Mathis Lodge, Amed — Hotel in Kecamatan Abang

So much potential but not there yet and do NOT bring children here.

We came to Mathis Lodge for a weekend as a family of 3 with a 1 yr old child. We were in search of a relaxing, nice accommodation, close to Pura Lempuyang (gates of heaven) and not too far from other local attractions.

We understood that the region is not as developed as other parts of Bali and that the hotel was built up in the mountains. But what isn’t clear, is that the hotel is only accessible from Amed due to underdeveloped roads and that even this route is not yet properly paved and requires hotel transfers as it is too dangerous for anyone else to do. Though the hotel management is very accommodating in setting up these complimentary transfers, it does add quite a bit of planning and additional time to any excursions. Basically you need to plan and coordinate a 15 min drive into Amed, followed by secondary transport to get out of Amed and over to the local attractions. It took us a little over an hour to get to the gate of heaven at 5 AM with absolutely no traffic.

The pool is beautiful and both the pool and pool deck have incredible views overlooking the cliff. The rooms however lacked any view at all, ours in particular overlooked the roof of the restaurant. The restaurant had great food but very limited selection which had not changed from night to night, and the dessert served was old and stale. Breakfast was great however and served complimentary a la carte.

Our issues in particularly went far beyond location and amenities. No where does the property website or description show that it is not child friendly or is there a minimum age requirement indicated. Yet, all the waking paths are extremely steep, with no barriers and often walking over ditches, even just getting out of the room. The floors of all rooms are overly polished to the point that even an adult will struggle not to slide. The patio / porches have no railing and fall straight into a 2 meter+ ditch or straight off a cliff. They do not have any children menus or high chairs at the restaurant.

Upon arrival and after my daughter took her first fall on the floor of the room, we immediately informed management, trying to move to a safer room. We were told that our reservation did not indicate a child though we had it on our confirmation from Amed platinum travel services and offered a copy for proof on 2 occasions. Though it made no difference, the owner seemed to have been hung up on this fact and though they do not have a child safe or child friendly room at the lodge, they kept insisting on this insignificant detail. Ultimately we asked to leave and to our surprise the owner refused to let us out of the cancelation penalty.

Sadly this small owned business puts profits above safety, above customer service, and above basic human decency. The manager of the property was kind, and as helpful as could be but he does not have any authority. It was a terrible 2 days for us where we spent most of our days out and kept our daughter from any movement while at the property.

I do recommend the property for couples looking to get away for a few nights with no plans to leave the property. More than 2 nights I would imagine would get quite dull. Anyone with families please stay away from here and look elsewhere. Hopefully they will update the information on their location with better details and will restrict children under the age of 16 from coming to the property as sadly there is an inevitable incident waiting to happen that this property owner seems not to care about for...

Stay rating minus 1 star out of 5 - We stayed here for two nights and our experience was not so great. We were a couple and booked a deluxe villa. Instead of a king/ queen bed, single beds were joined together. We had trouble sleeping as the beds repeatedly drifted apart (see photo). We also found a few bedbugs on the mattress as well.

The room had many geckos that were constantly squeaking, clicking and growling for the entire night. We are petrified, annoyed and jaded as we could not sleep properly for two nights.

You should also be prepared for a 3 am wake up alarm by 100's of neighborhood roosters rhythmic and unending crowing early in the morning (they scream until 6:30 am continuously).

We complained to the administration about the bed and the gecko issue, they offered an apology and a free massage voucher at the spa. We politely declined the latter and did not have a choice but to oblige the former!!!

The resort - The villa itself is positioned in a strange location up the hill where they have a shuttle downhill to the resort every hour. This fact was intelligently inconspicuous on their booking page (and in Agoda and other websites). The ride uphill is bumpy and perilous, matching the shuttle time is always tricky considering their hourly frequency. The resort is located in between two hills where you can experience a stunning view of the ocean from the restaurant. The resort is not landscaped well as all we could see was roof of the restaurant from our room (room number 8). If you decide to still visit this place, ask for a room with a better view.

We tried to meander around the resort but there was nothing exiting as all you have is a swimming pool and the villas. Apart from this, there is nothing to view around the resort. They offer trekking expeditions if you are game for it.

Food - the food served at the restaurant is average, expensive and suited for western pallette and not for us Indians. I would not rate food harshly as food is an issue for Indians across Amed. If you are an Indian, i strongly recommend staying in Ubud as there are many indian restaurants around Ubud and it's a wonderful...

I have been pondering if I should write this review as I have had two wonderful holidays to Mathis Lodges Amed and this is no reflection on the staff- who are great- and they really make you feel special. HOWEVER- I wish someone had written a review to warn me about the new resort being built next door (when I say ‘next door’ I mean RIGHT NEXT TO THE POOL! All of the trees are gone- you no longer feel like you’re in a secluded resort, you feel like you’re in a building site! The view from the pool is destroyed and of course there’s the banging and shouting from the workmen so that has definitely made an impact on relaxation.||The lodge we were assigned was beautiful as always and we couldn’t hear or see the building work from there but as I explained when I was told that “you can’t see it from your room” - I don’t want to sit in my room all day! Basically all you can do up at Mathis is sit by the pool or sit in the bar and that experience has been highly impacted by the works.||The experience was made even worse by the marketing team screaming down the phone to the poor receptionist for fifteen minutes that they wouldn’t refund my $240 birthday spa package (so yes… you ruined my birthday too!) Eventually we did get a refund but not until we were completely stressed out and had to contact the manager myself. The way that the marketing person handled our complaint was absolutely terrible. For a start off, they should have contacted us to tell us that the works were in progress BEFORE we arrived. The poor receptionist was almost in tears with the way she was spoken to and then we had to demand a refund quite strongly so she was in the middle, I felt very sorry for her but it was outrageous to expect us to get to the shuttle point and hang around then take that journey up there and have a massage whilst there’s hammering and shouting going on. ||We left feeling very upset, angry and very stressed. What a waste of a day’s holiday! We will not be back nor recommend Mathis Collection to...