Villa Kalisha Reviews

We were 3 adults staying at the villa Kalisha in Ubud, Bali Indonesia during the summer of 2009. This holiday was a total nightmare! The villa was in very, very bad conditions described here below. We do NOT recommend to anyone to rent this villa!
In both bathrooms :
General aspect : dirty, not cleaned daily
Towels : cheap, too small, dirty, bad smell, don’t absorbe humidity after the shower, not changed daily
Bath mats : very dirty, full of stains
Floor decking in the shower : painfull to step on, we trapped our feet between the square spaces, impossible to take a shower barefoot
Little white stones on the floor : constantly humid, became grey, even black, with mould growing between the stones
Toilets : cleaned only with a feather duster!
Bathtub : the copper bathtub in the 1st floor bathroom has many black stains
Taps : not daily cleaned, calcareous stains
Futher details : low water pressure from the taps, and unstable hot/cold water controls

In both bedrooms :
General aspect : dirty, not very nicely furnished, dirty plate glass windows
Beds : has a matress without a slatted base or interior sprung bed base. Instead, a wodeen board
Sheets : dirty, bad smell, the pillowcases are bleached, the staff sprays some perfume on the blanket and sheets
Mosquito net : very dirty, stains, dust

Kitchen staff :
General aspect : extremely dirty !!!
Fridge : old, damaged, dirty inside, food without any protection (no respect of the food hygiene!!!), freezer totally disgusting (frozen blood coming from the meat)
Sponges : disgusting

Lounge at the 1st floor :
General aspect : dirty, dust
Sofa : too small for 3 people
Television : old model, too small for the size of the room

Leaks in the villa (very dangerous situation for the guests and for the staff):
The villa is in a very bad condition!
The last 3 days, it rained and the villa was leaking everywhere. In the kitchen staff, the leaks were running from the inside kitchen cupboards and the ceramics of the walls. The leaks were flowind up to the dinning room.
In the bedroom at the 1st floor, the leaks were running behind the bed, wetting the electric wires of the bed lamp. The staff installed 2 buckets.
There were leaks in the stairs at the corner – slippery (very dangerous).
There were leaks running from the ceiling into one of the bassin in the ground floor bathroom. The staff installed a floorcloth in the bassin.
There were many stains on the wall throughout the villa from water.
Clothes in our suitcases, various pills and cosmetic cartons were damaged by the presence of the humidity. The constant humidity in the villa gives a very bad smell from time to time.

Dirtiness conditions in the villa :
We saw a few rats coming out from the kitchen staff and entering in the living room of the villa. We saw a few cockroachs in the 1st floor bathroom. There were many colonies of big ants everywhere in the villa, on the sofa in front of the television for exemple and on the sunbeds near the pool. In the 5 star hotels outdoor pools, they treat the floor in order that the clients won’t get any insects on their bodies while they rest on a sunbed. Our friend even got some ants in his mouth while he was having a rest!

The staff :
The staff is not professionnal at all! They are not trained to be professionnals like in a top hotel. These 4 people are just simple villagers. They used to bring their kids in the villa at mornings and some family members in the evenings. Eventhough we don’t have nothing against kids, how could we wake up with the only sounds of the twitterings birds and the croaking of jungle frogs with the sound of children cries?

The food cooked at the villa by the staff :
We ate at the villa the first evening of our arrival. The food was not good. The tuna and the chicken were very dry. The breakfast was not tasty. After we discovered out the terrible conditions of the staff kitchen, we stopped to eat breakfast at the villa. For breakfast, there were always 2 boxes of cereals, already opened, both almost empty! The Marmite pot was almost empty. The jams already opened. They did not bring us toasts, which would normally get with eggs and bacon. We had to ask for some.

The description of the villa on your internet site :
The way the villa is displayed on the website, is totally wrong and many explanations are misleading. There are many adjectives and common nouns used such as : luxurious, dreams, amazing, spectacular, beautifully furnished, superb, joys, stunning, dramatic, fantastic, quality soft furnishings, perfect place, romantic, magnificent…All this is NOT true!

The privacy in the villa :
When the villa was leaking the staff took a ladder to go up to the roof with an electric torch while one of us was under the shower in the 1st floor bathroom. We had to turn off the lights in order not to be seen. Also, some villagers cut the coconut tree leaves and have an unrestricted view to both bathrooms.

The help of the staff regarding touristic informations :
On the first day, the manager proposed to us the services of a taxi to visit the island. The driver seemed to be nice the 2 first days but when we asked him to take us to places out of Ubud, he demanded more money 30 minutes into the journey. We had to come back to the villa and the manager sent us a new driver who asked us the same price as the first driver. However, we did manage to find ourselves a reliable inexpensive taxi company with very good services. The manager never told us that we could find this kind of taxi service. The staff should know about this. It’s very important information for your guests!

The location of the villa :
On the website it is said that the villa was located only 12 minutes far from Ubud. From the center it’s more like 20 minutes.

Other details :
The power of the electricity in the villa is very low. All the time, the lights flicker.
We felt pity the staff, who was trying to deal with some of the issues, in vain. How could they repare the leaks? The manager went on the roof in the dark in heavy rain, it was very dangerous They explained to us that the leaks started about 6 months ago, that someone came to fix the problem in the kitchen but it did not help.
One of the electric power supply boards was visible on the wall of the dinning room – it is very ugly – this should be hidden in a box.
We guess that because there is no washing machine, the sheets and towels are not changed daily. The staff told us about a laundry in Ubud. We doubt they go there every day and in the case they use the services of this laundry, it is not cleaned at all! The smell speaks for itself.

The staff spends more time sweeping up the water rain and the leaves on the terraces than in cleaning the inside of the villa.

The villa Kalisha is concidered as a 5 star hotel but the villa and the staff don’t conform AT ALL to the standard criterias of a 5 star hotel!!!