Le Pirate Island — Hotel in East Nusa Tenggara

The Le Pirate Island is wonderful and a perfect place to unwind. We stayed here for 2 nights on one of their beach front Beach Huts.

What we dont like: There is a stinky smell in the island like an excrement smell (maybe from the septic tank). An island crew stole my airpods (i am 100% certain of it) was able to track him down with my iphone's "find my" app in Labuan Bajo after we checked out from le pirate island.

Unfortunate incident: My airpods got missing but i am 100% it didnt got out of our beach hut. My iPhone's "Find My" says i have my airpods closeby and i thought maybe its in one of our bags but didnt care to verify because we have 2 huge bags and i did not took the aipods outside our beach hut. We triple check everything inside and outside our hut before we checked out (about 10:30am) and all is good. No things left. We travel alot so we really are good on triple checking before checking out. When we were on the boat going back to mainland, "find my" app says the airpods was on the boat and that gave me a relief because that would mean i have it on one of my bags. When we reached at the hotel at labuan bajo, we searched for the airpods and was totally shocked it was not on our bags. I checked my iphone app and saw that the airpods is still at the port (about 400 meters from our hotel)! So now things are getting fishy. We thought maybe it is just taking some time for the location to update and continued searching on our bags. Few minutes later, we saw it moving away from the port going to direction we have never been to yet. So now we know someone has it! We went to the le pirate office and asked them who from their island staffs came with us back to mainland and the receptionist said there are 2. I explained to her the situation and then she told me to wait a bit while she called the island staffs who were with us on the boat trip... and yes one of them had my airpods! She then told me to wait while they'll take the item back at the office. The airpods lost feature was Activated, so definitely the person will find it useless. I asked the staff where he found my airpods and he said on our hut room 5. Of course! Where else would he find it but on our hut right? We suspect that it was stolen. He had so many opportunities to report the "lost" item plus he knows it was from room number 5. We left the hut with all our things at 10:30am and rode the boat at 2pm. He had 3.5 hours to report the "lost and found" item but he did NOT. He could have reported it to the island manager, maybe on the boat during travel or maybe at the labuan bajo office. The island is exclusive there is not much crowd and staff would easily familiarize their guests faces. But he choose not to report it till we were able to track him on our iphone app. I still said thank you for "returning" my stolen airpods, was not in the mood of controntation anymore given im on a foreign land and they know where im staying that night at labuan bajo. We are certain that the airpods was stolen before our 10:30am checkout time. So maybe the thief got it when we were out for breakfast that same day or at dinner time a night before.

The beach hut is almost an open sleeping space and anyone can just passby and get stuffs. Too bad that you cannot 100% trust their island crew. So better be extra careful with your valuables and possibly take them with you at all times (money, gadgets, etc).

Confronting thieves can be very challenging for foreigners like me. I was lucky that I was able to track my airpods from my phone.

Le Pirate, please oblige your crew to report lost items (that is if truly lost and not stolen) and impose strict policy to your crew not to steal from your guests.

Your receptionist knows the story and who the suspect is. Again, i just politely said thank you to the thief because i dont want complication on my travel and im on a foreign land with a plane to catch next day.

They should have lockers/safe too for their guests money...

I’m torn about this experience. While the island itself is undeniably beautiful, I was left quite disappointed with the value for money and the level of service provided by the property.

On the positive side, the island is stunning. The coral reefs offer a genuine snorkeling experience — we saw plenty of fish and even some small reef sharks. The huts are also beautifully designed and offer breathtaking postcard-like views in the morning.

That being said, several things made our stay less enjoyable. To begin with, there was very little running water in the showers during parts of our stay, which made things uncomfortable. Also, there was very little privacy in the bathroom — the shower area is separated by a curtain made of seashells. While it looks pretty, I’d personally prefer not to be visible when I take a shower.

From the moment you arrive, instead of a warm welcome, you’re mostly met with a long list of rules. Considering all the expectations placed on guests, like respecting the reef during snorkeling and throwing the plastic away of the ocean, I think it would be more appropriate for the staff to take care of certain things — like clearing the beach, which at times wasn’t very clean. It would make a much bigger impact than just telling guests to do it.

Considering how basic the rooms are, the price feels excessive — especially compared to what you can get elsewhere in the region or in Bali. For that price, you’d expect a much higher standard of service.

The so-called “package” — which includes meals, snorkeling, and kayaking — isn’t really optional since there are no other food options on the island. While snorkeling and kayaking are nice touches, I believe these activities should be included for everyone by default, given the high nightly rate.

It would also be thoughtful to include at least one drink per day in the package. With only small appetizer and dessert portions added to the main dish in the “three-course” dinner, it felt quite limited. It didn’t give us the impression that the package was worth it.

On top of that, everything else is extra — we were even asked to pay for ice cubes just to cool down our water, which felt petty given the heat.

Lastly, the staff was mostly disengaged. There were no smiles, no greetings, and no offer to help. We were left carrying our used cups from the room while they simply watched. Apart from asking for our room number to add charges to the bill, the service was far from proactive and nice — and for the price, that was honestly the most disappointing part.

We did find some peace and enjoyed the raw beauty of the island, but overall, we were expecting better service, more thoughtful details, and a stronger sense of hospitality to truly feel like we were on vacation — and to feel that the experience matched...

My partner and I were incredibly excited to stay at Le Pirate Hotel—its photos and reviews seemed like a dream come true. But, unfortunately, the experience didn’t live up to expectations, mainly due to a lack of customer service and flexibility.

From the start, we felt the customer service was lacking. One major disappointment was that we couldn’t book any tours or excursions from the island. When we asked the hotel for recommendations, they were passive and unhelpful. We hoped to adjust our stay to free up a couple of days for day trips, but there was no flexibility with our booking. While I understand the hotel’s policies, I wish it had been clearer that staying here means you’re essentially limited to the property, with the only available tour being a 4.5 million IDR trip to Komodo—a steep price compared to others around 1.3-1.8 million IDR.

On top of this, the shuttle situation is inconvenient. Free transfers are only offered at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.; otherwise, you’ll need to pay 1 million IDR for a private boat, which only runs until 5 p.m. Our flight was supposed to land just after 5, so we were stuck without flexibility or options right from the get go.

The final blow came when our flight was canceled due to a volcanic eruption, something totally outside our control. We reached out to Le Pirate to explain and hoped for some understanding given the circumstances. Initially, they asked for our flight details, but before we could respond, they sent a curt message with a link to their T&Cs, pointing out that our booking was non-refundable. We had spent €350 on this booking, and it was deeply disappointing that they didn’t offer any options for rescheduling, credit, or even a gesture of goodwill.

This was hands-down the worst customer service experience I’ve encountered in over 10 years of full-time travel. For anyone considering Le Pirate, I’d suggest a few things:

-Stay here only at the end of your Komodo trip – if you want to explore, do that from the mainland and only come here afterward. -Plan flights carefully – aim to arrive early to catch the free 2 p.m. shuttle, or be prepared to pay for a private boat (and make sure it’s before 5 p.m.!) -Book last-minute – if anything goes wrong, even acts of nature, they’ll still keep your money, so only book when you’re 100% sure you can make it.

While Le Pirate is a beautiful property, the lack of empathy, flexibility, and the “money-first” attitude left a sour taste. I won’t return here and, unfortunately, can’t recommend it to others. I hope they can develop more kindness and flexibility...