The Oberoi Beach Resort, Bali

I booked a 2 night stay at the oberoi looking for a luxurious getaway to celebrate my wife’s birthday. The service is very good, the staff is very attentive and polite. They welcomed us with a cake to celebrate my wife’s birthday. I booked a villa thinking we could have the convienince of a hotel and still enjoy the private pool or spending time in a living room area while our toddler napped. However the villa is not a villa, it’s a slightly larger room with a private garden (pointless use of space), there is no separate living/dining area and no private pool. The photos on hotels.com are misleading, they show a view of the private pool from the inside of the villa. That was the first disappointment. The room is not impressive, it’s old and poorly finished (see wall finishing and ceiling photos). In addition, the gaps on the doors meant we had creepy crawlies every night. For the price we paid, we could have gotten a much nicer villa with private pool and separate living room area at any other hotel nearby.

I stayed her with my partner to celebrate my birthday and we really enjoyed it. The service is amazing, little special touches like bringing us towels and juice when we played tennis (and allowing us to leave the rackets there after we finished), fruit skewers, sunglass cleaning and water/sunscreen at the pool, and the cleaners folding our clothes, putting our shoes away etc. Really the service is second to none. It was also nice and quiet and relaxing. There are only limited rooms so there arent too many other guests. The oberoi is not a hip and cool new hotel, its basically the opposite, its a little old world, where service is paramount. The style is traditional balinese. Food and drinks are a little pricier than outside in Seminyak, however your right in the middle of Seminyak, so getting out and about is no issue, we basically walked everywhere. I definitely would stay here again! Thank you Oberoi!

Our favourite hotel in Bali. Great access to local shops and restaurants. Not child friendly.

The comments below are related to our emotional experience at this hotel. This hotel felt uncomfortable to us. It felt extremely elitist. Example: Guests looked bored and didn't seem to stray outside of the hotel, happy to sit by the pool all day and never seemed interested to experience the true culture and people of Bali. As we were walked to our room, we observed guests having dinner while locals danced and sang around them in native dress. We have seen planned entertainment at resorts before but this felt different to us. Don't know how to explain this but it felt like the hotel was using slaves to entertain guests. The type of guests there seemed stuffy, snobby and judgemental. Not the environment that we enjoy. Just felt so uncomfortable to us. We were also on our honeymoon thought the beach in the photos looked great but were disappointed. This hotel was not romantic or awe inspiring at all. We pretty much slept in our room and then were out all day. We never ate at the hotel restaurants.

Honestly one of the best hotels I have ever been to. And an amazing staff and service.