Alila Seminyak — Hotel in Pulau Bali

DISASTER - IN HOSPITAL FOR A WEEK AND NOT ALLOWED TO FLY FOR ANOTHER WEEK - DUE TO CONTAMINATED FOOD SERVED AT THIS HOTEL.||||As repeat guests we were excited to return to this establishment. After numerous requests directly the hotel failed to respond to us, so we booked via the Luxury Escapes platform (first and last time). Upon checking into the room assured, top floor and ocean suite of which we were paying over $750 AUS per night / it didn't happen. It took three room changes to finally get the room we paid / requested. The Hyatt has taken over, and no records of previous stays or monies spent - they have no idea of their customers requests. But it gets better!||||My husband and I didn't eat anywhere else. ||We only ate by the resort poolside, room service, and Salt within this complex. After three days my husband became unwell with gastro symptoms. I then started to feel unwell. Repeat visits to the toilet, not able to eat properly, and considerable nausea, my husband was able to get better, however I couldn't eat and the staff were constantly having ginger tea and toast etc served to me. We tried to reach out to the GM Christiane Ferger multiple times mid stay, however she was on holidays - no response. We had been to another resort prior, and perfectly healthy had no issues at all. We were meant to travel to Ubud after this stay for another 10 days - however thats when my health seriously deteriorated. Upon check in at the final leg of our stay, the day of leaving Alila, a doctor and nurse were called to our villa for in house care. After 3 hrs of non stop diarrhea, vomiting, and feeling extremely unwell, the doctor called the hospital for immediate transfer. The drips weren't working nor the multiple drugs they were infusing. ||||I ended up at Kasih Ibu Hospital in Saba. I ended up being in this hospital for some 7 days. My husband was absolutely beside himself, and had to find alternate accomodation close to the hospital in Saba, at further expense to us. I lost 6 kilos in 2 days! ||||After daily IV infusions and multiple anti biotics, I was released into local hotel care for another 7 days. I was not cleared to fly and the same doctor kept visitng me daily for in villa care and further treatments by nurses from this hospital. My blood pressure was an issue. I've never had blood pressure problems before, and a cardiologist called in for further assessment. They nearly re admitted me after 2 days - it was nothing short of horrifying, as you can imagine. ||||I was stuck in a foreign country, had to google where I was, and not able to fly home. It was a disaster. Christiane only got back to us after we threatened legal action upon our return home to Australia. Of course they try and deny any liability - BUT WE DID NOT EAT NOR DRINK OUTSIDE OF THIS RESORT. We only had bottled water also, and extremely vigilant.||||No value or care to their patrons, not acceptable.||||They test you daily in hospital, bloods, stools, the works / extremely thorough. I had acute gastroenteritis due to parasite infections, fungus detected, dehydration, diarrhea, and hyponatrtemia. We have daily summaries / reports from the hospital, and chlamydia was also detected from poor food handling / services at this resort stated upon admission (from samples taken at first in villa treatment). The symptoms during our 7 stay at Alila, were caused by Alila.||||There are no excuses. This should never had happened to me, and we are still out some $3,500.00 from the last resort whom will not re imburse our stay, even though they knew I was admitted into hospital and didn't stay there. The insurance also is not prepared to cover this component - as they believe "your in front". We are not in front, and all out of care costs should be madatory / covered. It's a true disgrace all round. ||||Alila finally re imbursed our stay costs from their stay - a bare minimum you would think - but we will NEVER return to Bali nor this resort ever again. I've also seen mutliple other consumer reports whereby other patrons have been extremely unwell whilst staying here.||||I have a snapshot of "some of the antibiotics" I had to have, prior / during each and every meal after the hospital stay. I couldn't eat properly, and scared to eat, however these drugs still had to be consumed X 3 times per day, morning / noon / night time and the syrup, to line / protect the gut.||||BE VERY CAREFUL STAYING HERE. THERE ARE MULTIPLE HEALTH REPORTS ASSOCIATED TO THIS HOTEL. EVEN IF PAID TO RETURN - I WILL NEVER COME BACK...

Our stay at the Alila Seminyak has, from the moment I checked in, lurched on from one minor disappointment or inconvenience to the next. Nearly none stop instances of sub par service and facilities in the context of a 5 star resort back by one of the major brands.

Booked through AMEX platinum well in advance, that should have secured me early check in and a room upgrade. Upon arrival neither were available. These features are always labeled subject to availability but in practice, with any other major brand, the upgraded room is taken out of circulation the moment you book. I know this for experience. And, at worst early check in might not be available for about 30 minutes after you actually arrive on the premises. Hyatt does not apparently compete with the other brands in either of these regards. I have put this to the test with Marriott, Hilton, and IHG in this region in places like Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong and it’s never failed.

