hey sinter...couldnt post a message in the archives in reply to your post, so am doing it here...hope you get it.
and..yes...it was the legian beach hotel in melasti street..the one that we have stayed at many times in the past....
we totally agree with you about everyone finding their own level of accommodation etc. and we were truly amazed at how poor we found the LBH this trip.
we haven't stayed there for a long time and always found it to be fine, however, this time we believe that the prices that we were charged by Harveys Choice from perth for what we were told the deluxe villas were like was at least, very short on value.
we could have stayed at the melasti beach hotel for half what we paid for at LBH..maybe that puts it into context.
the renovations in the lobby were not conducive to efficiency and many times we had to sit round to sort out minor problems that simply do not occur in better class hotels.
staff were polite, except for the 'manager' who would have trouble getting a job in a brot#el in australia..again..only our humble opinion :)
however, to be fair... the brekky was the best we have encountered at any hotel in bali at any time.
if we had paid for the standard rooms we dont have a problem with the hotel..you get what you pay for...in this case, we couldnt recommend LBH to anyone based on our experience...they advertise and charge top dollar for deluxe villas that are at best, standard rooms most other places.
we accept that other people find it great....but in our minds it isnt a patch on the mandira, or the newer Niksoma which we looked at and were most impressed with.
it didnt ruin our trip as we have stayed in far worse accommodation, however, some of the things that we were told by our agent in perth were not true, albeit they still charged top dollar for it.
finally, Harveys Choice havent had the courtesy to even reply to our complaint some three weeks after....a point that some forumites may keep in mind when looking around for prices.
if they do, we will certainly keep anyone interested, informed.
we guess that the standard rooms are fine...but dont expect anything more for the so called deluxe villas.
cheers