Made Arsa Homestay — Hotel in Pulau Bali

My experience was both wonderful and bad, quite mixed, see details below:

The wonderful parts: It's a family-run homestay. Most of the people are super friendly and in contrast, the father seemed less friendly. He never smiled and didn't say hi much. The staff who picked me up, Deto, was super friendly. I arrived on the night before Nyepi, most of the ATM machines were shut down so I couldn't withdraw enough money to pay for my stay. I felt so bad and kept apologizing, but Deto reassured me that it's totally ok and that I could pay later. He also checked to make sure I have enough smaller bills to stock up food for Nyepi (Silence Day). The ride from the airport (300K) took us more than 2 hours due to the heavy traffic, which in turn is the result of communities preparing for Nyepi parade. Deto was very patient and made the effort to point interesting things to me as we drove, he also introduced some Balinese culture to me. My flight was supposed to land around 1:50 pm but he arrived as early as 11:30 am just to make sure he wouldn't be late because of the traffic! Wow. Amazing staff indeed!

Breakfast was great, very ascetically appealing. Be careful with the yogurt, though. The woman sitting next to me said the yogurt was spoiled. The staff changed her food.

WiFi averages between 10-20 Mbps down and 2-5 Mbps up. Sometimes it may be iffy but mostly works pretty well.

The bad part: When Deto picked me up, he invited me to extend my stay by 1 more day because I wouldn't be able to explore Ubud at all on Nyepi (Silence Day), to which I gladly responded "Yes!" However, this turned out to be a problem and a mistake on their end. So what happened was that I went out early on the morning of the 3rd day (the promised extended day), and when I went back at 7 pm, the family stopped me immediately after I entered the gate. The father and mother were both there, they told me that there was a mistake on their end, after they promised me the extension, they didn't block the calendar on the online booking sites. Someone booked my room on that day and showed up and CHECKED IN ALREADY. "So where is my stuff?" I asked, they told me everything is in their office now. I followed the father to the office, which really is just the living room of the family house. O-M-G, see attached photo for how my stuff was casually removed and relocated to a public space. I felt offended at first, but then I took a moment to persuade myself that this may be a cultural difference. Yes they messed up, and they apologized (the mother, not so much the father), and they probably don't treat personal spaces and properties with the same respect that people do in the West, so this is not intentional.

I do appreciate that they offered to drop me off at my new guesthouse and the father did end up helping me transport my huge backpack as I preferred not to ride with all my backpacks on my scooter. The father turned out to know the owner of my new guesthouse (Tutick House) and the guy at Tutick House was so happy that he introduced business to him (though the truth is that I just searched and booked on Agoda myself). Anyways. It would have been a five-star review if the accident didn't take place. So yeah, do be very careful with the promises here, double check and confirm, don't take words for what they are.

Lastly, I highly recommend Tutick House, it's cheaper ($10 vs $12 at Made), MUCH BETTER views from your room (potentially overlooking Ubud, you can even see the mountains), and even friendlier family staff, plus much better-ventilated rooms and more...

Staying at Made Arsa was the best choice I could have made! Not only is the place absolutely beautiful and spotless clean, but also the kindness and generosity of the family that owns it were absolute highlights. We came with our 13-month-old daughter and were greated by the owner who told us they also had a baby! In the days to come, out daughter spent a lot of time playing with his granddaughter, as well as with their lovely pug Kimmi. They carried our baby around and entertained her for us to have breakfast in peace, let us use their umbrellas in the rainy days, and even took us to Ubud downtown by car free of charge and arranged us tickets (and number one seats!) to the dance in Peliatan Palace. This is our first time backpacking with a baby, and we couldn't have had a more perfect start! At first we thought that the distance to the center (about 35 minutes walk) could be an inconvenience, but we really enjoyed being in a less touristic (and much more affordable) area, with plenty of street food, full or real Balinese life, but yet very homey and far away from the chaos downtown. It was also very nice that they had a high chair, a full equipped kitchen for the guests to use, and provided us with affordable and reliable airport pickup. Made Arsa is our home away from home and one of the best accommodations we've stayed (among over 60 countries traveled). Thank you, thank...

We've been here twice now and I've enjoyed my stay very much. The family is friendly and kind. It is a nice place, the rooms are clean and taken care of, the garden where you can sit (and eat or have a drink) is really cosy. There's enough space and it even has a little temple in the garden. They serve good breakfast as well. It's not too much, but just enough. They serve it on a nice decorative plate and it's prepared well. The first time we stayed they had two guests who stayed for a while (they volunteered in Ubud), and when they left the family made a big dinner with a little dessert for all the guests. They seem to care about their guests.

One more thing, the owner has a wood carving shop (he carves himself), and on my request he made a very nice little statue of my friend and her dog (that just passed away). He put a lot of work and effort in it, which I appreciate very much.

To sum it all up, I liked staying here and if I ever come back to Ubud, I will definitely...