Okawati Boutique Bungalows — Hotel in Pulau Bali

This is our third stay in Ubud - the first was in 1980, and the second in 2010. Everything and nothing changes. Perhaps that’s why we fell for Ibu Okawati, our congenial and charming host, after which the accommodation is named. Okawati Boutique Bungalows was established in 1975. Perhaps it could be considered a bit dated in parts, but that’s what we found attractive. We requested a ground floor room with a double bed, and that’s exactly what we were given. Our stay was longer than most - 16 days, and we found the environment perfect to unwind. Okawati’s son runs the hotel next door, for folks who need modern surroundings - but we prefer here. ||There are 10 large rooms, so there is a maximum occupancy of 20 people; the garden and pool are never crowded. Although we live in sub-tropical Australia, we marvelled at the fresh fruit for breakfast, much tastier than our chilled Coles/Woolies variety. We watched Javan Munia (brown and white finches) flit from branch to branch whilst sipping strong Kopi C from our balcony. Not everyone’s thing I appreciate, but the garden and pool environment is relaxing. If you were really picky, some folk might find the mozzies at dusk to be a nuisance. But that’s everywhere in Ubud, and spray is easily available. ||Okawati herself is chatty, knowledgeable and always industrious. A model of how to age gracefully. She gave us the heads up about a cremation held in Ubud and a festival to acknowledge Saraswati, the God of Knowledge. That’s primarily what we come to Ubud for - observing Hindu customs, watching dancing and enjoying long walks near the rice padi. And chilling of course. Every day Okawati puts offerings outside your room and in the corners of the garden. Long may ancient customs remain as well as...

While the location is good with some great eating/drinking options within walking distance, the access is down an alleyway so carting your luggage to the hotel can be very awkward if you're not travelling light. The staff are friendly but seem quite insistent on offering you breakfast which is of very limited options, even when we politely declined they still knock on your door each morning to ask (around 8am/8:30am) the walls are thin enough you can hear any conversation in the rooms next to you. There is noisy construction happening next door which was not mentioned when booking nor on arrival, this starts at around 7am each day. If none of these things wake you up I'm sure the rats scratching around in the roof will. We stayed almost a full week and were never once given fresh towels, even when we left them on the floor to signify they were dirty they simply hung them back up again. The "cleaning" of the room was basically just them making the bed and putting out fresh bottles of water, we even needed to supply our own handsoap as the bottle provided was empty the whole time. One day when we asked them specifically not to make up our room they did it anyway while we were out, meaning the young gentleman handled my wife's underwear which was on the bed (the entire reason we asked them not to) i find this very disrespectful. We also found the windows in the shower to be completely inappropriate as it means you are visible to neighbouring rooms while showering. Not sure who wants to use an old dirty loofah either, certainly not us! Overall the prices vs quality of stay are extremely out of proportion given the many options available in Ubud. Would not...

We stayed here for 5 nights. The first night was in the new triple room and we had to ask to move by the second night. There are building works right next to it (which they haven't included in the description) which are loud all day. At night it rained and due to the corrugated iron roof it was so loud we didn't sleep at all.

It was difficult getting a room change and we only had a late apology but moved to one of the older rooms which was good. These would have been gorgeous when new but they now need a little work. The room wasn't that clean at all, and there was a smell of mould due to no ventilation from the bathroom (one corner was dark and crumbly with mould). The room wasn't clean in the corners, fridge or on the counters and seriously needed a dust. The bedsheets and pillows were old and stained in places. This is unfortunate as it would've been a really nice room.

Breakfast was ok, but relatively expensive if paying 75k local. This would nearly buy you a pizza and beer nearby. The staff seem quite strange about breakfast, asking constantly when you wanted it (even when booked) and knocking on our door. This included knocking to ask when check out time was. This became quite annoying after a while.

Overall as this is relatively expensive for Bali it wasn't that great. Perhaps the focus should be on maintaining their current rooms before creating new ones. However the grounds are beautiful and well taken care of, and so is the pool if you want to relax. The location is really good and central, and away from the busy...