Beloi Beach and Pier Atauro Island

"my friends and i stayed at beloi hotel for 4 days and 3 nights. what appeared at first glance (and from their website online) to be a seemingly put together and luxurious place, soon showed signs that the place lacked care and maintenance. it was very sad to see that a place that had so much potential had been reduced to such a state.

in general, the place was kept decently clean, and linen smelt generally pleasant. there were a few stain marks on one of the towels provided, which we avoided using. however, the water pressure from taps and shower heads were lacking. the tap in our room was otherwise quite literally falling off from the sink. lights throughout the area were also hanging on for their dear lives to the ceiling, with many of them now replaced by bulbs dangling from above.

the furniture within the compound were also questionable, with the pillows on the day beds being evidently moudly, and splinters / pieces of planks sticking out of chairs in the common area. the 'grass' within the common area has also been eroded from the floor, with rocks in place in attempts to prevent the carpet of 'grass' from flying away. those rocks were otherwise very much a tripping hazard.

during our stay, the power went out twice while the water went out once. all these had to be highlighted to the staff by ourselves, to which they did try to address the situation promptly but what was peculiar was that the water went out as there was supposedly insufficient water in the water tank, which had not been picked up by the staff earlier.

in addition, there were also no attempts made to offer any house keeping service of sorts, and refilling of supplies (e.g., toilet paper) was done only when requested.

it is quite evident that the owners of the place were likely not from Atauro, and had built up a space with the intention for it to be the most luxurious place to stay in Atauro. however, we understand from the other guests who had been visiting frequently over the last few years that the owners had shifted their focus towards another project / business that they had in Dili, and had left the area in the hands of the locals in Atauro, who probably lacked the experience and expertise to continue to maintain the place. given the lack of physical presence of the management (we had conversed with them over Whatsapp only) in the space, it is inevitable that that the place will constantly become increasingly rundown, while the locals can only do what they know best to continue to plug the holes of the already sinking ship.

this is definitely of no fault of the locals attempting to run the place still, as they still continue to service the guests to the best of their abilities (only 1-2 of them can speak limited english). the food is rather delicious and well done as well.

if you are considering visiting atauro, it may be wise to consider using the money to book one of the villas at the other dive resorts. you would have money to spare to buy yourself some drinks as well. however, if that is not available and you would like to live in accomodations with a flushing toilet and air-conditioning, you may choose to consider beloi hotel, but perhaps with a moderation of your expectations for the amount of the money that you would be paying.

*note: the place does not accept cards at all, so do bring sufficient cash or risk losing even more money from additional charges by the bank for international transfers."

Joy Ang

"Came for dinner and drinks from our beachside dive resort. It turned out to be just drinks i. e. cans of beer. No soda water, no Coke, Sprite, Tonic, coffee/cappucino. Basically everything on the menue was not available, incl. food (and we had cancelled dinner in our place…). The bar tender was nice and friendly though. Certainly not his fault nothing was in stock. Didn’t speak any English or Portuguese but we managed to communicate well enough. And he managed to serve the coldest beer on tje island!
But I must admit, I feel sorry for the people who stay here. The place is a ramshackle leftover from a formerly well intended hotel (with a great view!!!!). The water in the small pool looked clean, though the whole thing is in dire need of maintenance.
TLC is the keyword, and there‘s is no excuse (like 'this is a 3rd world country‘, 'this is Timor‘, blablabla) for mouldy cushions/pillows (as pictured in some recent reviews), stained upholstery and basically everything run down. People in the village told us that government officials from mainland Timor Leste come her for congregations. Hard to believe… maybe before the war.
I don‘t mind simple/basic accommodation, I can live with temporary shortage of supplies esp. on an island (but when the rest of this island has everything, it must be the management not giving a damn…) and I don‘t mind old-ish furniture as long as it‘s clean. Being in a Third World Country doesn‘t mean everything has to be, well, not clean. Especially, when you pay top dollars!"

Jochen von Arnim

"This place is very near to the atauro port and walkable, the view here is amazing and it has a wonderful bar and restaurant. The place is named ponkys in atauro. It very less crowdy and very limited options for food. They offer stay also but I could not find it on internet.if you really have time to explore in atauro donot miss this place ,it's very good"

Praveen Kumar