iLOMBA

The room seemed okay until we checked under the bed. I don’t think that spot has been cleaned in years. Then there was the very loud prayer over loudspeakers at 3 am. It went on for a long time, and we couldn’t get a good night’s sleep.

The staff’s customer service and communication need a lot of work. At 10:30 am on checkout day, I went out on my bike briefly to get a coffee. A staff member hurried after me, asking whether I wanted to extend my stay and demanding the key. I had to keep explaining that I was only stepping out and would be back before the noon checkout. I also tried to talk about the lack of baggage storage and how difficult that made things. Because of the language barrier, I used Google translate, but he kept shouting “RULES” instead of having a civil conversation, by translate or otherwise. I told him repeatedly, in Bahasa Indonesia, that I understood the rules. The staff should improve how they communicate with and serve customers, or management should hire people who know how to work with tourists and don’t come across as ignorant. Otherwise, the place will inevitably lose business. There are three other things to know. They refused to store my bags, even for 24 hours after checkout, so this is a lousy place to stay before an overnight trip to Bromo. Also, all power comes from a diesel generator that’s switched off from 11:30 am to 2 pm, during the hottest part of the day. The room gets very hot then, and diesel is environmentally toxic.

We stayed one night on the way back from Bromo. The open area with all its plants was relaxing, and the room was very clean. The mattress was really comfortable too. After visiting Ijen and Bromo volcanoes, we slept for more than 10 hours! I’d highly recommend it.

The room got hotter than outside because the AC wasn’t cold. I was told they couldn’t move me since they were full, but that wasn’t true. They also said they’d contact the boss about a discount, and I had to ask many times. In the end, I got a fan to cool the room down.