Meet Ben & Anja | Owners of TLL Hospitality®

‘ … When I started travelling, leaving a hotel was always painful. I adóre hotels. That’s why I wanted a hotel – so I would never have to leave. And now I’m happy, because  I’m always living in one … ‘ – Anja

Property Details:

Name: TLL Hospitality® | The Lombok Lodge Hospitality
Location: Lombok Island, Indonesia
Property Type: Three-Property Luxury Collection
9-Room Boutique Hotel, 9 Private Villas, 1 Luxury Glamping Tent
Core Philosophy: ‘ … Building home where guests never want to leave …’ 

Interview by Siana Travel Ltd
September 2025

The speedboat cuts through turquoise waters, leaving Bali’s familiar chaos far behind. As Lombok’s silver volcanic coastline emerges, there’s no mistaking you’ve entered different territory entirely rawer, quieter, somehow more honest. The boat pulls up to a pristine pier jutting into crystalline waters, and waiting on the dock is the warm smile of someone who clearly belongs here. This is your first glimpse into the world Anja Braeken and Ben Olaerts have spent a decade creating: exceptional hospitality services that feels less like a business and more like coming home to family you didn’t know you had.

The Lombok Lodge Boutique Hotel rises from Medana Bay’s shoreline in soft white tones, its minimalist lines a deliberate counterpoint to the dramatic volcanic landscape. Staff members whom Ben and Anja call family rather than employees greet arriving guests with flower garlands, signature mocktails and the kind of genuine warmth that can’t be manufactured or trained. It’s immediately clear this serene boutique resort isn’t another luxury hotel trying to impress; it’s something far rarer and more valuable; a carefully curated world where luxury feels personal. An exceptional world of quiet, whispering luxury.

“When I was young, leaving a hotel was always painful,” Anja reflects, watching guests settle into what will become their temporary sanctuary. “That’s why I wanted a hotel so I would never have to leave. And now I’m happy, because I’m always living in one.” This simple admission reveals everything about what drives the Belgian partnership behind one of Indonesia’s most distinctive hospitality experiences.

Standing beside her, Ben surveys the property with the eye of someone who sees not just what exists, but what’s possible. “We are two very different people,” he explains. “Anja is the creative mind, always with new ideas, and I’m more the financial one,” Olaerts adds with a knowing smile. “Sometimes her ideas are not logical, and I need to stop them. But 80% is perfectly done, and only 20% I need to cut.”

This creative tension has produced something extraordinary: a collection of three properties that spans from minimalist luxury to brutalist villa luxury and barefoot gili glamping, unified by an approach to hospitality that prioritizes authentic connection over manufactured experience. With very few rooms across the collection, the intimate Lombok hospitality creates an exceptional level of personal attention impossible in larger resorts. But there’s something about Lombok itself that creates an almost gravitational pull. “That’s the dangerous thing about Lombok,” Ben warns with evident satisfaction, watching returning guests who’ve traded their typical Indonesian island-hopping for two-week Lombok devotions.

The Lombok Lodge Boutique Hotel

Coconut-White Interiors for a Family-Soul Five-Star Experience

The story begins with admiration and ends with revolution. In the 1990s, Ben and Anja were frequent guests at The Oberoi Hotel along Jalan Oberoi that dominated the island’s luxury hospitality landscape 30 years ago. They learned from what worked while identifying what was missing the personal touch that only family-owned properties can provide.

“We wanted to create something more personal a property with the dimension of a five-star hotel, but the heart and soul of a family-owned property,” Anja reveals. This wasn’t competition; it was completion of something the larger chains couldn’t deliver.

The vision crystallized around a specific aesthetic philosophy that would define their approach. “It was really in my mind from the very beginning to create something in white, in a soft tone,” Braeken recalls. This wasn’t arbitrary design choice but deliberate emotional architecture spaces that would feel calm, clean, and conducive to the kind of deep relaxation that transforms guests rather than simply housing them.

Working with Award-Winning Italian architect Vittorio Simoni, they created the nine-room Lombok Lodge boutique hotel as their manifesto in hospitality form. The striking cubist lodges feature cream-colored furnishings, natural materials, and linen curtains billowing in the ocean breeze offering stunning ocean views. Every detail, from the outdoor rain showers that connect guests to the tropical environment to the resort owned boat that launches adventures to the nearby Gili Islands, was designed to blur the line between accommodation and experience.

