Bali has 20,000 hotel rooms supposedly. Today is December 20th, which is high-season. That means prices are increased and rooms are harder to get. My friends from Oregon wanted to change hotels this morning. The Puri Cendana in Seminyak was nice, but they didn’t want to pay the 300,000rp price tag. Their combined requirements were, a cheaper place, close to the beach, AC, pool, double beds. At 7.30am I took the car back to the shop on Jl. Padma Utara, and walked home. Arriving at the Puri Cendana an hour later, Ollie and I jumped on my motorbike for a tour of the accommodation in Legian and Kuta. I had some places in mind, but he wanted to see the rooms.
We also needed to know the availability and current inflated price. It was an interesting exercise for me. Starting off in the Padma area in Legian and working our way across Jl. Melasti to Jl. Benesari, we viewed maybe 6 places all in the 250,000rp range. When a decent place has a restaurant, hot water, pool, AC and its high season, you are looking at 250,000rp+. I think many backpackers get it in their mind that Bali is cheap and expect 40,000rp a night. You can get that, but for a small guest house with no pool, restaurant, hot water, AC.
I knew the cheaper places would be on further down Jl. Benesari and Poppies II. We checked both of those streets and Poppies I, never really finding the prefect balance between pool, room and cost. Finally we decided to settle for two places, the Suka Beach Inn, that had a pool, twin beds and AC, for 150,000rp, for Toby and Maya, and the Beneyasa, which now has some AC rooms, double beds on the 3rd floor, for 120,000rp per night, for Ollie & Asia.
Having a motorbike allowed us to hit a dozen or more places, check out the rooms, talk about price, and get on to the next place. At this time of year (wet season) its hot and humid. You will be much better off with AC. After May and up to October a fan room will do. On many occassions, Ollie and I talked about price with the staff, them allowing us to leave without going for a cheaper rate. This shows me they know they’ll get customers.
Advantages of staying in these type of guest house rooms, is that you are close to everything. The beach is a 5 minute walk, bars and restaurants are within a 30 second stroll off of the property.




{ 1 trackback }
{ 6 comments }
Hey Nick,
Thinking of accom for a week or so in August/Early Sept next year but we want Budget, & for 3 kids 2 will be in beds & 1 in a cot!!!
The rest of the time we’ll be staying in the village but I’d like a few days to shop & chill…
I have only ever stayed in Budget single room places like Senen Beach Inn & Kost accom…
Not sure if there’s anywhere that has big enough rooms for ALL of us!!!
Anyways I am adamant Dede wont cancel this trip, it’ll have been 4 yrs since I was in Bali. His parents Loved Melbourne & it was awesome to see them..
I will e-mail you soon, just work is busy & life is a tad hectic at this time of year!!!
Love to Jevon, Ika & yourself!!!
hi Tracey,
try to contact this hotel”
Bali Sandat Inn 2 (0361) 762980
Jalan Benesari
Located next to Circle K and Warung Wulan. This place is only 4 months old and has 30 rooms on 3 levels. There is a left block of rooms and one straight ahead with a swimming pool in the middle.
All rooms have hot water and 7 have A/C.
This is a decent looking place and you can tell the owner is spending some money.
The paint and brickwork looks bright and new.
Rooms are very clean and well kept, beds are comfortable and sheets were clean. The color scheme used is a range of colors from beige to light brown to dark brown. They add to the overall feeling of comfort. There is some smart brickwork in Balinese style and extra touches like quality door and window frames.
Porches are clean and have 2 rattan chairs and a table.
Breakfast is served in the restaurant next door.
I talked to an English traveler who said “Absolutely brilliant, cheap.” He also said “If I brought my fiance here she’d love it and she inspects every corner, top marks from the UK.”
1 Person 80,000 1 Day
1 Person 150,000 A/C 1 Day
2 Person 90,000 1 Day
2 Person 200,000 A/C 1 Day
1 Person 560,000 1 Week
2 Person 630,000 1 Week
I got a great deal, Rp. 150,000/2 adults for an AC room.
Good luck & have fun in Bali
Tracey
The Green Garden Hotel in Tuban is very good and where we stay.
Rooms 41 and 44 are large family rooms and have an alcove with bunk beds and plenty of room for a cot.
The hotel is excellent and their website is http://www.baligreen.com. You will need to email to get a price but the rooms are very clean, the staff excellent, good restaurant underneath, swimming pool, the rooms have a small balcony (we love watching the streetscape each day) and have a good sized fridge.
One of the breakfast options is a buffet (which maybe included in the cost of accom) and is western as well as asian. Loved trying all the different asian breakfast items.
Green Garden Hotel is located close to Centro Shopping Mall and WaterBom Park - has a good maoney changer and photo developer next door as well as a good laundromat. There is also a small mini mart so you can purchase snacky things for the fridge. Very Central.
If you can’t get in, they have a sister hotel called Febris (same website) across the road - very good too but our preference is Green Garden Hotel.
Regarding the Bali Sandat Inn2, possible to provide more information on that particular budget accommodation?
Tracy thank you so much for that lead!
Would anyone else happen to have updates numbers for the other guest houses? On our list are Ayu Beach Inn, Taman Ayu Bungalos and Komala Indah.
The numbers we found through baliblog were posted in 2003 so we arent sure if these room rates and numbers still hold true.
Appreciate any help!
Why need a pool if the sea is nearby?? Why need airco when a good ceiling fan would make the room sufficient cool?? Why need and expensive room when you will probably spend 99% of the daytime outdoors?? Why need to stay close to the action where the rooms are more expensive, the touts and hawkers are more aggressive and in bigger numbers?? Why need to stay in central kuta where the beach is not as clean and the views are not as nice??
I live on bali, mostly between Padangbai and Kuta ( i love the sea) I don’t really like the northern part of the island. I always pay between 20,000 and 50.000 per night for a nice and clean room with ceiling fan, fridge and mandi inside. Granted i don’t have television and airco but i can really do without those 2 amenities. Life on Bali is really dirt cheap even though the food is a bit more exensive there compared to Java. i spend between 400 and 500 euro’s per month for everything included insurance etc, and manage to live like a king.
Comments on this entry are closed.