Jambuluwuk Oceano Seminyak Hotel — Hotel in Pulau Bali

Read this review. Do not stay here. My review is very long if you want to read.

We stayed here for 5 nights last week and I wanted to give some space before writing this review and I came to the same conclusion as when we had just left, the hotel, the area is not anywhere you should stay.

First the hotel: upon our arrival our TV and WiFi did not work. They sent someone to our room 2x for a total of an hour before moving us. Ok fine. But our new room: had no towels (ok an oversight), the safe battery was almost dead and the door to the balcony didn’t lock; this was now 10pm and we waited to the next morning to address the issues. They were fixed. However, the WiFi throughout the hotel is poor and our new TV as ALL TVs run on the internet, still periodically cut out the rest of our stay. More on the room, they are huge and the bed is comfortable. They have balconies but the furniture has stains everywhere. It’s gross. The water pressure is poor as well in the shower.

The pool on the 1st floor like others have said gets no sunlight and is frankly cold. The duckboards are broken and you might fall down, not safe for kids, we don’t have any but something that needs noting. The rooftop pool is small but good at sunset. If you do choose to stay here this is likely the best part of the hotel. But only at sunset as it has no shade during the day. The free breakfast is not appetizing at all. They ran out of normal waffles one day and I had the vegetarian option, not great. Pastries including the donuts are stale. The fruit is fine if you choose the good pieces. The sushi, where the milk is in the fridge, looks DAYS old! Do not touch this! Or anything unsealed in the fridge.

The staff is hit or miss. The guards are absolutely useless at the front and sit there and do nothing; security is awful! They do not check anyone in or out of the hotel. There is a metal detector and no one cares if it beeps. I called the front desk asking about Grab to and from Sanur and they tried to sell me their hotel car saying I wouldn’t be able to get one back. This is a lie. We got one in seconds from the new mall in Sanur (which is very nice btw). When I asked the desk at check out they insisted that it was not possible to get a car back and I told them that is just not true. The people in the cafe for breakfast were nice; better than the people who legit don’t care about you at the desk or at security.

Traffic in and out of this area is horrible! Don’t stay in this area. Outside of this the lazy security doesn’t help you cross the road like other hotels do (we were assisted at a number of other crossings). This hotel’s security is just straight lazy.

I lived in South East Asia for 13+ years and travelled back for a month last year and came back again for a month this year. If you go to Bali do not stay here. The sidewalks are not walkable here. The traffic is madness and the people try in every way to scam you. It was not like this in Bali before. Stay in Sanur or Ubud or take my advice and go to Da...

This should really be labelled as a 4 star hotel.

Cons The shower was the worst! Very poor water flow from the faucet, I am forced to use the hand held shower which has better flow but there is no hook so I have to hold it the whole time. Inconvenient for washing my hair. Also design of the bath/shower makes it easy to flood the floor when using the hand shower as when it hits the window, water flows down onto the ground. Waste of dry towels. So then I had to sit on the bathtub floor to shower to ensure this didn’t happen! Sometimes it was cold as well! And another time the tap didn’t turn on for 15 minutes. What’s going on?

The gym has no air conditioning! There are 2 air conditioners that are on but do absolutely nothing. My partner and I suffered every morning, just could not breathe or focus. Better off paying for a gym outside.

Buffet breakfast which is almost $25pp AUD is not worth the price. It looks good on the surface but all items are really sub par. Only good items were the fresh yoghurt and fruit and the nasi goreng.

Hotel service was slow. Asked for things and took hours to come. Also they kept not giving us hand towels after making our room so we had to keep asking for them. Also the telephone was very low volume and had static if you moved it.

I got a really disappointing massage and scrub. Was hoping the nicer spa in the hotel would be a more serene experience. It was nothing special and didn’t feel like my massager was skilled. Can definitely get a better massage at better prices outside. My partner however did have a good time at the spa and felt it was better than outside (skilled massager and strong).

There’s just a lot of details that make the place feel like there’s no attention to detail. Cobwebs in the spa shower, unfinished mouldings down the hotel hallway, general dustiness, dated rooms. Glass on infinity pool is unclean so can’t really see off the building whilst in the pool which defeats the purpose. They give us a cake every day as a kind gesture but I’d rather have a cleaner place and better shower as these basics would’ve gone a long way.

Pros The best thing about this place is the bed! My partner and I slept so much as the bed is sooo comfy. You just sink into it. And amazing fluffy pillows!

We always left the air con on and it’s quite strong. Very nice to walk into after a sweaty day out.

Ground floor pool was very pretty and refreshing as it’s away from the sun. Bar in the pool is a good concept but only ever saw it open with staff once during our week long stay.

Staff were super friendly - reception and housekeeping were always smiling and greeting us on the way in and out.

Great location, just a tiny bit further from the centre of Seminyak but still lots of great cafes and restaurants in either direction.

Overall, didn’t meet expectations and didn’t feel...

I have been trying to reach Jambuluwuk's head office with this issue but have been met with obstruction and silence. Below is my email to them, in hopes they will respond.

To whom it may concern.

I request that this email to reach head office.

I am writing to you regarding a recent experience regarding poor customer service from your reception team.

We cancelled a reservation made for June 2024 under the name of Ms I* D*. We cancelled it on 23 April.

Since the 2 weeks had passed and no refund reflected we contacted your reception team. They were unhelpful. We had to chase them every few days to follow up our refund. Eventually they told us WE must call Doku (who process their refunds) should we wish to escalate the matter. Our refund only reflected 19 May.

Although we constantly requested that this issue be escalated, your staff did not and this issue dragged out.

After calling multiple numbers to try to escalate this issue to management, I have had no luck.

Only after requesting compensation for our troubles, were we offered compensation that has no value to us on our next stay (1x free airport trip and late check out).

We are staying with you in June 2024 under my name. But this has left a bitter taste in our mouths. It makes me not want to stay at your hotel because this is how guests are treated when we are not even there. But we are too scared to cancel with fear that it will take another month to receive our refund.

I am bringing this to your attention because

1. this is not the level of service expected from a 5 star hotel. There has been no sense of accountability on your staff’s side.
2. we would like a refund for the handling fees charged for the refund

Please respond to the email I sent to both your sales and marketing team (the only email addresses I managed to find) on 20...