“The Lombok Lodge boutique hotel, this was our first property here on Lombok Island,” Ben notes with pride. “We wanted to create Lombok with a difference. Lombok luxury with a difference.” That difference wasn’t just aesthetic it was philosophical, emotional, transformational. The amazing hotel offers what chains cannot: rates that include both a la carte breakfast and dinner, Acqua di Parma toiletries, Wi-Fi, and impeccable service so intuitive that guests feel like treasured house guests rather than paying customers.

The Lodge Suites became proof that when vision meets vulnerability, transformation becomes inevitable. The spacious suites with their sea view terraces and outdoor pool access create the focal point of relaxation, where guests can check in to an unforgettable stay. But it also revealed the dangerous thing about Lombok that would define their entire approach to hospitality.

Lombok Private Villa Estate

Brutalist Gray Design Revolution

Ten years after launching their white-toned sanctuary, Ben and Anja were ready for their next evolution. Lombok Private Villa Estate, the exclusive ultra luxurious pool villas by TLL Hospitality® represent not just expansion but artistic maturation a property where their design philosophy deepened into something approaching sculpture.

“Now with the Villa Estate, it was absolutely the idea to create something more in the gray tones, more the brutalistic style,” Ben explains. This dramatic shift from soft whites to bold grays wasn’t arbitrary but environmentala response to Lombok’s unique geography that most developers ignore entirely.

“Why the color palette? It’s black and gray because we have this unique volcanic beach. The beach at Lombok Private Villa Estate is a silver-colored beach. It’s super beautiful, and that’s also why we use here more gray tones and some black items. It matches the environment, the exceptional color of the beach.”

The architectural partnership with Vittorio Simoni proved transformative once again. “He designs perfectly what we also like. There’s no question and no answer we ask him something, he designs it, and it’s exactly what we want,” Anja notes. This rare creative synchronicity allowed for architecture that feels both bold and inevitable, as if the buildings emerged naturally from the volcanic landscape rather than being imposed upon it.

The nine luxury beach villas redefine ultra-luxury accommodation entirely. Each villa features its own 20-meter private pool, private garden, and direct beach access through a private driveway, surrounded by peaceful rice fields and palm trees with breathtaking views. With 24-hour butler service and a private chef, the villas create an extraordinary experience that one guest described as “like renting a cutting-edge James-Bond-Style villa, but instead of facing rowdy crowds, you’re unwinding in the tranquil heart of Indonesia.”

But the Villa-Only private resort represents more than aesthetic evolution; it embodies a different philosophy of luxury entirely. “We were looking for people who want to disconnect 100% from everybody and everything, and who are looking for a private holiday on a high scale,” Ben reveals. Where the boutique hotel creates community, the villas offer solitude but solitude so thoughtfully designed it becomes restorative rather than isolating.

The Home-Building Investment that Created Guest Transformation

The philosophy driving Lombok Private Villa Estate reveals something profound about how Ben and Anja understand hospitality itself. While most developers calculate minimum viable luxury, they calculated maximum possible desire building for the kind of guest experience that creates permanent emotional connection.

“I see this as our house. It must be perfectly done with the best materials, and that makes a difference. The Lombok Lodge Pool Villas were built like our home. I want the guests to feel like they are coming home their second house,” Anja explains. This isn’t metaphor but literal construction philosophy every choice made as if family rather than strangers would inhabit these spaces.

The reaction from suppliers was telling and consistent. “We went very deep in the details, in the quality of the materials. Some suppliers asked us, ‘What are you doing? You’re building your home but renting it out?’ Yes, because that’s the kind of investment we want to do to make the guests very happy.”

Even more dramatically, their suppliers delivered an ultimatum: “My suppliers in Jakarta and Surabaya told me: ‘Nobody invests this kind of money in villas to rent out. You would only build like this for your own family.’ But I said no, I want to go one step further. That’s what we did.”

This home-building approach creates something unmistakable in the guest experience. “The feedback we hear most is: ‘You’re in my top three favorite hotels in the world.’ It comes back again and again,” Ben notes with satisfaction. But the feedback goes deeper than ratings it becomes behavioral transformation.

