In Reply to: Rupiah posted by GaryD on Friday, 30. July 2010 at 13:21 Bali Time:
I always pay in USD. I found in the past that when I paid in rupiah, that the rate the hotel used to exchange the quoted USD rate to local currency was not the current rate and worked out a lot more expensive than if I exchanged AUD to USD here before going. You could do a quick check - ask the hotel what the rp rate would be if you stayed there today, then check the street rate (via BTF) for AUD -rp and work out how much in AUD it would cost. Then check with the Post Office (they dont charge a fee) how much AUD it would cost to purchase the rate for the hotel room in USD. This process can be messy however from my previous calculations I prefer to purchase the USD here prior to travel from the PO.