Company Profile
We start from data, not from a blueprint.
Team Rio Walet Sumbawa is a swiftlet house consulting and construction service based in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. We handle the whole chain ourselves — feasibility survey, design, construction, system installation, and support after handover.
Why We Exist
Too many swiftlet houses are built on enthusiasm, then sit empty for years.
A swiftlet house is not just a building. It is a controlled habitat — temperature, humidity, air circulation, light, acoustics, and safety from pests all have to be right at the same time. One wrong variable and the birds simply pass overhead.
That is why every project starts with a site survey: swiftlet population in the area, altitude, feed sources, micro-climate, and flight paths. Only once we have the numbers do we draw a plan. That order is the one most often reversed in the field, and the result is a well-built house nothing ever moves into.
Working this way sometimes costs us: some sites survey badly, and we say so. Losing one construction job is cheaper for us than leaving an empty building with our name on it in Sumbawa — an island where word travels through people, not advertising.
Inside The Survey
What we actually measure before drawing a plan.
A survey is not showing up, looking around, and saying "this will do". Here is what gets done, and why each part decides something.
Population count & flight paths
Observations at dawn departure and dusk return, from several points around the site. We are not looking for "there are birds here" but for how many, from which direction, and at what height they cross. Land crossed by thousands of birds at 200 metres is very different from land crossed by hundreds at low altitude.
Feed sources nearby
Swiftlets eat flying insects. Rice fields, plantations, marsh, scrub, and water within a few kilometres determine the food supply across the year — including the dry season, when insects are scarcest and a colony is most likely to move on.
Site micro-climate
Temperature and humidity measured on site, not taken from city weather data. Two hundred metres from a river, or on the lee of a ridge, can shift humidity by several percent — and that is the difference between nests that form and nests that crack.
Existing swiftlet houses
Other houses nearby are good news and a warning at once: good because they prove the birds are there, a warning because the same colony is already being competed for. We record how many, how far, and which look occupied or empty.
Disturbance & pests
Loud noise sources, bright night lighting, heavy traffic, and signs of rats, ants, geckos, and birds of prey. Some of this can be handled through design; some of it means the site is better left alone.
Access, power & water
The thing most often ignored until construction starts. Roads a materials truck cannot use, power too unstable for sound and misting systems, and a water source for humidity — all of it belongs in the cost plan, not in a mid-project surprise.
From The Field
Six reasons houses stay empty, in our experience.
Most failed swiftlet houses did not fail because the location was bad. They failed on one or two technical things that could have been fixed — usually discovered after years of waiting.
- 01
Entry hole misplaced or mis-sized
An entrance facing away from the birds’ approach, set too high, made too small, or pointed into direct sun. Birds that cannot find a comfortable way in will keep passing over the building.
- 02
Light leaking into the core
Swiftlets nest in darkness. A gap at a roof joint, ventilation without a light baffle, or a door that does not seal turns a room that is dark on the drawing into a dim one — and the birds choose another floor, or none.
- 03
Unstable humidity
Too dry and nests crack and birds stay away; too wet and you invite mould and odour. What matters is not the average figure but how far it swings between day and night.
- 04
Sound systems installed simply loud
Tweeters in the wrong places, recordings that do not match the stage, or excessive volume actively drives birds off. External calling sound and internal settling sound do different jobs and are not interchangeable.
- 05
Nesting planks that smell or use the wrong timber
Wood still holding the smell of treatment, too smooth, or absorbing too much water. Swiftlets glue their nests straight onto that plank; its surface decides whether the nest holds or falls.
- 06
Pests left until the colony leaves
Rats, ants, geckos, and owls. One predator getting in regularly is enough to make a settled colony abandon a building — and bringing them back is far harder than attracting them the first time.
What We Do
Five lines, one chain.
All of it circles the same commodity, from the building to what comes out of it.
- 01
Consulting & feasibility surveys
Assessing a site before any capital is committed: swiftlet population, flight paths, micro-climate, feed sources.
See services - 02
Construction & renovation
Design, cost plan, build, sound and humidity system installation, plus audits of houses already standing but still empty.
See services - 03
Equipment & supplies
Nesting planks, audio systems, misting equipment and more — including for owners building their own house.
See services - 04
Buying nests from farmers
We buy harvests directly from farmers and house owners across Sumbawa and the surrounding region, at any volume.
Sell your nests - 05
Bird’s nest drinks
Nests from our own managed houses, processed into ready-to-drink form for wholesale buyers.
See product
Service Area
Based in Sumbawa, working across NTB.
Our base of operations is Sabedo village, Utan district, Sumbawa Regency. We regularly serve the whole of Sumbawa Island and the wider West Nusa Tenggara region, and consider projects beyond it. For surveys outside our area, travel and accommodation are quoted separately and agreed upfront — they do not appear later on the invoice.
Being based in the region is what makes the survey worth anything. Swiftlet populations, wind direction, and Sumbawa weather patterns cannot be judged from a distance.
The Limits
What we do not promise.
Some of what you will hear elsewhere is a promise nobody can keep. These are the limits we state upfront.
- We do not guarantee any particular yield or return. Swiftlet farming results depend on location, surrounding population, management quality, and market conditions — and none of those are entirely in our hands.
- We do not promise birds within weeks. The first birds usually appear within 3–12 months, and commercially meaningful harvests typically begin in year two or three.
- We do not claim every site can be built on. If the survey says your land is not viable, that is what we will tell you — even when it costs us the project.
- We do not quote a cost before surveying. An accurate cost plan needs knowledge of the site; a number given earlier is only a guess that will change later.
Company Details
What you can verify about us.
Before handing money to anyone for a long-term project, it is reasonable to want to know who you are dealing with.
- Operating since
- [year operations began]
- Founder
- Rio
- Base of operations
- Sumbawa, Nusa Tenggara Barat
- Address
- Jalan Tani Villa Rio Walet, Dusun Sabedo 3, RT 01 / RW 05, Desa Sabedo, Kecamatan Utan
- +62 878-5326-5186
- rio.walet.sumbawa
- Working hours
- 08.00 – 20.00 WITA
Track Record
Numbers, not claims.
We do not display figures we cannot show you the projects behind. For a project list and owner references you can call, ask us on WhatsApp.
Founder
Rio
Founder & Lead Consultant
Personally involved in site surveys and stays with projects through to the first harvest. The WhatsApp number on this site reaches the same team that does the fieldwork — not a call centre.
“A swiftlet house that stays empty is not cheap — it is the most expensive thing you can build. My job is to make sure yours has a reason to be occupied before the first brick is laid.”
Have a site you want assessed?
Tell us the location and what you are aiming for on WhatsApp. The first consultation is free, and if we think your land is not viable, we will tell you then and there.
Free Consultation+62 878-5326-5186