In Reply to: yes posted by Chris on Wednesday, 31. January 2007 at 15:24 Bali Time:
People make outrageous criticisms and cause undue angst for people not familiar with a particular hotel. We used to stay at Puri Raja and our last stop was in a deluxe room 101, the biggest in the hotel and without a verandah at AU$108 per night, because the other rooms are very small and the balconies are opposite each other and if you sit out the front of a downstairs room you get sick of saying good day to the continuous stream of people using the path that divides the buildings. OK we really liked the staff & the position. Breakfast was good but not buffet, and in my opinion not as varied as MBR. We could not stop there last year as it was closed so we had a month at MBR in a suite room in old section for AU$70. We were so happy we have booked for another month this year. If you get to breakfast at a normal time everything is good. If you stagger down at 10 am obviously things have been out for several hours, although bane marie is restocked regularly. We did not get Bali belly for the month we stayed there. As for the cloudy pool, the main pool is reasonably old and not crystal clear, but you can see the bottom and we only used it. There are two more pools both crystal clear that can be used. PR has one reasonably small main pool and another one near reception. As for the staff I cannot say I noticed much difference except the PR staff knew us, because we have stopped there at least 10 times. I hope this helps, but people form opinions for different reasons and I am loath to recommend any hotel to people who think I am a Bali expert. I feel a bit insulted when I think a hotel is great and other people rubbish it, when I have been going to Bali since 1980 and stopped in all types of hotels.
Loz