The Sintesa Jimbaran Bali

Good

Good

Great staff. We loved our suite. So big! We loved the bar

It’s isolated but walkable to the beach and the gojeks are quick

Our first impression reminded us of The Overlook Hotel out of the Jack Nicholson movie The Shining. Why? According to the staff, 250 rooms of which only 150 were usable with about 30 guests staying at the same time as us. It was quiet....very quiet and if you want it calm, then this is the place for you. The room was large, bed comfortable, clean enough, but it, like the hotel, is showing its age...but we paid $50 a night so great value for money. We opted to include breakfast, which offered pretty standard stuff, an egg option, selection of fruit, Indonesian staples, toast, tea, juice...exactly what you would choose anywhere else. I'll come back to quiet. This hotel is very close to central Jimbaran, but is up a hill, past Raffles, past The Four Seasons, with a turn-off just before a convenience store...that leads to...the end of the road, which is exactly where this hotel is located, so no road noise. To get to Samasta complex, for example, takes 5 mins max on a scooter, same for the seafood restaurant area, walking down would be OK, but not up that hill. The pool is the size of a dry dock, huge, depth about 1.3m, they have a smaller pool for kids to drown in. Describing the lobby as grand doesn't do it justice, it's the size of 2 dry docks minus the water. Staff were friendly, check-in was no problem. In-room water, tea, coffee, sugar but no jug to boil water, no spoon to stir your beverage so had to ask for that. Stangely enough, no milk, so we woke up the guy in the Barber bar/restaurant and asked ...options were he'd put some in a glass for us to take away or we could buy a litre. Great view of Jimbaran & airport from the rooftop.

This place is well past its hayday and it's hard not to think that it is being left to run-down, room-by-room, until keeping it open is no longer viable. Quiet is great, but when that morphs into slightly creepy, think Barber: full bar, grand piano, karaoke set-up, tables and chairs, dark, gloomy, lifeless, you have to ask yourself if this place isn't already on life support. But, at $50 a night, when it does everything any hotel is expected to do, no complaints.

Friendly welcome on arrival, and they kindly upgraded us to a junior suite. Staff always friendly and polite. Large clean pool area with complimentary towels.

Rooms not cleaned to a high standard, very quiet hotel with very few guests but we were positioned right next door to a loud group of men who were shouting at 2/3am every morning. Breakfast very poor, limited choice and all items were freezing cold. Bedding and pillows were not clean properly. If you removed the pillow case from pillow the pillow was heavily stained with large brown and yellow marks. Water in shower and bath both freezing cold. Location of hotel is not near anything. No shops/restaurants etc, you require a bike or grab car to go anywhere. Gym was ok, but none of the treadmills were working and the gym didn’t get cleaned the whole 4 days we stayed (dirty water bottle and gloves in same position every day). This hotel offers multiple services: barbers and spa but none seem to be running due to the lack of guests staying. Lower lobby also very damp smelling, with large leaking hole in roof. Large bucket was positioned on the floor to catch the water. On checkout we were required ‘to wait, for the room to be checked’ this appeared to seem as though they were looking for a reason to charge us extra money. The staff claimed it was to check for ‘belongings’.