Marriott’s Bali Nusa Dua Terrace — Hotel in Kuta Selatan

Stayed for 3 nights with my wife and 2.5 yo & 4 yo daughters during a busy period.

Room 4/5: The apartment-style room is modern and cozy. A little too cramped for me, but the complete availability of things from washing machine to dishwasher to blenders to a large fridge and all makes this the perfect place for a longer stay. Suggestion: Add an espresso machine.

Service: 4/5: The staff are friendly and helpful, but I don't like that there is no representative from Marriott Vacation Club on location. Every time there is a request that can not be fulfilled, the Renaissance staff can only point fingers at the people on the other side of the phone, which actually brings me to my next point.

Experience during busy period 1/5: We arrived 3:30pm, and our rooms were ready at 5pm. We requested 4 things for our stay based on the booking form checkboxes: 1) close to kids club, 2) sofa bed made up, 3) portable playmate 4) baby amenities. We got 0/4 requests. Renaissance staff on location can only apologize for what "they" say via the phone. There is no human representation from Marriott Vacation Club. Please remove those checkboxes if you're not planning on honoring them. That night, room service requested 90 minutes to get our order prepared and delivered to the room. The following day, I requested the room to be cleaned at 2pm while we get lunch. At 5pm, we returned and the room wasn't cleaned yet. Next, I waited 45 minutes for a buggy to take me to the lobby. I finally got one by flagging an empty buggy that was not assigned to pick me up from the room. I don't know how long I would be waiting there if I didn't flag one down. There was a wedding happening during our stay in December and the place was quite packed, I think that they are grossly understaffed to handle near-full capacity.

Dining & Food 5/5: Breakfast has a lot of selection but so-so taste wise, but the Backstage and Tanah Liat foods are all amazing. Tanah Liat is more for people who wants to enjoy fine dining. Don't expect large portions, but you'll be impressed by the taste and presentation of their dish. We had lobster and king prawn, and they're both very good. Looking forward to try the black cod and barramundi. I recommend creating course meals for the Tanah Liat menu. Backstage has everything from Indonesian to Western to Japanese to whatever in between, and they're all cooked very well. I highly recommend Babi Guling Ribs, but you can't go wrong with any other choices you may have at Backstage.

One final complaint is the large presence of insects. We couldn't really enjoy the outdoor patio because of mosquitos. The walk towards the rooms were filled with millipedes (kaki seribu) to the level of infestation. There are also tiny flying insects, not sure what they are, but they exist throughout the venue. If you're generally staying indoors, these won't bother you at all. But this made the overall outdoor experience here not very comfortable. 3/5.

Overall, the terrible experience during busy period doesn't really entice me to come back here again. There are many other great places to stay in Bali for the same price tag. I may return just for the food, but I don't think my stay here was good enough to warrant me staying at Marriott's Vacation Club: Nusa Dua...

Enjoyed our 7 days and nights, I think this may be one of our favourite vacation club in Asia. This club is fairly nice, only opened last Nov and shares the same grounds as Renaissance which is about a year older. Sometimes we would say "Renaissance" to the taxi drivers as Nusa Dua Terrace is not so well known yet.

I will add on to what the other reviewers have mentioned.

Villa building: In other vacation clubs, we typically have tower blocks or large 3 or 4 storey blocks. Here, the blocks are only 2 storeys. You enter thru the middle, you will have on the right hand side a 2-bedder and a 1-bedder. If you had booked a 3-bedder, it would be the 2 and 1 bedder and you just lock the common door they share. Same on the left hand side. This makes for a small and intimate block.

Interestingly, the top floor of a block could be "entry level" floor. We were at block 305. I always ask for the top floor. Imagine my surprise when we entered our building at the top floor. The bottom floor residents have to take the stairs down! Please note: there is no elevator.

Other blocks could be configured the normal way, where you enter on the 1st floor and climb your way up to the second floor.

Resort activities: Classes are small. Do book ahead if you can. For example, the paddle board yoga can only accommodate 5 participants. The instructors try to make room for walk-ins, but if they are limited by the equipment eg number of paddle boards or the size of the venue. Definitely smaller classes do make for a better experience. We had a wonderful time interacting with Ade and Nouman!

Shuttle buses: There is a shuttle that runs every hour to the Bali Collection (small collection of shops and cafes. There is a small Sogo department store there too) and to the beach. An alternative to dining.

Walking out: From the lobby, or you could exit from the spa/fitness centre, it is an easy 10 minute walk out to the main road. There is a sidewalk for 90 percent of the way. Do note it slopes down gently to the main road ie it will be an uphill walk back. Some guests take a taxi back. Along the main road there are shops and eateries and also a Coco supermarket (well patronised by tourists).

Traffic: Bali traffic is bad. A place may look deceptively near, but the jams just lengthens the journey. A couple of times, we paid for the toll highway, that really saves time. We had an outing where the organizer planned for a pickup at 6 am. As we were on holiday, we pushed that back to 8:30 am (it was just for the 2 of us). On hindsight, we should have left at 6 am!

Activities: We didn't so much beach activities this time. We went up to the mountains. That...

Concierge service below budget hotel standards. One star is even too good for them. Deserved a zero or negative star.

1. informed that we needed to celebrate birthday and ask if there’s whole cake sold within the hotel. Response: No. Thats all. No suggestions, no offer to help order a delivery for birthday cake. Even when asked if the nearby Bali Collections has places that sell whole cake, response was “don’t know”, “I think so”. Is that such a response you expect from a 5-star hotel.
2. Managed to buy cake from elsewhere, we proceeded to bring the cake to the Backstage restaurant for dinner of 12 and celebration. Was informed that we need to pay corkage for the cake to be brought into the restaurant! After suggesting that we should feedback to Marriott, the staff grudgingly offered to allow the cake just for this one time. Sorry I’m not interested in your grouchy offer.
3. Sloppy room make up service. Towels not replaced as required. Toilet rolls and tissue paper not topped up everyday.
4. Main pool is dirty and murky. Our swimsuits stink after the swim. The stench only removed after a few wash.
5. Arranged for late check up in the middle of our trip. They offered till 11 am. I asked for the time of the late check out for the other room, they responded that the other room was not allowed for late check out due to a booking. I responded not possible in view that the other room already requested for late check out upon check in. They quickly responded that they “made a mistake” and responded that their late check out was till 12pm. Hence, they processed the late check out for us till 12pm. Based on the bad experience so far, I seriously doubt if it’s a mistake or pulling a fast one.
6. Day of check out - tried to re-enter the room at 1015 am but was locked out. Went to the concierge and asked why was the card not working even though we asked for late check out. Our dear concierge staff (Krisan) responded that we have to activate the card for late check out. I asked if it’s the guests’ responsibility for ensure that. The ultimate customer service response from Krisan was a YES with a smug face. I further asked if this should be done upon confirmation for the late check out. No response from her at all.

By then, I’m fuming and never have I had such a bad customer service experience from all my hotel stays. Even budget hotel in Taiwan has more superior customer service. Spoiled the overall best Bali experience. Service in Bali outside of this hotel is...