What the Harris Hotels developers aren't telling you.

LAUNCHING MARCH 2014, LET'S MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF HARRIS IN SEMINYAK. MAKE AS MUCH NOISE AND DISRUPTION AS WE CAN. BE PREPARED TO PROTEST. MAKE SURE YOU ARE HEARD. 

This is an artist's impression of Harris Hotels Seminyak, an idyllic tropical paradise. 

This is the reality. A congested street in a run down neighbourhood. Look at the width of one car as it takes up half the road. Where did all the lovely palm trees go? The idyllic boulevard?

 

You won't be thinking 'location, location, location' here. Jalan Drupadi is one of the more congested streets in Bali, boasts no street parking and soon no pedestrian paths.

The truth is that this is one of Seminyak's narrowest major thoroughfares. Yes, that is a main road, one that is used by hundreds of cars and motorbikes each day. And anyone who knows Bali, know  narrow streets equal traffic jams. All it takes is one car to selfishly stop or a truck to break down and the whole of Jalan Drupandi becomes like an angry ants nest. Shots were taken at dawn.

Check the artist's drawings. That footpath is going to be removed by the developers and the greedy local officials lining their deep pockets. Check out the Harris Hotel pictures above -  there will no longer be any pedestrian thoroughfare in either direction of the hotel. How do you expect to walk to on such a dangerous road?? How do you expect to get to anywhere? Actually, nothing is close by. 

For our Indonesian readers: Ini Harris Hotel blog tersedia dalam Bahasa dan banyak bahasa lainnya. Silahkan klik pada tombol menerjemahkan pada menu sisi kanan. Terima kasih.




Where did all the greenery come from? The luxury cars? The green hills in the background? The truth is you get a pretty dirty street lined with industrial laundries, tattoo parlors and a boys-to-man massage parlor. Family friendly? This is sleazy Semin-yuck! 

This is a mirage. It is a lie.

Jalan Drupadi is a particularly narrow, gnarled and dirty street. Frankly, it is a sleazy street. In the Harris Hotel sales blurb, they have the gall to lie that you are surrounded by the best restaurants, you are just 800 meters from the beach, that you are surrounded by exclusive villas. Bullshit! Go and pay a visit to the Harris Hotels Seminyak website! Talk about a pack of lies. For starters, WE had to mark in the position of the hotel on their own map below. Clearly Harris are uncomfortable that their hotel is NOT close to all of the luxury hotels and restaurants and shopping - as you will plainly see - in spite of their claims. What sort of conmen would extol the virtues of their immediate surroundings - yet not mark their position?? [A word to the wise, Harris Hotel Marketing people, we have got screen captures of all this evidence]. And the lies continue when they start to discuss occupancy rates.

Countless businesses have failed, primarily because of the undesirables that loiter here - and drive away the desired customers for middle and high-end eateries, shopping or cafes. There are none in walking distance. Along with the tattoo shop and various 'massage' salons, there is a preponderance of noisy laundries that add to the traffic congestion with their vans coming and going.  Many of these places play thumping music until dawn [.. laundromats are renowned to be a mafia business with the young workers high as kites on a concoction of chemicals; they don't care if you can't sleep either]. 

This is a particularly run down part of Seminyak. It is NOT the glamorous end of town, make no mistake. Had it been the case, presumably Harris Hotels would have marked their own location on the map of Seminyak. If Harris claim a 3-Star down-market hotel like theirs will lead to the locals beautifying the local area, consider what level of local government official accepted the bribes to turn a blind eye to this development. They don't care! What was a beautiful rice paddy, now is a particularly ugly Harris Hotel. See how the local Bali community reacted on FaceBook - HERE

Tattoo & Piercing studio. Undesirable gang types constantly loitering.

Banana Spa. Massage studio with young male staff and very popular with older gay men. Family friendly? Need we point out the significance of the happy banana? 

One of a handful of derelict retail properties from failed business on Jalan Drupadi. 

Yet another Western restaurant that failed because of the undesirable feel to the neighborhood.

One of half a dozen laundries that play thumping music till dawn every day. Yes, your bedroom is only fifteen meters away. No, the police won't argue your case against the local mafia.

With one exception of La Sal & Kreol, there are no international standard restaurants in walking distance of the hotel. There are mainly 'warungs' that serve only local fare. This is the area of Seminyak where the construction workers of Seminyak are housed and roam.