When being shown to our room a golf cart was required to drive us to what I would describe as an annex to the main resort a few hundred meters away. The annex is simply not on the same level as the main resort itself in terms of fit, finish, ambience, amenities (worst pool on the resort. no bar or restaurant), and staffing (basically no staff at all). While waiting for our golf cart (buggy) other guests poached our first one even though a staff member was guiding us to it, then the person assigned to assist us went to go get a another buggy himself and then he was intercepted by other guests and instead of staying on task he also took off with them instead of us and our luggage. Finally a 3rd random employee assisted us with a buggy. Room was located on the top floor of a building that had a single broken elevator. With only one person helping us we were forced to carry most of our own luggage up several flights of external stairs in the Balinese heat.

Once at the room I felt compelled to mention all these missteps to a manager as the room was also very sub par. And, what do you know that upgrade to the main building was found within minutes (they claimed it was a last minute cancelation). Later that evening I asked for a buggy ride to the main road and again the staff member allowed 4 other guests to poach our ride (buggy holds 4 guests max) so this time I spoke up and that lead to one of the other guests being rude. We should have never been put into a situation where I needed to say anything at all to fellow guests. The staff should have been the ones doing the talking and instead they said and did nothing. It was left for us guests of the hotel to workout who should be on that buggy.

The room we ultimately ended up in is ,to be fair, a huge improvement over where they originally tried to place us. However, it has a broken TV, a shower with a busted temp adjuster, a broken “do not disturb / please make up room” switch/light system, and traces of black mold.

There appears to be plenty of staff and they are all so far friendly and personable. But, equally untrained and do not stay on task when you ask for something. Its whomever asks last and asks the loudest that gets served first here.

Lastly the internet. I should say the lack of internet. This is the most expensive hotel of our entire 3 week stay in Bali. We stayed at 5 other boutique independents rated either 4 or 5 stars. Including 2 located in very remote areas. All of the previous hotels offered free high speed internet capable of anything you may require including streaming. The Alila states, in their own words, that the wifi is free and suitable for browsing and checking email. And that “streaming is not supported”. Firstly this is not a remote hotel location and cheap, reliable, fast internet is abundant in Bali. Second the wifi isn’t even suitable for checking email. Gmail takes ages to load a single page. They advertise on their external site and through other booking sites that they have high speed internet....

This was our last part of our 14-day holiday in Bali and sorry to say we were a little underwhelmed. This hotel sits right in front of the Indian Ocean with magnificent sunset views. The location offers breathtaking views of the ocean from all 3 pools and Ocean front rooms. We were welcomed warmly and then taken to our room. We stayed in a Deluxe Suite room, with a balcony, which is one room up from the leading room and was hoping as per the description on the website a "Zen-like hideaway steps from the beach and Floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors open onto blue skies, lush foliage and your own private balcony for seamless indoor-outdoor living" Unfortunately, despite the room being big and beautiful we overlooked a day/night club called Mrs Sippy which is playing loud music during the week until 9pm and on the weekend until midnight which we had when we arrived. There was a note in our room to advise us of the noise, however as the hotel was not full, why didn't they offer us a Quiter room. It would have avoided us from complaining about the location of the room. Our travel agent did not make us aware of this and if we knew we would have gone another room up. The room was 72 square meters/775 square feet which is big. It was clean, and the bed was comfortable and everything you can ask from a room with complimentary tea, coffee and water every day. Although the pools look amazing both infinity pools and the main pool the condition of Tiles are all falling apart. The decks need renovation and the pools have so many tiles coming off on daily basis. They glue the tiles back with a white glue and this ruins the colour scheme of the pool, as you can see how many tiles were replaced. I also like to mention that there was continuous building works happening along the beach front to replace the promenade. We have bulldozers going up and down which is not great and you cannot relax by the pool also you can smell the fumes from them. Also, just round the corner more works are happening near to the sewers which is bringing a horrible smell to the pool area. In talking to other hotel guest there has been some sort of virus going round where people are really unwell including us which mean we were both in bed for 2 days. The golf buggy is handy for dropping guests off at the Main Street. You can walk to Seminyak Square which is about a 20 minutes' walk. The breakfast is served facing the ocean and is amazing, a mixture of buffet and a la carte served from 7 to 11. The staff are all Super attentive, from all departments. They all went out of their way to make you feel comfortable. Everyone is smiley and pleasant. I want to make a special shout out to Mario Sihaloho - assistant director from food and beverages. He is an asset to Alila Seminyak (Hyatt Brand) for his outstanding customer service and for taking his time to listen, to understand and most of all putting the guest/us first. He made our stay here so great we forgot all the problems this hotel has. With great sadness we will not be coming back to this hotel but please rest assured if you like big, corporate feeling hotels with great vibes then come...you will love it. In conclusion we just wanted to continue to Embrace the relaxed Bali lifestyle that we had from the rest of our journey and should have booked a room...