A couple who lives part-time in Bali spent $1.7 million building 2 luxury villas that they rent out for parties

• Justin and Annabelle Parfitt decided to live part-time between Bali and France in 2017.
• They purchased a land lease in Bali and spent $1.7 million building two luxury villas.
• Now, they rent the villas for parties, vacations, and milestone birthday celebrations.

The Parfitt family spends half their year in Bali, but the place they call home isn't a cookie-cutter Bali bungalow.

It's a luxury short-term rental that Justin and Annabelle Parfitt designed themselves.

In 2017, after bouncing from startup to startup, the couple decided to slow life down and live part-time between Bali and the French countryside.

To make the lifestyle profitable, they built a two-villa compound named Kasianda in Bali's Canggu neighborhood, which they rent out for vacation stays and parties.

Now, the couple and their children, Rosie, 9, and Skye, 5, spend half their year living in the luxury property.

After launching multiple startups, the Parfitts decided to live in their two favorite places

The couple's careers have taken twists and turns over the past two and a half decades.

Justin Parfitt graduated from college in Bristol, England. After undergrad, Parfitt produced house music and led a video production company, among other projects. In the early 2000s, he moved to Australia for his MBA, where he met his wife, Annabelle Parfitt.

Parfitt started a speed-dating company, and his wife joined the team. The business launched in the US and Canada, and the couple traveled around the world in between. In 2013, they sold their company, and Parfitt started a social network built around experiences.

Finally, in 2016, Parfitt said he and his wife decided to settle down after years of living and traveling between destinations.

"It came time to try to reimagine our lives. I was like, 'Well, where do we really like going?'" he recalled. "And the only places that we'd regularly gone back to were Bali and southwest France."

So, in 2017, they bought a small chateau in Gascony, France, and headed to Bali to start their next project: building a luxury short-term rental.

The plan was to split time between the two destinations and rent out each property when they weren't there.

In Bali, they bought land and started building a villa

With sights set on Bali, the pair found land to lease.

Due to Indonesian law, foreigners can't own land in Bali. Instead, they can have a leasehold or the right-to-use title. While these vary, the Parfitt family's 40-year lease cost them $400,000.

The pair worked with a local architect and spent a year drafting plans for a two-building compound: one villa with seven bedrooms and a second with five.

They toyed with different architectural styles, from tropical to modern, and landed on colonial.

"Our idea was to make something timeless," Parfitt said.

Construction started in 2018, and nearly a year later, the five-bedroom villa was finished. On Christmas Eve in 2019, they welcomed their first guests.

Then, the pandemic hit, and the pair finished building the seven-bedroom villa via WhatsApp from their home in France.

Parfitt said the compound was completed by 2021, and the project cost about $1.7 million, which included the land lease, construction, fixtures, landscaping, and furnishings.

The two villas can be rented separately or together, and the whole property can welcome up to 30 guests.

"The seven-bedroom is like your own private 5-star resort," Parfitt said.

From the very beginning, the goal was to offer a luxury stay. Outside, the larger villa has an expansive saltwater pool, a swim-up bar, a terrace, and a barbecue pit. Inside, there's an open kitchen, a living room, eight bathrooms, a dining room, and a media room.

The smaller villa also has a pool, a shared living and dining room, and a kitchen.

Today, the compound employs 17 workers, including four chefs, butlers, security guards, and housekeepers.

Depending on the season, a night in the larger villa costs between $1,500 and $2,100, while the smaller one typically costs between $400 and $800.

Beyond luxury, the villa focuses on extravagant events

As the couple finished building, they realized they wanted to differentiate themselves from the other villas and short-term rentals across the island.

The Parfitts approached this in two ways. The first was adding a commercial kitchen and a bar to the property's offerings. A popular Bali chef developed the menu, and the former head mixologist of the Ritz-Carlton created cocktails. This means guests can access fine dining, small bites, and tropical cocktails similar to what they'd expect from a hotel restaurant.

The second was adding event planning. As the family noticed that more guests were arriving for celebrations like birthdays and anniversaries, they decided to capitalize on that by offering complimentary party-planning services.

The Parfitts work with guests and villa staff to plan and execute extravagant parties, specifically for milestone birthdays.

In March, 30 people arrived at the villa from India for a Holi-inspired 60th birthday party, complete with colorful water balloons and foam cannons.

Last year, they hosted an Alice in Wonderland-themed party with fire performers, dancers, and themed cocktails.

Parfitt said he estimates they're hosting one or two birthdays monthly.

"It's more creative than the traditional short-term rental," he said.

During the offseason, the family of four lives in the smaller villa while welcoming guests and improving the compound. In March, they were on-site developing new menu items like a duck salad and testing new cocktails.

"We've got really good food and great cocktails," Parfitt said. "But at the end of the day, we try to make sure that there's something extra special as well."