 Don't expect you're in the swish hotel district. Cheap tourist rooms only. Yes, that's the Harris Hotel Seminyak just across the road. Who'd want to lease your investment? These guys are charging US$30 per night. What will they charge when three-star Harris Hotels can't attain that??

Hold on! Did Harris Hotels Seminyak marketing team just claim - here - that occupancy rates in Bali were up around 82.5% over the last five years? Not according to the Jakarta Post. Not according to anyone who understands investment. 



Oversupply causes hotels to suffer low occupancy rates.

The rocketing number of hotel rooms in Bali has drastically affected the average occupancy rates, now reaching only 60 to 65 percent, making business quite unprofitable, said a leading figure in the tourist industry. Anak Agung Gede Rai, a prominent figure in the hospitality industry, commented that such occupancy rates were too low for any hotel to survive. “This situation has been caused by an excessive number of rooms in both star-rated and non-starred hotels, villas and other accommodation facilities,” Rai said. “With the flood of tourists coming to Bali, it would be logical for our hotel occupancy rates to increase. But, in reality, we still have stagnant occupancy rates,” said Rai, former director of Bali Tourism Development Cooperation (BTDC).

The Jakarta Post, August 14th, 2012 - here 


If you read their website, Harris Hotels guarantee you 8% ROI (Return of Investment) in your first 2 years. They are selling 233 units. Laughably, they claim that 80% of the pokey units are sold. In February of 2013, a local husband and wife went undercover to their sales office in Kuta - and every room they pointed at and asked if this was sold, the local salesmen would say no. It's available? Yes. Very quickly it became apparent that they have sold none. We actually made this point to them and they smiled and said that the Harris Hotel boss instructed them to say many units were sold already, but they could sell us any we wanted. It is a common tactic to fake exceeding demand.

You might want to ask them what happens if you don't hit that 8% investment return they plucked out of the air. Will you get your money back - with interest? Or, will you be lumbered with a perennially vacant unit that you will have to rent for a pittance, if at all? And the future? Ask yourself, after a year of terrible reviews from interested parties on Trip Advisor, will anyone ever want to rent your investment property?? It's so not likely. Nobody in their right mind would invest in this lemon.
We're looking forward to the protests. Six people could close down Jl. Drupadi - let alone a hundred. 

Make yourself heard. Write a review on any of the 'Managed by Tauzia' hotels on Trip Adviser now. If they have no no business, they will discover they have no business being in Bali. 
 

JOIN 35,000 PEOPLE STRONG 'Bali - How Much is Too Much?' ANTI-DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY ON FACEBOOK - HERE - AND GET MOBILIZED TO ACT. 

 x

Another Marc Steinmeyer monstrosity on Jalan Drupadi, Seminyak. The Tijili - another great BIG fraud.

                         
 Most people are aware of the especially novel way by which the local Balinese stop foreign developers destroying the natural beauty of their rapidly diminishing island. There is a well regarded law that no new commercial development can rise above the height of a coconut tree.

Well, welcome to yet another illegal Tauzia high-rise monstrosity in Seminyak. The Tijili. Marc Steinmeyer and his mignon, Mr Glass,  have again joined forces with corrupt officialdom - akin to the Balinese mafia called the Laskar - and are further destroying the local environment. 

Maybe those are baby coconut palms? No. We are going to show you just how this company have been able to totally disregard the laws of Indonesia and Bali. Who's going to jail? Who'll skip the country? You can read more about the Islamist and anti-Christian Indonesian militia very active in Bali, Laskar, here. Or you can just any Balinese local to explain.

We've seen Tauzia architectural models before, haven't we? The designers are clearly drinking hallucinatory mushroom shakes. Being a Tauzia production where economy with the truth is common, it comes as no surprise that this hotel is nothing near to what they purport it to be.

Apart from blatant misrepresentation to investors, the model provides irrefutable proof the designers were clearly given the green light to break the law.  We shouldn't be surprised who's behind it all. Enter that sheister French property developer from Tauzia and Harris Hotels Group, Marc Steinmeyer. Funny, he doesn't like the limelight for some reason.

This is Marc Steinmeyer.

Typical of the French, he couldn't give a monkey's arse about anyone but himself. Marc and Mr Glass lead a rich expatriate life in Jakarta. Both are extraordinarily well connected. The only consideration this beastly duo gives to Bali is how hard they can squeeze the life out of it. Well, we are going to make sure that Mr Marc Steinmeyer gets his just desserts. And we are going to expose "the money" behind the developers. It makes for very interesting reading. A bit like a crime novel. We're just putting the final touches - talking to our hero informers - and we're away. 

