Jukung Dua Guest House

The good parts: it’s generally quiet, and close enough to the main Sanur area to walk while staying away from its noise and traffic. The rooms look fairly modern and clean, there’s free drinking water, and the air conditioning is good and gets the rooms nice and cold. We were allowed to keep our pets, although I think the official rule is that pets aren’t allowed. For a short stay, it may be fine, but be ready to wait at check-in and rely on WhatsApp to communicate. We stayed for nine months during the pandemic. Sometimes we were the only guests, and there was hardly ever staff around. My wife often cleared leaves from the garden, and we helped people waiting to check in when no staff showed up. Staff were supposed to be there 24 hours, but often came for about an hour a day, and sometimes didn’t come at all. There’s no cable TV despite it being advertised, and the Wi-Fi can be very slow. I even helped set up a Wi-Fi extender, so it was frustrating to be treated this way. We didn’t make much of a fuss about the bathroom lights not working or the leaking, moldy bathroom roof because we didn’t want to add to their expenses. I hope those get fixed with the rates they now charge. The family room had a TV in just one of its rooms. We brought one for the other room and were charged extra for it, even though there had been no rule about that when we moved in and we hardly used the TV. We agreed, but thought it was stingy. We paid for cooking gas, but staff and other guests kept using it without paying. We complained once in all those months. In response, the manager complained that we’d used a little of the free drinking water for cooking. I was shocked by that attitude. It was one reason we didn’t want to stay any longer, and the big rent increase on short notice made the decision for us. The owner’s choice to raise the rents dramatically lost them all their monthly guests, in my view, because of that greed. Be careful with electronics here. The electrical system isn’t grounded, which is dangerous for devices. Since staying there, a few of mine have started breaking, and I used to get electric shocks from them. Even the water heaters and air conditioning units broke, which I assume may have been due to the faulty electrics. I tried to include both the good and bad so people know what to expect.

There are only six rooms, so it feels private, and the staff are friendly. The king-size beds are comfortable, the rooms are large and the facilities are okay. It’s two alleyways from the main road, with shops and restaurants.

Breakfast was freshly made each day, and the owners are nice. They can arrange taxis and drivers, there’s a free water station, and the room gets cleaned daily. The place is clean and quiet, the service is nice, and the air conditioning works well. A few things could be better: the shower is lukewarm with weak pressure, the pool has a bit of a smell, and during heavy rain the bathroom smells like old eggs. I’d still come back.

The rooms were clean, but the safe didn’t work and the fridge barely kept beer cold. The shower was only lukewarm. Staff did the bare minimum, and there was rarely anyone at the service desk. You can find better for less. I don’t recommend it.