NoY

Hi 1K+ - I made no requests for any upgrades - they were all pro-actively offered to me. I was told at check-in that I was being upgraded to a Deluxe Ocean room for my first night, then I would be moved to an Ocean Suite for x 4 nights. After I complained about service issues (more in a fuller report later) I was offered a Conrad Suite in the suites section.

NoY

Check-in:
We arrived at about 11.00am (via taxi) and waited for check-in at the desk. It was a rather busy & cramped area blocked somewaht by a large square object/seat(?) thingy that precluded queing properly when things got busy. After a few minutes one of the front desk staff came around to the front & approached us for check-in. We were told we had been upgraded from a standard Garden Deluxe to an Ocean Front Deluxe for our first night & then to an Ocean Suite for the remaining 4 nights. Very nice. Our room wasn't ready but we were told that we could wait in the Suites Lounge for the hour or so this would take. Very nice too. We were escorted there & offered a seat. We then requested coffee/water & it was provided ten minutes or so later by a somewhat distracted member of the Suites staff. After an hour or so of web browsing we left for a walk & some enjoy some lunch at the beach front retaurant - which was very good. Upon our return to the Suites Lounge just after 2.00pm we expected to recieve our keys. Interestingly, our request was met with surprise, & some confudsion, by the (different) agent who seemd unaware of our impending check-in. We were given trwo keys & sent on our way! No offer of directions or assistance with our (small amount) of luggage. We noted that our empty cups/glasses/plates from our snacks earlier remained untouched where we had left them some 1 1/2 hours earlier. Not so good.

Room:
The room itself was a good size and contained but contained a rather worn out looking range of furniture & fittings; an armchair, a desk, large bathroom, seperate bath/shower and a king bed. Everything seamed, well, old really. Not clean either;

* Bath & sink surrounds were heavily watermarked & full of dust;
* Glass wall between bath/bedroom was full of watermarks & smears;
* The wooden venetian covering the above window was covered in dust;
* The bed side tables were dusty & contained debris;
* We suffered an ant infestation that evening (yes, we are in the tropics but it added to our woes);
* Taps/shower caked in limescale;
* Curtains were different lenghts meaning that half the curtains were several cm short of the floor. They also didn't meet in the middle! Were we at Fawlty Towers?

Furthrmore the iron was missing from the room, the TV picture quality was dreadful (sorry, but I do like to catch up with the news!) and there was no welcome information regarding what was included in our stay. Breakfast arrangements? Suite Lounge details? Internet access etc etc etc - this was all absent. Attention to detail was not a strong point so far. Thank goodness we could move from this dreary, dated, broken room tomorrow. The view from the balcony was fabulous though

The Suite;
Next day we moved to the Conrad Suites section of the hotel. This followed a disocussion I had with the duty mananger about how dissapointed we were so far. We were not angling for any type of upgrade at all. We wanted a holiday! Equally we were not about to turn them down.

The suite was significantly better (no surprise there) than the previous room. Well over a thousand square feet of (reasonably) contemporary space. Huge bedroom and a very large combined kitchenette, dining area & living room. The balcony contained a day bed & table & chairs. The walk-in wardrobe led to a large bathroom with a double sink, TV at the foot of the bath, similar but much larger than the last one.

The only recurring problems in the Suites (which also applied to our previous rooms woes) were hosekeeping related;

* Damp/bad smelling towels provided on day two;
* Thread bare towels (one that actually had a hole!)
* Laundry (free at Suites) - despite requesting to be returned on hangars were folded (creased)
* Poor cleanlisness - tha day we arrived the rugs had not been cleaned (food debris anyone?)
* Bathrobes not replenished;
* Laundry lists not repleneished;


Upon escalation all issues swiftly dealt with but really, should it be like this? No, it shouldn't!

Resort Facilites:
The pool areas are huge & varied. A large central pool, a lagoon pool surrounding the resort & the private Suites-only pool provided superb choices. Excellent but with very chilly water! Two sand-filled pool areas were included at the lagoon pool for families. Sections where the pool is deeper than 1.2m would be welcome. There are ample loungers, salas (bales) & staff are very pro-active & attentive in providing towel service, iced water, cold towels & snack menus.

Spa:
We had a lovely beach front massage for $1/minute + 10 minutes free. Excellent.

Breakfast:
Suku restaurant is OK but busy & has a very average buffet IME. Avoid if a Diamond & use the Suites lounge (Rin Restaurant) for breakfast - excellent off-menu items (great eggs benedict) plus a similar buffet as Suku.

Suites Lounge:
Oustanding. Cocktails in the lounge (situated in the Conrad Suites section) are excellent and very free-flowing. Canapes were of high quality & much better than the deep-fried cr+p that ones sees at so many Exeutive lounges these days. No nasty buffet bun-fight either as the canapes are served pre-plated. Classy.