“When people come to Indonesia, normally they do Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumba. They stay everywhere for three or four nights, Bali a little bit longer. But afterwards, they come back and they come back to The Lombok Lodge Boutique Hotel and our Private Villas, because they’re feeling like home. And then they come back for two weeks.”

The dangerous thing about creating home, Ben warns with evident delight, is that people want to stay. “That’s the dangerous thing about Lombok.” This philosophy extends beyond accommodation to complete experience curation. “We wanted to create a sanctuary where people can enjoy the good things in life without thinking what is the best restaurant in the area, where to go, what to do. Everything is settled and organized.”

Integrating Lombok Community

Through Crisis-Tested Support

TLL Hospitality® approach to cultural integration goes far beyond token gestures toward genuine community partnership. Rather than importing external concepts of luxury, Ben and Anja built their hospitality philosophy around authentic local experiences that benefit residents as much as guests.

“We offer many activities and special experiences like our Vespa tour or going with a traditional fishing boat together with local fishermen to catch fish and grill it on the barbecue. Guests can live with the local community in a nice way,” Ben explains. These aren’t staged cultural performances but genuine partnerships that create economic opportunity while sharing authentic island life. Whether it’s just a day trip to explore North Lombok or a boat trip to discover the natural beauty of the nearby Gili Islands, every experience offers guests an unforgettable escape into the real Lombok.

The scale of community impact reveals the depth of their commitment. “We feel gratitude that we can support so many families here in Lombok. At the end we support 140 families: 100 in hospitality, and another 40 in maintenance. We are very proud to give them a better life and a brighter future.”

This support system proved crucial during crisis, revealing the true character of their community commitment. When the 2018 earthquake devastated the region, their response was immediate and personal. “In 2018, the earthquake hit. In the first hours I started crowdfunding with my family, and with the money we collected we built 35 houses for the local community. The goal was to have them finished before the rainy season in December, and we succeeded.”

The COVID pandemic tested their commitment even further. While most hospitality businesses laid off staff, Ben and Anja chose financial sacrifice over community abandonment. “Then came COVID. A really hard time. But we kept our team 100% on board. We promised them 50% salary not enough for a new motorbike or phone, but enough to survive. And they are still thankful for that today.”

This approach to staff relationships reflects their broader hospitality philosophy and creates the authentic warmth real guests immediately notice. “It’s about our team I don’t call them staff, I call them family. Brothers and sisters working with us toward the same goal: hospitality, service, making guests happy,” explains Olaerts. All the team members contribute their heartfelt services to ensure each guest’s entire stay becomes an unforgettable experience. The language matters because the relationship matters guests sense immediately when team members are treated as family rather than labor.

The cultural learning has been mutual and transformative. “Lombok changed my life. It taught me patience, and to be open to other cultures and religions. Here, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists all live peacefully together. That’s something I never saw in Europe,” Ben  reflects. This religious harmony has influenced their hospitality approach, creating spaces where difference is celebrated rather than managed.

Sustainability in Lombok

Creating Trigona Honey Sanctuaries and Turtle Conservation Programs

Sustainability at TLL Hospitality® extends beyond environmental buzzwords toward integrated ecosystem thinking. Ben and Anja have created programs that serve conservation, exceptional guest experiences, and local economy simultaneously proving that responsible hospitality enhances rather than limits luxury.

“At the Estate we give guests the opportunity to experience the fascinating world of bees. We have our own beekeepers and make our own ‘liquid gold’ here in Lombok: trigona honey, which is extremely healthy,” Anja  explains. The trigona bees, native stingless species, produce honey with distinctive medicinal properties allowing guests to taste terroir in its most literal sense while supporting indigenous bee populations.

The turtle conservation program operates on even deeper symbolic levels, creating one of the most powerful metaphors for their entire hospitality approach. “We also have turtle retreats. Two turtle sanctuaries one at our beach club at Gili Meno and one here at the Villa Resort. We put a lot of effort into conserving baby turtles.” But the parallel between turtle behavior and guest behavior isn’t lost on the founders.

