HI Baruna Bali
My wife and I just spend 3 days here. Overall we were disappointed. Sure that might come from comparing to the IC (i know you cannot compare hamburger to filet mignon) but even compared to HI's elsewhere in the region this was a disappointment. The beach - well its a big stretch of sand and lots of space and the great beach chairs / lounges that Envy (the beach bar/restaurant) places are very comfy. However, the locals hassling you for sales of hats/necklaces/t-shirts/sarong/etc... is what I assume you would get at Kuta beach hotels. Call me a snob, but if I wanted to be hassled like that I would go to Penang or Phuket. The final nail in the beach's coffin though is that the water itself is filthy and would be a hazard to swim in.
The rooms themselves are small. I used points (15K) to book our stay and was afforded an upgrade as AMB to a Garden View with balcony. It says it was 30sqm (could that be sqf?) and resembled a single dorm room. While it was brand new with the new HI/HIX pillows and an empty fridge to fill as we chose and with a very good channel selection on the flatscreen, it was small. The balcony which has a nice lounge (like the beach lounges) was comfortable and there was good space there, and in fact more room on the balcony then in the tiny bathroom. The bathroom reminded me of what you get when you book a suite on the train with a bathroom included - ie 2 people could not fit in at the same time, although maybe with 1 in shower and 1 at sink...
From our observations not all rooms (defintely not all the suites) are ready for booking yet. The spa Tea Tree was open however and prices were high.
Restaurants The Palms for breakfast all-day dining. We only took breakfast which was a normal wide buffet spread with a mix of western/local/asian dishes. Oddly they place coffee/tea mugs on the tables and yet you are expected to get your own coffee from the 1 functioning espresso machine. No additional mugs to be found in the vicinity. The freshly made juice bar was great. Very good selection but crowded when we went early - opens until 1030am.
The Beach chill out bar + restaurant was a great spot to hang out and be near the beach (not on the beach for fear of having to ward off numerous sales people). Prices though were very high. The lay-out of the beach bar / Envy bar is very much KuDeTa like and I think it works for the most part. With a little more time and working through tihngs it could be a great place to be. Another surprise was the missing "Happy Hour" - not yet I was told? Anyway, my concerns about prices were solved by the resorts shop, aptly named The Shop, which had ice cold beers at only 1Krp more than the local shop price of 12Krp.
Another surprise for a new style HI was no free wi-fi and in fact only wi-fi in the rooms and this was a complicated procedure where one had to connect (wired) first in order to establish the account to access withe wireless subsequently. We did not even bother with it and from the website the prices look extoriionate at USD20/day. I just don't understand why all hotels cannot offer free wi-fi for guests. I have stayed at numerous HIX across the US and other HI in Malaysia and all of them offer comp wireless access.
My final comment and I think this has been shared elsewhere is that the prices are very high for a HI and a resort of this calibre with the smallest rooms I have experienced in south east asia. Perhaps there is a decent F+F rate available but I won't be looking b/c I won't be going back. When I do return to Bali it will be to the IC of old.