Prashanti Retreat — Hotel in Pulau Bali

We did not stay the night.

Upon arrival we noticed the little sign at reception saying CASH ONLY. When I asked Ihlo (front desk, head of housekeeping) about this, she reaffirmed that this is the only way to pay. Swem the owner confirmed to me that this is the only way to pay & suggested that we go to an ATM to draw the cash & pay the next day.

During our check-in time, I was in contact with Maya who made our booking via Whatsapp, who upon asking, shared that we could also pay via a payment link online.

This seemed odd as we got distinctly different answers from the team at Prashanti vs Maya via Whatsapp.

Shortly after checking in - I asked Ihlo to re-clean our bathroom as our shower & toilet floor was wet as if someone had just been in the room before us to take a shower. I also noticed cockroaches & other bugs to the side of the toilet. This section didn't look like it had been cleaned for ages. Swem, who seems to stay above one of the Deluxe River Facing Rooms, informed Ihlo to call us to meet with him at reception as he wanted to share information about Ubud & surrounding areas with us for our stay, even though we had said that we have been in Ubud for a week.

We found this odd as this interrupted the flow of our check-in process & felt more like an instruction rather then an invitation to get to know Ubud. The conversation took a good 30-45 minutes, of which Swem spoke about Kung Fu & Mastery of Self mostly.

When we came back to Prashanti after grabbing a bite at the restaurant at the entrance of the retreat, we actually spent time settling in. Took time to look at the room properly & started to see the following:

A dirty plastic bottle & old slipper underneath our bed. A layer of dust underneath our bed & behind the headboard that we found disturbing. The curtains were stained with blood & other dirt stains. A plastic wrapper with a toy or sweet or something left behind by a previous guest in the bathroom. Both lamps next to the bed were not working as the one plug that connected them both, was broken. When my husband tried to adjust this, he was shocked by the current.

The mattress of the bed was so thin, that you could feel the bed frame underneath it. And now comes the worst part - the bed linen, sheets & pillows had mould stains everywhere, when you looked closely.

Housekeeping tried to assist, but had energy that was lacking in enthusiasm. She was clearly tired & overworked, I felt compassionate towards her as she wanted to help, but didn't seem to know how. We were told that the property hardly uses a vaccume cleaner as it's very heavy & the one new set of linen she could offer us as a replacement, was full of birdpoop.

Now time was becoming a issue to find something else this late in the evening, so my husband looked for an alternative accomodation while I spent a good hour cleaning our room with Ihlo to at least sleep in a semi- clean room if we needed too.

Finally at 20h00 that same evening of check-in, my husband & I found another room at a different accommodation & left.

Swem was no where to be seen since earlier when we informed Ihlo about the state of our room. All we were told in a message via Ihlo in return was that no other rooms are available.

Definitely do...

Prashanti Bali had an incredible view of jungle with infinity style pool to make the most of this. The tree house style bungalows were great, while they did not include air conditioning there was a fan available. If you are scared of bees or lizards I wouldn’t consider this place however this was not really a problem and they included mosquito netting around the beds. ||||We had no real check in however we did arrive late early hours of the morning and out of check in times - I really recommend using the taxi driver the hotel provide from the airport as even though the hotel is only 5 minutes off the main street it is very difficult to find first time especially in the dark as their is no lights anywhere. The taxi driver was great and had all check in details, wifi passwords and room keys etc from owners. ||||Breakfast is very basic but does the job. Again, the view was amazing. ||||Staff couldn’t have been more friendly and owner was great for talking to us, taking some pictures, and booking us bikes etc if we wanted them. ||||Location was great, not on main street so away from all the loud noise however if you turn left out of the hotel you can walk through all the rice fields for miles with yoga houses, restaurants and shops. If you turn right out of the hotel you can access the main street with endless shops, restaurants and places to organise trips. A 30 min away to the monkey sanctuary. Places to hire peds or hire taxis on main road also which I 100% reccomend. Very cheap and easy. ||||I also reccomend the restaurant directly outside the hotel,. This place does an amazing breakfast, lunch and dinner and is so peaceful and tranquil with wifi and a view of the rice fields. The food was brilliant and I ended up eating there most days. ||||Overall - highly recommend and great value for money. Remember just ask and the owners or people around will help you out...

Loved my stay. Staff are friendly and helpful, reachable by whatsapp and responsive. There is a bit of a language barrier sometimes. I say this because I know many entitled English speakers that come woth the expectation that everyone needs to accommodate. I was amazed about the variety of languages spoken in Bali. So please remember you are entering another country with its own language. So the staff really were always helpful, even in complex situations. They arranged for a driver for me who knew the hotel and even carried my bag (cannot drive up, about a 5 min walk). There is space for yoga if you want ot, but no classes. The entire town has yoga classes everywhere in walking distance. Location was great, in the jungle and in between rice fields. But also walking distance 5 to 10 minutes to Ubud town center with lots of food and shopping options. Moyor bike taxis will still drive up to the hotel, just no cars. Which I personally loved. Being so embedded in nature was wonderful. Rooms are simple, clean, and just...