“Even the turtles come back every year to lay their eggs here. So why not the guests? And they do, same as the turtles,” Ben observes with evident delight. “Guests love the experience of releasing baby turtles, and because we have different species, it’s possible all year round.”

This return pattern defines their success metrics in ways that transcend typical hospitality measurements. “The best feeling is indeed when guests come back again and again. Some Belgian guests have returned 10 years in a row, every November. Families have stayed five or six times. Some even book for the next year before they check out.” Like turtles returning to natal beaches, guests develop instinctive loyalty to spaces that nurtured meaningful experience.

The organic gardens complete the sustainability circle while supporting their renowned culinary program. “We also have organic gardens, where we grow our own vegetables. Our chef is passionate about healthy food and is deeply involved.” Under Executive Chef Jiwa Raga’s direction, this farm-to-table approach creates exceptional dining experiences. The chef’s team and private chef cooks delicious food with on-site flavors, served in the intimate setting of villa terraces at The Estate or intimate beachside tables at The Lodge rivaling even starred restaurants in quality.

Even transportation reflects integrated thinking about luxury. Accessible from Lombok International Airport or Lombok Airport, guests can arrive via standard transfer or choose the extraordinary. “We even created our own helipad in the middle of the rice fields. It’s very attractive for guests to take the helicopter from Bali. It takes only 25 minutes, flying over the Gili Islands and landing in the rice fields—one of the most beautiful heli-havens in Indonesia.”

Bagno di Gili

Barefoot Luxury After a Single Birthday Tent Became a Glamping Revolution

Sometimes the most significant innovations emerge from personal desire rather than market research. Bagno di Gili, the glamping experience on Gili Meno, began as Anja’s birthday wish and evolved into a new category of barefoot luxury that extends the Lombok Lodge philosophy to an entirely different environment.

“In short, Bagno di Gili started as a gift for my 50th birthday. Usually I’m the organizer, the planner, the creative mind, but for that birthday I wanted to enjoy, not organize. I asked Ben for a tent,” Anja recalls. What began as a simple request transformed through their characteristic commitment to excellence and inability to compromise on guest experience.

“At first it was supposed to be small, but it became a 100-square-meter luxury tent, actually it’s a Rooftop Villa at our beach club at Turtle Point,” Ben explains. The tent’s scale reflects their fundamental approach to hospitality even when the initial concept suggested simplicity, the execution demanded sophistication.

Bagno di Gili operates as luxury stripped of everything except what matters most. “Now we recommend guests to combine Lombok mainland with two nights on Gili Meno for barefoot luxury. The tent has a bathtub, air conditioning, a huge terrace overlooking the property, and of course the food of Chef Jiwa with his private chef’s tables and open fire on the beach.”

The island environment enforces different rhythms while maintaining their signature service standards. “Bagno di Gili is a barefoot ‘toes in sand’ extension of the hospitality we offer on Lombok mainland. Breakfast and dinner are always included, same as at the Lodge and Villas. Guests experience the same level of service, but in a different environment: horses instead of cars, no motorized vehicles, a completely different rhythm of life.” The property offers guests room options that include extra beds for families, along with laundry service and a fitness center on site for those seeking modern coastal comfort during overnight glamping stays.

Exclusivity serves experience rather than ego, with careful integration into their broader hospitality ecosystem. “It’s actually only one standalone tent the only one on the island. We recommend two nights, which is enough for barefoot luxury.” The singular tent ensures intimacy while the two-night recommendation prevents the experience from becoming routine though the average price reflects exceptional value for this private beach extension experience.

“We also keep it exclusive. You cannot book the tent without staying at Lombok Lodge Boutique Hotel or at our Villa Resort. You must combine it. Otherwise, you don’t get the full Lombok Lodge hospitality.” This requirement ensures guests understand the tent as part of a larger philosophy rather than an isolated amenity, creating the complete three-property experience at The Lombok Lodge Hotel that defines intimate Lombok hospitality.

The glamping experience embodies their core belief that luxury should enhance rather than insulate from environment. By removing walls while maintaining comfort through a large pool area and thoughtful design, Bagno di Gili creates connection to place impossible in traditional accommodation proving that sometimes the most sophisticated approach is also the most elemental. The secluded property where Lombok mainland grew gently into island rhythms offers heartfelt charm in every detail.

