We had a five day stay at this property over US Thanksgiving 2011. We were impressed daily at the exceptional service at the Conrad Bali. I had emailed about two weeks before our arrival about requests related to our anniversary (which I am sure given the destination nature of the hotel is very common), all were taken care of without issue. Checking in was the most complete and personal I have experienced. They seemed to sincerely want to make sure everything was perfect. The food and beverages were on the high side for Bali, but par for the resorts. The food quality was excellent as was the preparation. The location is idyllic with the beach a minutes’ walk from the room. This was easily one of the best properties in the Hilton chain we have stayed with.

Great property and location in Bali when selecting Conrad Suites room, however the normal guest rooms may not provide such a value. Several choices of pool and good quality restaurants. Check-in experience is unfortunately not top-notch nor to par with the quality of service offered throughout the resort. Executive lounge offer a good quality however restricted amenities. Good offer at the onsite spa. Would come back.

This is my first time to Bali and this is a family trip with my wife and my two-year old son. I origianlly planned to stay in St Regis but they could only offer me a suite with twin bed and that's why I had to choose the Conrad Bali. Stayed in a suite for three nights.

Room location
To give an overall idea, there are three blocks in the hotel as well as a new Suite block. Blocks A and B are adjacent to the hotel lobby and I was assigned an Ocean Suite on 4/F on Block C, which is quite far from the lobby. The lobby is on Level 3 and the three hotel room blocks are all 4-storey high. My suite is facing the beach and the sea but the view is significantly blocked by the tree in front. Block A and B may be better.

Room quality
This is the second time I stayed in a suite (first time in Shangri-la Rasa Ria in Kinabalu, Malaysia) and therefore I would like to compare Conrad Bali with that.

Pros
1. Knowing that I had a toddler, the hotel has arranged a basket of complimentary of baby stuff (2 bali monkey dolls, diapers, wipe, bath gel, etc.) in addition to a large baby cot;
2. The suite does not have split levels which is safer for kids
3. A guest toilet in the sitting/dinning room so that we would not disturb our son's afternoon nap.
4. Wooden floor instead of carpet. Better for kids as they tend to crawl around while playing;
5. Two covered balconies plus one open-space terrace for sun-bathing (though we had not used it at all);
6. A whole box of Twinnings tea bags (with 6/8 flavours) to select.

Cons
1. There is no open kitchen, which is essential for preparing mild, toddler food and the necessary clearning afterwards. No basic utensils (fork, knife ...);
2. No complimentary welcome fruit basket;
3. It's only a normal double bed and not a king-size bed;
4. The pillows tend to be soft and do not support the neck very well;
5. Sign of water-leaking on the bedroom ceiling near the ceiling fan with some mould developed;
6. The shower head in the bathroom is a small one and it's not comfortable enough.

Service
The staff at the check in counter and the concierge were very friendly and helpful while checking in/out, arranging taxis, making reservations for lunch/dinner. By the way, the money exchange is very good (e.g. at the airport 1 HKD = 900 IDR and Conrad's rate was 1 HKD = 1094 IDR. The bank rate was around 1150 IDR);
The staff in the restarant (where breakfast is provided) were friendly and attentive to my kid.

Food
I have only had breakfasts in the hotel. A good but not excellent choice of food.

Facilities
I mainly used the swimming pool. Huge and clearn with two small sand areas for children to play. Of the four times I'd used the swimming faciliites (2 evenings, 2 mornings), there's only one time (in the morning) that a staff would arrange the complimentary cold face towels, water spray and bottled water to us.
We also went to the kid's club before we departed for the airport. It's an open but covered area with not air-con. Some toys (building blocks, toy cars, dolls) and story books are available but those are quite old and worn. Not manned. The kid's club in Shangri-la Rasa Ria has both open space and a manned, air-conned area and with a side choice of toys to play with)

Overall
A good but not an excellent experience of staying in Conrad Bali. It may not be fair to compare it with Shangri-la Rasa Ria in Malaysia but considering the cost and the quality of room/food/service in return, Conrad Bali does not live up to my expectation of being a 5-star hotel.

Here is the good bad and ugly.

Airport Arrival-used the VIP airport services for the visa, best $25 spent, also arranged a driver through the hotel. Loved the cool towel and bottle of water.
Hotel Arrival- greeted with a smile by several porters, welcomed at the front desk with a ginger-ade and cool towel. I was politely informed that the upgrade I requested was available as well as the club access, for a fee of course. I politely smiled back, whipped out my Hilton Honors gold card and said sure, but I'm gold I am not going to pay. Well it's only free for Diamonds, but I will check with my manager. I asked if I could have club access with no room upgrade. Fine, he comes back, ok you can have club access but no room upgrade, fine. Then proceeds to hand me a letter from the GM that welcomes me to Bali and lets me know that my room has been upgrade and I have club access. I had the letter back, with a smile. Ok ok, you can have an upgraded room and club access.
Room- was upgraded to a lagoon room, so direct access to the pool. It was nice. I actually used this feature. Room was spacious. Fresh fruit was provided daily.
Food- has breakfast at Spice and Suku, Spice is quiet with limited buffet, Suku has much more variety. I will say this, if you are watching your waistline, stick to Spice, better portion control.
Pool-great, loved the little amenity kits, with the cool towels, water and water spritz.
Grounds-kept very clean, minimal bugs, in fact they have electronic bug zappers in the closet if you need it.

Overall the hotel was nice, the people for the most part were very friendly. I personally just encountered enough problems, that I probably would not choose to stay here again. 1st- due a power surge, my laptop was fried. My fault for not having a surge protector, better believe lesson learned. 2nd- due to illness I deceided to leave a day early, I had prepaid my reservation, so I knew I would be losing a night. I got a call at 11.30 pm from the front desk, to tell me that I would not be receiving a refund of my unpaid night. Not sure why they felt it was necessary to call me so late, when a note under the door would have been more appropriate. 3rd- when I was checking out I had a Hilton Gift card, that I wanted to apply to my balance. They guy at the front desk swiped it and said, sorry denied. I explained it was a gift card, not a credit card, oh let me talk to my manager. Well here is the problem, you can't use the gift card since it will not cover your full bill. Nevermind the fact I had 2 gift cards. Management needs to work on the front desk employees skills.

Also I did not use the spa, because there were 2 other options for half the price, one to the left, one to the right, Jali Menari and Rumah. Can't go wrong with either.