In Reply to: road works and legian beach hotel posted by leshell on Wednesday, 14. July 2004 at 19:50 Bali Time:
while we have read what sinter has said about the legian beach hotel, and of course agree that everyones view of what makes a good hotel is largely dependant on the person, we would just say that in our humble opinion, we would recommend you check out the deluxe villas before paying for them.
in our opinion...and we stayed in 6c..noted that sinter stayed in 6b?..which, we agree....appeared to be a better room than ours...but find it hard to believe that simple things that one expects in a deluxe room would be any different...maybe they just expected less??
for what we paid, it was very disappointing and would not like to see anyone who expected to get what they paid for, get what we got.
and the managers attitude, upon complaint, was far from polite and helpful...in fact..he just laughed at us and said that we should have walked out the first day if we didnt like it..and by staying a week, we showed that we were just troublemakers????...albeit we were working for most of that time and all we wanted was a room to fall asleep in after a long days work each day.
by all means...check it out...what annoyed us was that harveys choice recommended this hotel, and led us to believe that we were getting a 4 star accommodation...of course at 4 star prices...plus..plus
if we had paid half the price..and to put it into context...the deluxe villa cost almost double the cost of a standard room at melasti beach resort..we would not have complained.
maybe that is the test...is it worth double the melasti beach??
we doubt anyone would say it was.
apart from the renovations going on right next door to us...we were told that guests were compensated by being given free breakfast in return for the inconvenience!!
before we left we were told that only the lobby was being renovated...nothing else...clearly, the wholesaler had not checked this out..and to be lied to by the manager...we paid for breakfast in our package...was the final insult..he just didnt care..they had our money...so..he didnt want to know us.
the australian television programs were a joke..twice a day we had to contact the office to get them to turn round the satelite so that we could get a clear picture..which, at best, was terrible..
most modern hotels have two satelite dishes so that this doesnt happen.
and their 'inhouse' movies were bali knockoffs that stopped in the middle all the time and often played halfway thru then just froze...and they would just put a new movie on in its place..after a week of watching half movies this gets a little tiresome.
ok..some people dont go to bali to watch tv...we were working hard at the time and paid extra for a room that was advertised as having satelite tv and inhouse movies..for when all we wanted to do was rest.we specifically asked about the television and inhouse movies and were told they were provided.
it is only a minor matter, sure....but dont advertise what you dont provide.
and tea and coffee making facilities that were touted as an extra provided with deluxe villas...to simply throw in a kettle and some old tea bags that stunk so badly you couldnt use them..no milk..no sugar...is hardly what one would expect in a better hotel.
and check the mini bar!..again...they could not be trusted to add up a simple account...nothing taken from the mini bar does not mean you get a bill for drinks you did not have at the end of your trip.you are made to feel like a criminal cos they say you had items from the bar maybe two weeks ago!, when clearly you did not.
we compare the treatment we received there to what we get when we usually stay at the mandira next door..and the comparison is a joke..again..in our humble opinion..the mandira is a little cheaper...and we believe, far better value..again...they have perfect ABC, HBO, and several tv channels to chose from..all with perfect reception as with most modern hotels in bali today.
LBH is old and tired...
we only advise of our situation in the hope that it may help someone who is undecided about where to stay..if LBH is your choice...fine...it wouldnt be ours again is all...
and we have been told that a major wholesaler has suspended LBH from there packages in the last few days....dont know whether this is true...but will check it out..
and sinter..we arent having a go at you in any way....and apologise if it comes across that way...as you have said..everyone is different...i guess it all comes down to what we pay for our packages and what we are told we will get..when you are lied to and treated badly because you dare to demand what you pay for, anyone is entitled to complain...and as long as people just accept what some hotels throw at them, we cannot expect any change...we have heard some shocking stories about some hotels in bali over the years, and all bad experiences, and the good ones, should be exposed.
an interesting example is the hotel that held an elderly australian couple luggage to ransom until they paid for a hand basin that fell off the wall when they turned the tap on!!!had to pay for it to get their luggage back to catch their plane..and got a mouthfull of abuse at the same time!..the 'F' word was dropped at these people...by management.
this 'bonny and clyde' couple ...were treated like garbage just to get money out of them...and this was a pretty well know hotel mentioned often in this forum!
we, in our business, here tales like this all the time....and as long as we laugh about it and dont demand what we pay for, it will continue.
money isnt the problem to us, sure...we are prepared to pay for better accommodation as it is a business expense, however, while we dont usually complain, as it does little good anyway, in bali, we felt that on this occasion, we should tell people what happened and if it helps one person have a better holiday, great...if not...we have got it off our chests... :)
cheers