Defining Success

Through Family Creation After 30-Year Partnership Evolution

Traditional hospitality metrics occupancy rates, revenue per room, profit margins—tell only surface stories about success. For Ben and Anja, three decades of partnership has redefined success around family creation, community impact, and personal fulfillment rather than financial optimization alone.

“If you ask me about success 10 years ago it was never about business. It was about living together with our team and having enough to survive and live a nice life on Lombok. That was success,” Ben reflects. This definition of success as sufficiency rather than maximization influences every operational decision and explains why suppliers questioned their investment logic.

The partnership dynamic has evolved beyond business efficiency toward something approaching artistic collaboration. “After 30 years together, we know each other, and we still survive. I think we can continue another 30 years,” Olaerts notes with affection. Their complementary skills creative vision and financial pragmatism create productive tension rather than destructive conflict.

“We don’t cover the same things. But that’s why it works,” Anja adds. This division of labor extends beyond operational efficiency toward mutual respect for different expertise areas. Neither attempts to control everything; both contribute what they do best, creating the kind of partnership stability that allows for long-term vision rather than short-term profit maximization.

Family language permeates their business philosophy because family relationships define their success metrics. “If you ask what we’ve built, I would say a family group. That makes me happiest,” Ben declares. “We support 140 families here in Lombok. With children included that’s more than 500 people. That’s what makes me proud.”

The mathematical progression from 140 families to 500+ people reveal how they calculate impact. Success multiplies through generations rather than accumulating in individual accounts. Each employee represents not just labor but extended family network depending on sustainable employment—a responsibility they took seriously during both earthquake and pandemic crises.

Personal satisfaction comes from daily experience rather than abstract achievement. “For me, I never think about success. I just do what I like, and I’m happy I can do it every day,” Ben explains. This present-tense happiness contrasts sharply with future-focused ambition that characterizes most hospitality development.

The Lombok environment itself has shaped their definition of meaningful life. “Sometimes stress makes you forget. But when you sit on the beach and look around, you realize how happy you are,” Ben observes. Place has become teacher, offering daily reminders about what constitutes genuine prosperity.

Looking forward, succession planning reflects family values rather than asset transfer. “The next chapter will be for our son, Olivier. He is studying Hospitality in Switzerland. He can expand as much as he wants, but we will step back and enjoy a more peaceful life.” Success means creating something sustainable enough to continue without them, valuable enough to deserve continuation.

Their four-word philosophy captures this approach perfectly: “Experience. Moments. Risks. Results.” The risks they took building villas like homes, supporting staff through crisis, investing in turtle sanctuaries and honey production, have produced results that transcend typical business success.

As the sun sets over Lombok’s silver volcanic beach, casting the brutalist villas in warm golden light with stunning ocean views, it becomes clear that Anja Braeken and Ben Olaerts have created something far more significant than luxury accommodation. They’ve proven that genuine hospitality grows from authentic relationship to place, to community, to each other, and ultimately to the guests who discover what it means to feel truly at home somewhere new.

The dangerous thing about Lombok that keeps guests coming back isn’t the island itself it’s what happens when visionary hospitality meets a place that changes everyone who stays. From the white-toned minimalism with quiet elegance of the original boutique hotel to the gray brutalism of the private villas to the barefoot luxury of Bagno di Gili, each property represents evolution rather than expansion deepening understanding of what it means to welcome strangers and send them home as family.

Their three-property luxury collection stands as proof that when hospitality is approached as art rather than commerce, when place is respected rather than exploited, when community is supported rather than displaced, the results benefit everyone involved. Guests return like nesting turtles to the beaches that nurtured their transformation, 140 families find sustainable livelihood through crisis-tested support, and two Belgian dreamers continue building home where leaving has become impossible.

The Lombok Lodge Collection isn’t just a place to stay.
It’s a gentle reminder that true sanctuary is found in warmth, kindness, and a sense of belonging.
Once you’ve felt it, every journey feels a little different.

Ben Olaerts

I’m Ben Olaerts, Co-Founder and Owner of The Lombok Lodge Hospitality® together with my wife, Anja. For over 15 years, I have been privileged to welcome travellers from around the world and to share the magic of Lombok and the Gili Islands with them.

Contact Ben Olaerts