakatobi to get her back in the groove. We just did mostly easy morning dives, as shown in Table 1, below.

The diving experience & what we saw underwater are pretty much summarized in a 4:15 trip video, below.



One dive site that we like the most is The Zoo, which I put together a 3:58 video just for that dive site. If you plan to dive in Wakatobi, don’t miss this dive site.

• Dan
• Replies: 11
• Forum: Indonesia

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[cetacean]

I've mentioned this before here (and I've also been to Wakatobi 4x times)...

The first two times I had to wire the $$ to them as they didn't yet take credit cards (first visit was when you had to take the overnight ferry - no flight...)

When they started taking credit cards I let them know I wasn't going to pay all on one charge, but rather split it up ($4k-$5k at a time). The reason for this was to make sure the charges went through cleanly, I could also use a card with a lower limit to prevent fraud, etc.

Never had an issue with them going this route. They were always willing to generate a partial invoice for an agreed upon amount and then a follow on invoice for the next payment, etc. I've done this paying over several weeks for a visit in the past...

 

[outofofficebrb]

As Damselfish said earlier in the thread, one advantage to working with a travel agent (in our case, Bluewater) is that all payments (including to Wakatobi) are made through the TA's website, using credit cards.

…with no surcharge or 3% fee, and they code as a travel merchant so you get your travel bonus points to whatever factor it is for your credit card program.

 

[PatW]

That’s pretty common for that part of the world, but not typical in US/Caribbean region so it weirds us out. That is actually one benefit of using a travel agent, you are paying them and they are paying the resort.

My wife and I used an agent so the payment details were someone else’s head ache. The resort had people to meet us at the Bali airport. We stayed a few days in Bali to get used to the time zone. They got us through the airport in Bali for the charter. The staff does make an effort.