Property: Homm Saranam Baturiti (Bali)
Status: Accor Plus Platinum
Room booked: One Bedroom Pool Villa + Deluxe Room
Room upgraded/type: Nada
Rate: Direct via email, non refundable inc breakfast. Pool villa was ~$400pn, Deluxe room ~$200pn
Free internet: Yes
Free Breakfast: Included in rate
Early check in/late out: Pre-arranged transfer arrived at 12pm, we could check-in immediately on arrival. Late checkout not needed.
Welcome drink: No
Welcome gift: No
Recommended: Definitely not
I booked with Homm directly as the Pool Villas at this property are not loaded on the Accor booking engine. I hadn't heard of the brand previously - it is part of the Banyan Tree group.
We booked a transfer through Homm from Nusa Dua for 850k IDR. The hotel emailed me when he arrived, 25 minutes early. I knew this was much more expensive than a GrabXL (400k IDR) but didn't want to run the risk of Grab drivers repeatedly refusing the 2+ hour trip while travelling with a baby. Despite the additional $45 cost of the private transfer, the driver opted not to use the $1.40 Nusa Dua toll bridge and instead chose to drive through Jimbaran, Kuta and Seminyak, which are stuck in perpetual gridlock. This choice added at least 45 minutes to the trip based on the Maps search I did before leaving Conrad and how long the trip ended up taking. Had he asked I would have gladly paid the $1.40. Unfortunately I was on a work call when we left Conrad and didn't realise he was skipping the toll until we were well into Jimbaran, at which point it wasn't worth turning around. He then proceeded to go out of his way to several petrol stations around Seminyak looking to fill up, but every servo had long queues. Considering how early he was, surely he could have filled up beforehand?
The hotel exterior is fairly understated compared to most Bali resorts. It's set on the top of a steep hill - once you enter the lobby, you're faced with incredible sweeping views of a valley and Mt Batukaru in the distance.
On arrival there was no mention of Accor status, no welcome drink vouchers, no Accor signage anywhere to be seen, and no upgrade for the lower category of the two rooms. No welcome drinks is usually a sign the hotel does not have my Accor number on file, I asked and was assured it had been recorded.
On first glance our villa looked great, although there was no welcome amenity or card.
Unfortunately, over the 48 hours we stayed, we realised the room has been poorly designed and built. Keep in mind this property was opened 18 months ago.
- Wobbly basin tap
- Wobbly bath tap
- Safe not bolted down
- Fridge light wouldn't turn off when closed, the glass door allowed the bright blue light to shine all night (fashioned something to wedge between door and sensor so the baby could sleep)
- Power points not secured to walls (have a video but Imgur is blocking it for some reason!)
- An absolutely filthy shower window and shower full of dead bugs on our first day (it clearly hadn't been washed or used in a long time)
- No towel racks or hangers in bathroom
- Hot water completely broke on our second night and didn't return until the next morning - overnight maintenance could not fix
- Shower door hinge has sagged and drags along the marble (?) floor
- Bi fold doors out to pool deck are very difficult to open due to a rusted track
- Once you're outside, if you shut the bi-fold doors it is impossible to open them again as there's no handle on the exterior to pull the doors out towards you
There is only a single One Bedroom Pool Villa in the resort, and we knew the Two Bedroom Pool Villa was occupied so we did not ask to change room. As I type this I regret not asking for a downgrade and partial refund.
On service standards, all staff were polite but it feels like there have been some really poor management/policy decisions...
- Just two bath towels and a single floor towel were provided for two adults and one child. Asked at reception for face/hand towels and was advised the hotel does not stock them. The hotel provided a third towel for the child but this felt like a pretty basic oversight considering housekeeping put a crib in the room.
- On requesting extra water bottles, we were each room is only entitled to two 600ml bottles per day. Anything further would be chargeable. 400ml of drinking water per person in a location with non-drinkable tap water is simply unacceptable. I ordered additional chargeable bottles and prepared to debate this at check-out, but the bottles weren't added to the bill...
- When the hot water stopped, we had just bathed our infant in a half-full bath of luke warm water. On the off chance this used all the hot water (it didn't on the first night) we initially waited for the water to heat up. After 30 minutes the water was still ice cold, so we called the front desk. It took several attempts to be understood, including spelling "hot water" letter by letter, presumably for them to use a translation app. The front desk sent someone who ran his hand under the tap (apparently to confirm we weren't lying), checked the fuse box (the fuse had not tripped), then said he would look at the water heater and come back. He never returned. 45 minutes later we got a call from reception saying it couldn't be fixed and they could prepare another room but it wouldn't be available until the morning. Three hours later, before going to bed, I confirmed there was still no hot water - but it was miraculously back in the morning. There was no mention of the issue at check out, and I didn't have the energy to bother raising it considering the experience we had through the stay. Instead I'll be sending feedback on all the above to Accor.
- Laundry was charged at exorbitant ($3-5) rates per piece. There was a local laundry directly across the road offering same-day wash and fold for $2.50/kg, we washed 5.5kg of clothes here instead.
On the positive side, the breakfast selection was quite good considering the hotel only has 81 rooms. They had made-to-order soup and omelette stations, quite a few Indonesian options, basic hot western options, multiple fresh juices, decent bakery, pancakes, waffles and bao. The breakfast location also overlooked the valley. Unfortunately the coffee was undrinkable (and I'm a daily instant coffee drinker)
We saw max four other groups at breakfast and rarely anyone else in the lobby - occupancy seemed very low. In one interesting exchange, a couple arriving just in front of us had to explain their ALL Diamond membership entitled them to breakfast, as they weren't listed on the breakfast inclusions list. Another sign of poor ALL recognition really.
We also dined at Samiya for lunch. The food was tasty and well presented, and the Accor Plus discount was applied with no fuss, but most dishes were around $25 each and beers were $10-15 before discount, so
very expensive by rural Bali standards. There were a couple of Warungs nearby offering mains for $5-6, and we ate at nearly all of these in just two days - so you'll run out of alternatives quite quickly.
In summary, I was really disappointed with Homm. I think it has 4.5-5 star potential but in it's current state closer to a 3.5 star reality and definitely not worth the rates we paid. I can't recommend it and am still perplexed at how this property has a 4.8/5 rating on Google from 532 reviews...
