The mark that was already there
On return, the shop points at an existing scuff and prices a repair against it. Without a dated record from the start, it is your word against theirs.
The scratch dispute has three versions and one weakness. Film the scooter before you ride it, and keep your passport.
The most common problem with a rental in Bali is not theft or breakdown. It is a disagreement about a scratch, at the end, when you are due at the airport. It is also the easiest one to make impossible.
On return, the shop points at an existing scuff and prices a repair against it. Without a dated record from the start, it is your word against theirs.
A fingernail-sized mark is billed as a replacement body panel rather than a touch-up, multiplying the amount by an order of magnitude.
On top of the repair, a charge for the days the scooter is supposedly unavailable while it is fixed.
Every version above is refusable. You can decline, you can dispute, you can walk away and settle it later. Unless the shop is holding your passport — at which point you are not negotiating, you are buying it back. That is what turns a disagreement into a payment.
This is the reason “no passport held” is not a comfort feature. It is the single condition that keeps you in a position to say no. See the street rental comparison for how the two situations diverge.
One continuous video, walking all the way round. Open the seat. Close in on each panel, both mirrors, the exhaust, the floor and both wheels. Say the date out loud while filming — it timestamps the clip in a way metadata does not, to a human.
Stills, in addition to the video. Photograph the contract and the shop front too, so the record ties to a place and a document.
If you booked through us, send them to Vroam. This is not optional paperwork: the damage protection is void without delivery photos, and a claim opened more than 24 hours later is refused.
Same walk-round, before you hand over the key. Cases exist of damage appearing between the return and the inspection.
A scooter collected overnight from outside your accommodation with a spare key, then billed as stolen. Park where the property can see it, and photograph where you left it.
Roadside bottles are convenient and often not a full litre, sometimes cut with kerosene. Fine in a pinch, but use real pumps where they exist — they are common around the south and scarce inland.
Bikago is the most structured operator on this list: eight locations across Indonesia and Thailand, trading since 2014. On most points the two offers are close. One difference is real, and it is about the deposit.
Canggu to Ubud, the Amed coast loop, Kintamani at sunrise and the Sidemen valley — with the engine size each one really needs.
BaliMotion advertises from 80,000 IDR a day, below anything here. On a short rental that headline holds. Over a month it reverses, and the reason is what sits around the price rather than the price itself.
No deposit, no passport held, free cancellation up to 24 hours before.
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