In Reply to: Pay in USD posted by Molly on Friday, 30. July 2010 at 17:34 Bali Time:
We've paid a few times in US dollars at various hotels, The Bali garden being the latest, and they seem to do all they can to make you pay in Rupiah. At the Bali Garden, the Desk Lady upon seeing we had US Money, went so far as to calculate the rate to Rupiah using a pretty terrible exchange rate mind you, and then once again a calculation back to US dollars and tried to make us pay that amount. Like **** I said. What's that all about. On a side note, When booking outings at tourist booths, What I normally do, as everything is advertised in US dollars, is simply negotiate in US dollars and when it comes time to pay they of course will calculate a fairly unbalanced exchange rate and ask for the payment in Rupiah. You'll get some unusual reactions when you hand them US dollars, especially when they've already known you are from Australia, but hey, a deals a deal. It's worked everytime. In fact, one particular time the guy didn't have the correct change in US dollars, so we calculated the change to rupiah using OUR unbalanced Exchange rate and he coughed up, all with a smile on his face. In the end it's just a game.