In Reply to: Star ratings posted by Diah on Thursday, 18. May 2006 at 13:27 Bali Time:
Depends where you are looking/which site/wholesaler/country etc.
That's why I said "loose guide"
eg sites below list Barong as 3 (as do others)
Maybe it increased it's rating after the renos..who knows.
http://www.hotels68.com/detil.php?hotel_id=618
http://www.hotel.com.au/Bali/3-star-Bali-hotel.asp
About Star & Melati Ratings:
"What is the difference between a Star Rated Hotels and Melati Hotels?
Hotels in Indonesia are rated along guidelines established by the Government. By and large there are 3 categories: Star; Melati; and Losmen. Within each of these categories there are various levels. The Star Category has levels 1-5 with 5 being best. Melati Category has 3 levels 1-3 with 3 being best. Losmen are not rated.
Briefly:
Star rated hotels are fairly easy to distinguish between - the more stars the more services and facilities you can expect. A one star hotel will not have international direct dial telephones in the room or 24 hour room service - a 5 star hotel will.
Melati hotels are more difficult to define. Some Melati hotel especially the level 3 (many now being marketed as Boutique Hotels) can sometimes be "nicer" than a 3 star hotel. Some owners of Melati hotels prefer not be star rated for personal reasons. Other Melati hotels just don't have the facilities to be rated in the star category. Therefore the old saying "you get what you pay for" really applies here.
However to give an idea in general, Melati l hotels often do not have air-conditioned bedrooms and no hotel facilities to speak of. Melati 2 may or may not have air conditioned rooms and may have a few facilities such as a restaurant but lack services such as room service - direct dial telephones and so on, and Melati 3, usually have air-conditioned rooms, restaurant and sometimes room service but may or not have direct dial telephone service. Again it depends on the room rate."
http://www.balihotelsDOTcom/info/faq.php#question3