dannybhoy

I get the impression that the weight of opinion on the respective threads is that the St Regis is a better experience than the RC. But is it that much better that the SR is priced 2-2.5 times that of the RC, based on "standard rooms", whether cash or points?

sandyph

stayed at Fairfield by Marriott South Kuta for 3 days in early Dec.
It's a rebrand from Vasanti Hotel which looks to be a local independent hotel.

There was no renovation done during the reflag and you can see the wear and tear in some of the furniture's.
Booked a standard room and get upgraded to the Junior Suite.

Service was good, breakfast was hit and miss. Good on the 1st and 3rd day but somehow bad on the 2nd day.
Outside the hotel, there're a lot of food options in the area with a big mall just 5 minutes walk north.

It's also quite near the airport, around 5 minutes drive.
For IDR600k per night, I can see staying here for a night if I arrive late at night / need to fly very early in the future.

kaizen7

IMO, they both excellent properties for their price point.

To compare them directly surely not very fair as St Regis did charge 2x of the RC.

It will be fairer to compare St Regis Bali with Mandapa as they both have similar price point.

Personally I found both of them amazing resorts with Mandapa have slight advantage due to it smaller size.

dannybhoy

Well they're both representatives of Bonvoy's almost luxury-end brands on near adjacent stretches of beach/coast line, with seemingly comparable all-suite/villa setups. Far more instinctive (at least for me) to compare them against each other than with the far inland Mandapa. I'm just wondering if the hard product and service of the St Regis is *that* much more superior than the RC.

I was curious if the case was one of a middling average SR vs a well sub-par if not disgrace to the name RC, or a superb top of the line SR Bali vs a decent but perhaps meh RC.

sandyph

only have stayed in StR Bali, but from what I heard about the RC it looks to be the later.

3rdworldresident

Stayed at the St. Regis a couple of times pre-covid and always looking for more.

to me, St. Regis Bali is the REAL DEAL in the entire Marriott folio. some SPG spirit/cultures still remain.

admitted that i've never stayed at RC bali (and never wish to) so I can't compare.

adoptasaurusid

I stayed at the St Regis for 5 nights back in Sep 2022. It was my first stay there and did not disappoint. The previous post that it is truly the REAL DEAL is definitely true. I could not find any fault during the stay. Breakfast was sensational and by the third morning, chef already preparing off-the-menu creations for us. RC Bali on the other hand I stayed in June 2022. It was a BRG stay and it was for 3 nights. My wife and I actually had the same discussion when we return from Bali. How much difference would we pay for StR over RC. Entry-level room size is about the same. RC has the advantage of the elevated cliff view compared to StR. Breakfast at RC on the other hand was meh. I think the weakness is there. Both has east-facing beach which means no sunset view. We have two young children during the trips and the Kids Club are similar. The soft product of StR definitely much better than RC. At RC, certain level of politeness and attention seems rather forced and do not as feel as natural as over at StR.

My wife and I agreed that the sensational breakfast and awesome service would probably warrant 70-80% higher rate at StR over RC.

If we could get another point redemption that is less than 300k for 5 nights (ours was 240,800), we would return to the StR. Otherwise, staying at RC and pay for breakfast at StR seems like a better choice.

dannybhoy

High praise indeed. A pity that my memories of the SPG era were as ephemeral as the morning mist.

dannybhoy

A 3-night stay in my window (shoulder-ish) is working out to be 300k for SR and maybe half that for RC. Cash rate differential seems not insignificantly worse. Hence my curiousity about the exaltedness of the SR.

adoptasaurusid

Imho, a big part of the price got to do with the legacy of StR Bali being a "flagship" of the SPG empire, at least that's what it feels like. Across all the hotel staffs even buggy drivers to and restaurant servers, there is a strong belief that StR Bali is of a different class than the rest of its peers along Nusa Dua (The Mulia, Apurva Kempinski, and RC). In that sense, if you are willing to pay the difference, you belong to the "elite" class compared to the "mass-market" luxury next doors. Just by monitoring the social media of the hotels, you can clearly see that StR do selective endorsement compared to the rest. Much more local Indonesian endorsement of RC (and Apurva and Mulia) compared to the StR. Perhaps, a different target market too. Many "elite" class people do not like to be associated with the "mass-market" luxury and probably StR would like to maintain that status and offer that same status to its guests.

I was lucky that I got to try StR at a very favorable point redemption. Consider the purpose of the trip too. If celebrating a special occasion, StR definitely will be much more reliable than RC.

dannybhoy

Thanks for the elaboration. How would you place the SR Bali amongst its SR stablemates globally? Obviously comparing different properties even of the same brand across locales and regions is something of a pointless endeavour, but given the sheer near-unanimity regarding its quality, I'm left with the impression that it's certainly superior to the Singapore property (admittedly not terribly difficult) and quite possibly its sister in Osaka which seems to attract as much praise as it does criticism.

3rdworldresident

IMHO, It's one of the crown jewel of the St Regis brand. Far better than Singapore version and a notch or 2 above Osaka version.

Admittedly, IIRC, i've only been to 13 locations.

Alawyer

I'm thinking of this mattress run in Bali to make some progress on my Bonvoy using the latest double night promo. Any thoughts?

(In the order I'll be checking in, 1 night each)

Fairfield by Marriott Bali South Kuta (9pm arrival)
Courtyard Bali Seminyak Resort
Fairfield by Marriott Bali Kuta Sunset Road
Aloft Bali Kuta at Beachwalk or the 4 Points by Sheraton Bali Kuta (same price that night)
Fairfield by Marriott Bali Legian
Sthala, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, Ubud Bali (2 nights)
St Regis Bali (good cash rate on my final night)

kaizen7

Agree with this.
From all my St Regises experiences:

Osaka is good, but Bali is much better than Osaka.
Jakarta is comparable to Osaka.
Dubai Palm, Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, and San Francisco are pretty average although Abu Dhabi and San Francisco are a notch better than the other 2 .
Singapore, they just Ibis with St Regis hardware.
Tianjin, quite amazing Bonvoy haven't kick them out yet.

broadwayboy

I pretty much agree with your assessment there.

Finally spent a weekend at St Regis Jakarta. The public spaces are pretty good (except the ugly pool area and the landscape), but the guestrooms suffered from limited scope, so they look sadly underwhelming.