Afternoon Tea was served here too - again excellent, pre-plated & served on a cake stand, english style (...no it's not High Tea either, that's something different...)

Restaurants:
The hotel offers a modest range of dinner options. Eight Degrees South (beachfront) was very good. But nothing else took our fancy. Rin Japanese? No. SUKU, all-day dining style? No. Better offerings elsewhere.

Staff:
Generally, excellent. So helpful, freindly & willing. Suites staff were brilliant. Housekeeping, where ere you?!

Conclusion:
Overall we had a lovely holiday. The people made it for us-the staff could not have been more friendly. Plus the footprint/facilities of the Conrad are excellent. Frankly, the room quality is quite poor for a Conrad. We were shown a renovated (compared to our first Ocean King ) room & it was a basic makeover. New/made over furniture/painting & deep cleaning. That's it. Old bathrooms remain. The Ocean Suite we saw was lovely but still had old fixtures & fittings that were the same as all other rooms/suites. Housekeeping is the key downside here. This must improve.

Would we return? Yes, but only to a Suite

more4less

Thanks for the good report Noy,

I was looking forward to visit this Hilton property but I am not so sure now.

I may a few months to see if they renovate the whole property.

mileageking

I'm a Diamond and have stayed in many hotels around the world. Over the past few years, I've stayed at this property 5 times and it's one of the best in Bali. You shouldn't make a decision to stay/not stay based on one report. Read the thread, go through other people's comments and then make a decision.

JDiver

I'd not hesitate to stay at the Conrad Bali, nor would I wait. I've stayed in a number of Conrads, and this is a favorite. My sister stayed twice last month, and spoke well of her experience.

NoY

We should all speak as we find. I do and indeed I have here. But please take all recent-ish posts into consideration when deciiding about staying.

You will not see a huge difference between renovated & non-renovated rooms. It's an OK makeover but is also a missed opportunity.

My advice - book a suite if you can. I almost certainly will, because I believe they offer decent value @ c$425++ as they include Suites Lounge access & all of those wonderful perks.

I have pics of most of the resort - the good & the ugly. Happy to send them on request, just PM me. Thanks.

idahost

I liked the resort overall last month, but the Oceanfront room was a letdown. I agree with the cleanliness issues and the lame tube TV with poor reception, plus the rooms are very small.

We spent most of our time on the beachfront king bales...so cool. The loinge service was great, service and food.

The manager was adamant no diamonds are upgraded to suites (30% occupancy), EVER...ok...

mileageking

Being a diamond and having stayed there 5 times, I get the same response everytime, which is no. They will gladly upg me for $100/night to a suite. I've never stayed in a suite at that property, always in an oceanfront room which also overlooks one part of the pool and the eight degrees south restaurant.

I'm seriously confused on how people continue to be upgraded to a suite. I've met the GM twice out of my 5 stays, still did not make a difference.

more4less

Thanks for all your comments.

I follow this post regularly because I would like to visit the Conrad Bali in the next 6/12 months.
In general posts are very positive about the property. I may still visit it but now, NoY comments will help me to keep my expectancies slightly lower, which also is good to avoid frustration afterwards.

Also we have to accept that the cleanliness of a beach resort and the quality of the furniture will never be as good and/or well kept as in a hotel in Tokyo or Hong Kong.

NoY

It is important to note that we were NOT upgraded to the Conrad Suites section until after the various service failures were raised by us to management. I see this as "service recovery", not an expectation of future upgrades.

NoY

I agree to an extent about beach resorts vs city hotels, however the housekeeping in general was IME poor. I have stayed at many beach resorts globally as well as Conrads generally, the housekeeping here was consistently poor. The management agreed with me & compensated us accordingly with additional amenities - all pro-actively offered by them, not requested by us.

To be clear. I WILL return but will book a suite

CAlex

I'd go back anytime to this Conrad. Upgrade to Conrad Suites could be nice, but it is also far from all the action and, if the dedicated pool is still just 1.20m, does not seem so attractive anymore.

Our room in the A section (1117) was huge, and could not notice any flaw regarding cleanliness. As a HH Gold/Diamond, I think this is one of the best hotels in SE Asia to spend your money in, and have a great stay.

mileageking

+1 ^

mileageking

Weren't you upgraded to a suite for your remaining 4 nights at checkin before you faced any of the problems?

NoY, my comment on upgrades was not directed just at you, it was a general statement on how other folks also seem to get suite upgrades at this resort without paying an upcharge.

idahost

I was in Building D I believe and my Oceanfront Room was tiny and non-renovated, maybe it is everyone's expectations...