This just happened 30 minutes ago, so I had to write about it right away. Yesterday my wife and I had a "Dumb & Dumber" moment exchanging money at a dodgy money exchange near The Villas. The Exchangers offered a high rate, but gave us a lot of small bills, pulled some tricks and we didn't notice until late afternoon that we were jobbed. Embarrassing. I thought I was smart enough to avoid these things. AARGH! Total buzz kill on our honeymoon. The next day we told the front desk about our incident. Our purpose was to ask the reception to warn others. They didn't seem surprised about it, but instead of offering to warn others they said calmly, WE'LL GET YOU A DRIVER AND SECURITY AND SEE IF WE CAN GET YOUR MONEY BACK! "Huh? Yeah, right." I thought. Next thing I know, a driver (good English) and a heavy (a security guy who knows guys?) took us back to the exchangers and 30 minutes later we got ALL our money back. We were elated. Upon return to our room the driver told us if we have any problems, even outside the hotel, to let the front desk know. We were overjoyed.
Our villa: is clean and cleaned often. Each villa offers a stereo system with i-pod jack and speakers around the villa for great sound. The kitchen is nice to store snacks or to cook/make your own dinner. The decor is just right, not over the top artsy, but enough to be hip. Walls around the villa are high enough for privacy.
The area: is about 1km from the beach. There are three different locations for The Villas. Each one has a decent supermarket within walking distance. Shopping and restaurants are also close by (Mannekepis, Queen Tandori, Warung Ocha, RIO, etc.)
Service: Excellent with the our recent history. To call up the front desk for a driver to take you to Prana Spa or to the other The Villas locations was no problem. Everyone is all smiles most of the time. Were greeted by everyone warmly. Had breakfast in our villa and the server and chef were able to do a little small talk and laugh at my dumb jokes.
Cons: are few, but we were offered a free pass to a gym, but it is a good 10/15 minutes away, so we didn't use it. The specials offered at Prana don't carry at Chill. The beach is a good distance away. The prices for tours and other options seem a bit high, but we made other arrangements.
Finally, I asked the front desk to look at other rooms (the 2 & 3-bedroom villas) because I want to come back here with my friends. Outstanding. Amazing. Can't express how happy we are to stay here. Bravo!
- Hotel Bali
