My wife and I have been going to Indo since the nineties. Between us, we’ve stayed in all types of cheap accomodation, long before things got ‘nice’; losmens at Nias, black dusted wooden floors of chicken huts at Desert Point, $2 a night bungalows in Sumbawa with creaky ceiling fans and toilets that make the whole room stink of urine. And we were fine with that—when the price was right. It’s what you had to do when you were on a shoestring and wanted to stay long-term. But when you decide to go upmarket and book into somewhere that prices itself as 4-star accomodation you expect a certain standard—not something that’s hardly better than the aforementioned cheap joints.
Don’t be fooled by the positive reviews; the fact that there are posts from 2009 telling of similar experiences to ours should be all you need to know about the way this place operates. The listing on booking.com is clearly designed to deceive, describing the Estate Suite that we booked as having a lounge room with comfy sofas and a bath. It didn’t, and was not as nice as pictured. As soon as we were shown to our room we got that sinking feeling of disappointment and immediately began looking for somewhere else to escape to.
This is basically a large Balinese family home that has been converted into dysfunctional bedsit-style accomodation. The rooms are run-down, dirty and badly in need of a renovation. Crappy beds and mismatched furniture appears to have been scored from a tip, thrown into said rooms with about as much thought with regards to layout as a student hovel; it just doesn’t work within the spacious rooms at all. The bathrooms are so disgustingly dirty and musty we wore thongs in the shower, which, incidentally, splashes water all over the floor as there’s no shower door, creating a dangerous slip hazard. If that wasn’t bad enough, other guests using the stairs could see us in the bathroom though the glass brick dividing wall which was about as weird as it gets. Nails banged into walls for towel hooks speak for themselves.
The location isn’t even all it cracks up to be. If you’re watching the sunset down at Ulus, you’ll have to leave before dark to get back up the broken-up path, and, even then, at dusk, the monkeys chuck bits of tree branches at you which is pretty freaky. We soon realised that it’s much easier to stay farther away and ride your bike to and from Ulus car park.
I could go on, but I think you get the point by now—this is a hotel with an identity crisis, out to take your money by deception. Just do yourself and favour and don’t get caught up here like we did. You’ll only be disappointed.
