We recently stayed for four nights at the Renaissance Bali in Nusa Dua. The hotel rates in the area were quite high, and some of the Marriott hotels were sold out. We ended up booking the Renaissance as they were offering a special discounted rate for suites where you could receive two 60-minute massages, one dinner, and kids eating free (also stacked nicely with a 10% Chase offer). Though, the hotel staff had difficulty with the kids eat free and was a constant struggle to get the charges removed. We ended up booking a suite with a connecting room, as their suite is just a junior suite. The only true “suite” on the property would be one of their two presidential suites, which feature a larger living room w/ separate bedroom and the best view of the resort with a slight view of the ocean in the distance.

For me, this would be a hard pass if I ever were to stay in the area again. The service at this resort was the worst we’ve experienced in Bali. We’ve been to the island three times and have stayed at a number of hotels and resorts, and this is at the bottom. The beach is likely the dirtiest of any resort in Nusa Dua. Good luck trying to get an appointment at the spa. In peak season, it’s booked out for a solid two days.

Resort

On the surface, this is a new hotel that has a modern look and vibe. It’s kind of a toned-down W type of feel. The perimeter of the resort is made up of Marriott vacation rooms, which feature two- and three-bed condo style rooms. I would say most of the resort guests were Chinese. They were sold out on at least one of the four nights we were there. We arrived late at night, and the lobby was quite loud with intoxicated guests stumbling around. Smoking is rampant throughout the hotel. I spoke with the GM about this, and he acted like he was completely unaware that Marriott had gone smoke-free internationally. They then claimed they were exempt from Marriott policy and Bali law, but then seemed to later backtrack. At the end of the day, your stay may be greatly impacted by smoking. It was not uncommon to have numerous guests chain-smoke during breakfast sitting at an outside table and have all the smoke waft into the open-air restaurant. The front desk staff is also poorly trained, to the point of frustration.

Suite

Everything looks true to the photos on the website. There is a large walk-in closet that can be accessed from the entryway of the room or from the bathroom. We placed two cribs in there for our twins, so they could have a dark place to nap in the day. The bathroom was spacious, and a massive round bathtub that you typically find in a presidential suite that could fit three people. There was also a Toto toilet with a remote control. The mini bar had a large carton of milk so that you could make espresso-based drinks with the Nespresso Creatista machine, which is fairly high end for a hotel room. There was also a large Marshall bluetooth speaker. There were no major complaints about the room, other than that the lighting in the bathroom was terrible, and the hot water was very finicky.

Our major complaint about the room we were given was the view. The large extended balcony faced the parking lot, where even on the top floor you heard doors being slammed and horns honking from valet staff day and night. You also had staff taking smoking breaks and staring into your balcony. On the other side of the room, we had a lovely view of the trash dump, which attracted a large number of birds. Areas around the trash dump were burning trash, which could be smelled throughout the property throughout the week. I thought this was rather appalling, given that I booked the room on cash and was not upgraded to it as a Platinum member. The general manager was apologetic and offered another room the next day, but said that the suite suffered unfortunately from an uncontrollable noise (some sort of loud wooden wind chime) coming from a nearby property. We ended up staying in the room.





Beach

The resort provides a free shuttle down to the beach next to the Grand Hyatt. The beach is filthy. Most resorts have staff pick up trash throughout the day. You can tell that the Renaissance and Courtyard maybe clean the trash once or twice a week. No hot food is served at the beach. The snack bar that has been crammed into a small Aerostream trailer serves only cold items. Within 30 minutes, a group of 10 Russian sat down next to us, and each lit up and started smoking. We left and never came back. We took a 10-minute Grab taxi to the Kempinski (next to the Ritz) that allows you full use of their beach chairs and I believe pools as long as you are eating there.

Kid’s Club and Pools

Our toddlers loved the kid’s club and kid’s pools. The kids' pool is massive and shallow enough that they were able to walk to both ends. The pool attendants did an okay job of keeping things around the pool clean and fresh, with fresh towels on each chair. I didn’t think the pools were anything to write home about, and I felt some of the facilities were in slight disrepair. The bar next to the main pool is shown to have these stunning hanging wooden objects from the ceiling, which have now been covered by a net as it looks like several have fallen and they are trying to prevent guests from being hurt.

Food

We ate most of our meals off property. The breakfast buffet was quite large and had a weird variety of food. I found the quality to be a little subpar. Especially with the fruit that did not seem fresh and cheap juice. The coffee was terrible. The service was disorganized and mostly nonexistent. Most of our meals were room service as it had a nominal delivery charge and was of average quality. We did the all you can eat dim-sum Sunday brunch at LionX. I believe it was around $33 per person. Severs come around to your table and provide a large variety of food. We enjoyed the brunch. Though, there are a lot of flies in the restaurant. We were fairly stuffed after one hour. The staff were kind of shocked that we were leaving. One waiter mentioned to us that most guests stay for the full three hours. The tables near us did not seem like they were pacing themselves, so guests must really stuff themselves for three hours to maximize the “all you can eat” value.

Spa

The spa was located on the outside of the property. Guests are shuttled back and forth from the lobby. The spa experience was very enjoyable. We did a 60-minute couple's massage, and after, we were served ginger tea outside and on the balcony. The only mishap was that we had asked for our massages to be bumped up to 90- minutes, but this was not properly communicated to the therapists.