In Reply to: Melasti Beach Resort posted by kim on Saturday, 20. January 2007 at 16:10 Bali Time:
in October last year. We've been to Bali quite a few times and have liked every hotel we've stayed in...Melasti was the first one we all agreed we didn't like.
They forgot to pick us up at the airport - when we got there a very bored looking lady on reception made no apologies...just said "we forgot - we were very busy". Trust me - there was no one in sight and she was sat at reception almost dozing off. This was to set the tone for the reception staff for most of our stay. Totally disinterested and unhelpful and they didn't offer to refund our taxi fare to the hotel even though we had paid for transfers in advance.
Room was a good size and aircon worked well etc, so absolutely no complaints there.
The Melasti Spa is first rate and I frequented that on a number of occasions and could not fault it - reasonably priced and great service.
Food was terrible. We had room service once or twice - horrible food. The breakfast choice was good (I am happy with just toast anyway but there was plenty to choose from), but the whole area is very grotty and we decided to forgo the breakfast there even though we had paid for it and eat elsewhere as it just looked very unhygenic.
Pool was okay but a lot of the times it had an oily slick on the top which we assumed was from suntan lotion. Got a drink at the pool bar once - never again after I saw the state of the filthy esky they kept the ice in --- ewwww, no thanks.
There were a couple of very friendly staff members - mainly the porters etc, but the rest of the staff looked totally disinterested - I had never encountered this in previous hotels we have stayed at.
I too had heard the "for" and "against" arguments about the Melasti and decided to try it and make up my own mind - and I have to say I am one of the "against".
That said, a lot of people love this hotel and you probably will too. You can only give it a try.
If we hadn't paid in advance, we would have left after the second day. That said, it certainly didn't spoil our trip in any way - we just didn't spend a lot of time there.
Jen.