This is Marc Steinmeyer. 

He looks a bit like a child molester, doesn't he? But no, he just rapes Bali with the help of his assistant, Mr Glass, who also looks rather manic, if you ask us. Mr Glass is the man who tends to do all the 'apologising' for Tauzia and Harris Group - but it is all just hot air. Mr Steinmeyer works mainly in back rooms cutting shady money deals. Unrelenting, this despicable company have dozens and dozens of similarly horrid developments appearing across all of Indonesia. Let's face it, there are no shortage of corruptible officials who will allow Tauzia Group to destroy local culture, heritage and the environment in return for a sack of cash. 

It's Indonesia!! 

                                                Mr Glass



Well, times change. You see, there is now a somewhat vicious anti-corruption watchdog - The Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK). Stay tuned, loyal fans - and Tauzia Investors. We are going to lift the lid on the real Tijili development - and show you once again how totally corrupt these developers and their shady backers truly are. You see, we've been doing some digging, as good journalists do. It's amazing how many competitors and enemies this company have! Seriously, folks, we couldn't shut them up. Anyway, you'll have to wait a short while. 

Be patient! We'll break this news just when Harris Seminyak & Preference Hotels' Tijili projects are at their most very vulnerable. We'll soon be visiting the Harris Nusa Dua, also via Tauzia partner HITAKARA Development shortly. We've really only just scratched the surface. 

Of course, let's not forget their marketing is a huge sack of lies ... which we will demonstrate again in our next bumper edition. Hey, speaking of demonstrations, it's not going to be long before we are all out there letting our voices be heard above the Jalan Drupadi construction. It is going to be one international launch date that Tauzia and Marc Steinmeyer will never forget. Hold the front page, editors! Just a quick aside, we are very proud of our SEO team who took us to #1 on Google - averaging one hundred visitors each day. It's great we have Tijili as a new challenge. 

We're also going to work on Mr Steinmeyer - in case anyone cares to search for him and his professional credentials online. It would almost be disappointing if Tauzia had conceded to our ultimatum. This is fun.

These hilariously fake shots from the Tauzia marketing website associated with the Tijili Seminyak development are going to look rather stupid once we have finished the next exposé. In case you're wondering, check out the facts behind the Harris Seminyak condotel directly below. 

  

Wide open spaces ... sorry, nothing of the kind.

 

Ingenues and fresh air ... no.  Mainly drunk tourists

Pristine beaches ... no actually, polluted and strewn with litter

 

Lush rich paddies ... nowhere to be seen. We build hotels on 'em.

To be continued! 

                                             "Bonté .. il se fait plutôt chaud ici, n'est-ce pas?"

Take a look at your Harris Hotel investment!

Just how close are you to the road? Can that be legal? Would you like to take a dip and end up with dust and pollution coating your entire body? Will that be particularly noisy? Harris Hotels won't tell you, but we will!! 

Like we said before, that is a main road. Just imagine the amount of cars, trucks and screaming motocross bikes that pass every hour. There are also a lot of Harley Davidson's without exhausts that visit the tattoo studio - not that we're complaining, guys. The dust, grime and exhaust fumes here are particularly unpleasant. Keep an eye on that thing filled with water - that Harris Hotel call a luxurious swimming pool. We laughed when we saw the designs, but Harris seem unfazed by it impracticality.


To begin with, look at the thickness of the walls. Are they solid concrete - and able to block out the immense noise from Jl Drupadi?? No, take a look at the picture below. The walls facing the noisy street are made of a single layer of very thin clay bricks [.. that's a workman standing next to them], with an extremely thin layer of concrete rendering, you can see it picture number two. This will not keep out the noise - and Harris Hotels are cutting corners in the construction. They don't want to spend the extra money on insulating you from noise. That's not a very good investment in you!

Let's not forget that Indonesia is a highly unstable earthquake zone with Bali frequently being hit by tremors. You might wish to Google the 'Ring of Fire'. Would you really want to be in a five story building when the big one hits? There's a good reason why expats choose to rent single storey villas. Are you confident that Indonesian building standards are of an adequate level to ensure structural integrity? Ask anyone who knows how quickly this building was slapped together! Hmmm?

 

Your bedroom will be how close to the road???? 

 

That's the 'swimming pool' - not very impressive, is it? 

Keep an eye on the two short posts, where the pool is ... !! 

You won't need to phone for a taxi, you can just call out from the swimming pool.

The pile of dirt and rubble up above is the swimming pool directly beneath - it's not going to be a very big pool then is it? And all that pollution.





