Smart Money Pivots to Lombok
Above, aerial view of The Clubhouse at Samara Lombok. Left, co-founder Steve Ebsworth
By Raini Hamdi, 29 May 2026
Lombok will never be the new Bali, the next Bali, or another Bali. Thankfully too, as Lombok has its own identity and will evolve in its own way. A 30-minute flight or two-hour speedboat ride away from Bali, Lombok has been slow to shine. But its growth is accelerating, in part due to demand for under-crowded and so-called “secondary” places.
Asian Trails, one of Asia’s largest tour operators, has just opened its latest Indonesia office in Lombok – read CEO Laurent Kuenzle’s personal account of the island from his recent visit here.
A family office, Westgrove, is also betting on Lombok, putting in a “substantial” investment on Samara Lombok, an integrated resort developed by Singapore-based Rascal Republic. The developer acquired the land in Lombok in 2008 and has since built foundational infrastructure there. Funding from Westgrove will enable the company to work towards a 1Q2028 opening of the resort, located 25 minutes from Lombok International Airport.
Steve Ebsworth, co-founder, Samara Lombok, shares more about the project with Hotels-Asia:
Tell us more about Rascal Republic and its vision for Samara Lombok.
[Rascal Republic] is led by three co-founders, me, Erik Barreto and Tom Wheeler. We have built and operated hospitality and experiential travel businesses across Asia, including 1-Altitude in Singapore [at launch] and Rascal Voyages, our luxury yacht charter and expedition business in Indonesia.
Our operating experience has shaped the masterplan of Samara Lombok. It has been designed as a hospitality-led destination, not simply a land or villa development. Our aim is to create a place that feels rooted in Lombok, not a resort that could have been built anywhere.
Tell us more about Westgrove. Is this its first investment in Samara Lombok and in hospitality?
Westgrove is a family office that provides independent investment and corporate financial advice to a select group of families, with offices in London, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Westgrove is not affiliated with Westgrove Partners in the USA. [However, Westgrove Partners Ltd is the registered name of Westgrove’s UK office and is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority].
This is Westgrove’s first investment in Samara Lombok. Westgrove invests globally across both public and private markets, spanning a diverse range of sectors including education, healthcare, technology, real estate and leisure and hospitality.
Editor’s Note A partner at Westgrove, Sze-Liang Lim, said, “What differentiates this opportunity is the level of site readiness, where land consolidation, infrastructure and planning have already been substantially de-risked. This allows us to deploy capital at scale with clear visibility on execution and long-term value creation by the co-founders and team at Samara Lombok.”
How will you deploy Westgrove’s “substantial” investment on Samara Lombok?
This capital accelerates the final phase of delivery, taking Samara from foundational infrastructure to a fully realized hospitality and lifestyle destination by 1Q2028.
Much of the groundwork is already in place – from concrete roads and utilities to community initiatives such as local education. The investment focus now is on completing the resort facilities and guest-facing infrastructure that will allow Samara Lombok to open as a fully integrated destination. That includes the hotels, F&B outlets, sporting and wellness facilities, marine and watersports experiences, family facilities, and the wider estate infrastructure needed to bring the destination together. In short, we have already built much of the platform. This investment helps us deliver the destination.
How much has been built – say, 70%?
It is difficult to assign a single percentage to a 150-hectare, multi-phase destination because infrastructure, residential, hotel and lifestyle components are all progressing in parallel. Major groundwork and infrastructure have been substantially de-risked, and we are now advancing the final phase of development towards opening.
We have completed a number of important early-stage assets, including our organic gardens, farm shop, cooking school and hospitality training hotel. Several major hospitality components are progressing. The Clubhouse and farm-to-table restaurant are partially built, with 50 villas under construction. For the 1Q2028 launch, our target is to open with the full resort experience operating across the key parts of the masterplan, along with 150 villas to be in operation across three sites.
Samara Lombok will open with three boutique hotels. What is the room count and will they all be under the Destination by Hyatt brand?
Each is deliberately intimate in scale, with 53, 38, and 31 suites. They are the hospitality heart of the destination, bringing the service culture, guest programming and operational backbone needed to support a high-end destination across the wider estate. They help create the operating platform that allows our guests and villa owners to benefit from proper resort-level service, whether it’s housekeeping, maintenance, F&B, concierge, guest experiences, or rental management.
All hotel and villa inventories will be distributed through Hyatt under the Destination by Hyatt franchise. This allows Samara Lombok to maintain its own brand identity and sense of place, while delivering with Hyatt standards and benefiting from Hyatt’s global distribution reach and World of Hyatt loyalty platform.
Tell us more about the 500-villa development. Are they all residential?
The villas are private residences within Samara Lombok, designed for owners to enjoy at their discretion while generating returns through Samara Lombok’s managed rental pool program when not in use.
They do not sit under a separate villa development. As such, owners are not just buying a villa; they are buying everything Samara Lombok has to offer. They can spend time privately with family, join the wider resort energy, and use all the facilities – or simply let the villa be available through the rental pool when they are not there.
The younger generation goes through trend/culture cycles very quickly. Do you foresee this to be a problem?
If a resort is built around one aesthetic, one beach club moment, or one Instagram-led version of luxury, then yes, it can date very quickly. Samara Lombok is built around more durable shifts in how people want to live and travel: more time outdoors, more space, better food, sport, wellness, family connection, nature, culture and a stronger sense of place.
That is why the range of facilities and experiences matters. Samara Lombok brings together hotels, villas, 12 dining concepts, sport, wellness, marine experiences, kids’ facilities, conservation, community and cultural programming. It is designed to appeal to grandparents, parents, teenagers, young children and everyone in between, whether they are enjoying experiences individually or collectively.