In Reply to: Legian Beach Hotel info posted by aprilsun on Saturday, 10. July 2004 at 18:13 Bali Time:
just a comment or two...
stayed there a few weeks ago..very disappointed and could not recommend it to anyone.
of course everyone is different and what is great to one person is terrible to another, so can see both sides.
we stayed in the 'deluxe villas'..supposed to be the best rooms in the hotel....we agree that maybe the normal rooms may be fine for what you pay, but would suggest anyone thinking that the extra money..and it is quite a bit...for what are touted as 4 star rooms...investigate thoroughly first.
the rooms are very average...no cupboard space..we had to arrange cardboard boxes upside down around the room to stack clothes on.
only one bedside table that had the telephone on and was thus pretty useless for anything else.
the tea and coffee facilities were terrible..the tea bags smelt like the rear end of a dog and were unusable...no milk..had to buy sugar outside.
the room, after the first day, was cleaned well..but we had to complain first.
we have stayed at many hotels in bali and most are what you pay for...very few are what one would accept back home as even 1 star..and ok..we all love bali for many reasons, and tend to turn a blind eye to less than perfect cleanliness and service sometimes.
but when you pay top dollar for what is laughably described as 'best rooms in the house' you would think that you get what you pay for.
renovations were going on next to our room...hammering and sawing during the day....upon approaching the 'manager' and we use this word rather loosely, we were informed that as compensation for the renovations going on around the hotel, breakfast was provided free!!!
this was clearly a stretch of the truth and was typical of any approaches we made to management about anything.breakfast is included in their rather expensive package but we wondered how many people just accepted this and put up with poor service and inconvenience.
complaints about the standard of the room were literally laughed at by the manager..when asked why he was laughing, he said that all balinese are instructed to smile at customers???
and to add insult to injury, after 10 days with 10 to go we were told by him that if the room was so bad why didnt we walk out the first day?
as we were working the first week from 6am until after dark, all we wanted to do was sleep when we came back to the room.
the advertised internet facility that came with the room, was the most expensive service we have seen at any hotel anywhere....apart from every day having to sort out that it wasnt an international phone call we had just made, and charged like 500,000 for 20 minutes..the cost to use the line was 5 times that out in the street and we had our own laptop.upon asking why the service was advertised if no one knew how to use it and also the high cost all we were told was that the hotel had to make a profit and as a businessman we should understand.
staff did not know the difference between a phone call and an internet connection.
all in all, we found the LBH rather poor for what we paid...yes..we could be accused of finding fault with everything, but in some 24 years of travel to bali, and several times each year, we usually just grin and put up with poor hotels...they happen anywhere...but thought it worth advising anyone to just check it out a little before booking.
we know people who were there the same time as us who loved it..but again, they did not pay for that little bit extra.
management assured us that we were the only people out of '1000 guests' who had complained in the time we were there..yet we heard many people round the pool complaining..maybe we were the only ones who told management???
anyway...it was still bali...loved it no matter what...
oh..we booked thru harveys choice....still waiting for common courtesy of a call back, after three weeks, with our complaint.
would seriously recommend anyone booking thru them to check out what happens if you dont like a place they sell you and want to move.
get it in writing first, especially if you pay a premium.Anyone wanting to know if they come to the party email us and we will keep you informed of whether they stand by their product or not.
we accept that often, once something goes wrong with a trip, it seems to just get worse...and of course many people would say that we should just accept what happens, however, we read the comments that recommended the hotel, and while we agree that they were given in good faith and were genuine, there often is another point of view.
hope the above helps someone...usually stay at the mandira which was booked out unfortunately, however the LBH was some $300 per person dearer for far less quality rooms and service.
had a look at the niksoma...rather new and was very impressed..and again...was cheaper than LBH and couldnt compare the two.