There are those green hills again. They don't exist!

See that car? That is the driveway and Harris Hotel Seminyak reception. Where will the buses and coaches of Australian tourists stop to drop off passengers? You can see by now that there is no room on the streets. Just one big bus will block the entire road. Imagine the car horns and angry scenes.

It certainly looks nicer in the pretty artist's impression, doesn't it?? [But it can't show you all the pollution and noise that's coming off this major road through Seminyak, can it?]. To really appreciate the noise, you should sleep by the side of the road - until the hotel is finished - and wait until about 4AM when all the drunken tourists are spilling out of the bars and clubs in Kuta. Seriously, see for yourself how much noise the Harris Condotel Residents will have to endure each night and day. Ask your Ray White Kuta real estate agent what they think the noise would be like, watch them squirm!

Why would the residents be angry with Harris Hotels?

Are the local Balinese and Western residents angered by this disgusting monstrosity being built next to their traditional homes and land? Yes, you would be too if you had put up with over a year of construction noise, choking dust and plague mosquitoes courtesy of an illegal hotel. No compensation has been offered. 
 

Our artist's impression of a beautiful Bali rice paddy in Seminyak after Harris Hotel & Tauzia ..

These hotels are rejected by the governor of Bali, but greedy developers still go ahead with without proper planning permission. Did you know there is a law in Bali that no building should be taller than a coconut palm??? As residents, we don't dislike our neighbourhood - we see it for what it is. The arrival of a 300 room low-rated hotel adds nothing, and makes the entire Jalan Drupadi strip insufferable. It will be a permanent traffic jam - it already is. The developers have flouted manifold laws in this ugly building's construction and we will not rest until the authorities see that it is leveled. Gone! In the meantime, we felt that you should know the truth behind this group's lies. Please support us by posting this on your FaceBook and making sure as many people as possible are made aware.

The opposite side of the hotel from Jl Drupadi, now a quagmire that cannot drain.

Imagine if somebody built this next to your home, without planning permission.

Did we mention it's illegal to build anything taller than a coconut palm??

What was originally a pristine rice field - middle of picture -  is now an ugly Harris Condotel.   It has destroyed more local heritage of Seminyak. It has not benefited the Balinese people. All the money went into the pockets of local mafia. Feel free to email the Harris Hotel developers and let them know how you feel - HERE or HERE  Most importantly, please post this site to your Facebook or Linked-In groups, such as 'Venture Capitalists Asia' et al.  The more publicity we receive, the more likely the government will level this building and turn it into a beautiful public open space. The more investors that see this, the less successful Harris Hotels will be - and the chances this will happen to YOU may be averted. We want land for our children, not ugly concrete boxes.

 

Take a moment to watch the amazing video that another concerned group made about Harris Hotels Seminyak and this illegal Jl Drupadi development. Consider the traffic noise as drunken youths shout and swear, and motorcycles have drag races directly outside your window, from 3AM onwards. 

 Thanks for visiting Harris Hotels Exposed.

Marc Steinmeyer, 

Tauzia Group/Harris Hotel President .. 

A little message for you, sir: we will make sure that the Harris/Tauzia brand across all Asia is held in contempt by every potential investor in the region and beyond. How many new developments are you trying to populate? We will expose your lies and your illegal dealing across every media platform imaginable. Rest assured, we will pursue you and your company doggedly. You will not get away with destroying our Bali. Never. You underestimated us - and here we come. You are in for some big surprises.  You thought Bill Gates looked silly with pie on his face? We are your shadow. Operation 'Rainbow Warrior' is going to leave Tauzia/Harris without an investor above or below. 

Un petit message pour vous, monsieur: nous veillerons à ce que l'Hôtel Harris / Tauzia marque à travers toute l'Asie est honni par tout investisseur potentiel dans la région et au-delà. Combien de nouveaux développements que vous essayez de remplir? Nous allons exposer vos mensonges et vos traitant illégale à travers tous les médias imaginables plate-forme. Rassurez-vous, nous poursuivrons vous et votre entreprise avec acharnement. Vous n'obtiendrez pas loin de détruire notre Bali. Jamais. Vous nous avez sous-estimé - et nous voici. Vous êtes dans de grandes surprises. Vous pensiez que Bill Gates avait l'air idiot avec une tarte sur son visage? Nous sommes votre ombre. Opération «Rainbow Warrior» est le point de quitter Tauzia / Hôtel Harris sans un investisseur ci-dessus ou ci-dessous.