The main reason people stay in this hotel is to enjoy the famous hot spring of Ciater, which cooked above the magma chamber of Mt. Tangkuban Parahu; and so did we. But we also had different reason. My friend gave me a free voucher to spend one night in this hotel, and I used it with my family. Too bad it was during fasting month or Ramadhan, which made us enjoy the hotel just from our room most of the time... and that was the very reason why, the interesting story created for us in this hotel.

We arrived early, around 1 PM, so the room was not ready yet. It was Saturday and the hotel rooms which some of them scattered as bungalow unit on the vast area of land were fully booked. We got lucky because we had the suite bungalow unit. But the moment we enter the unit, the unpleasant smell of undried carpet filled the room atmosphere. Later that afternoon, I asked if they could do something about it. The only solution they gave us was a can of room perfume spray. I was hoping they could change the carpet, but they didn’t have another dried one. This particular carpet in our unit was washed yesterday, but due the rainy day it didn’t got dried completely. So along that weekend we had to enjoy the unit with unpleasant mix odor between the smell of undried carpet and the room perfume spray which failed to eliminate the unpleasant odor... what a setback experience!

The room was equipped with working kitchen, dining table, living (TV) room, two bed rooms (one with queen size bed and one with two single beds), one bath room with bathtub, and one bath room with just shower. The hot water system in both bath rooms was naturally came from hot spring nearby. But because of that, when many people use it in other units, the debit of hot water decreasing and made the water very cold. Ciater lies in the high altitude mountainous area which makes the climate nice and chill and the fresh water can get icy cold. So without the hot spring water, impossible to have shower or bath.

To enjoy the indoor activities with my family, I brought several recorded footage of our previews vacation in China inside my laptop hard drive. But when we wanted to watch it via LCD TV in the living room, I just realized that I forgot to bring the cable. I asked the house keeping to lend me the cable. Thankfully, they had just exactly what we need and fit to my laptop and the TV. So at last we could watch it together in the living room, though the carpet still smells!

Around 5 PM, about 1 hour before the breakfasting of our fasting day, we tried the hot spring pool. This hotel has several hot spring pool. Too bad that the best one was under heavy restoration. But another one is close to our unit and we went there. The water was hot and nice and we had very good time until my two children, my wife and I got slight dehydration. We could not have anything to drink because we were fasting, and it turned out that the hot water made you dehydrated. So before things became worse, we call out the day and back to our unit. I learned something valuable that afternoon. That when you are fasting, do not dip into the hot spring pool! Thankfully my children could recover when we enter our unit and turned on the AC. And not long after that, we can drink after the sun sets.

The voucher we had was included the BBQ dinner in the restaurant in short walking distance from our unit. We enjoyed our dinner very much, because it was also the breakfasting of our fasting day. The BBQ was consider very good and complete with lamb ribs, chicken, beef sausages, and fish. They also prepared other dish like pasta, rice, soup for appetizer, and pastry for desert. Superb! It was also raining heavily outside of the restaurant, so we had to wait until it stopped by taking more BBQ on our plate!

On Ramadhan, we have to have very early breakfast or sahoor. And the place would be at the same restaurant we had our dinner. Since we had to take short walk from our unit to the restaurant, and the temperature in early morning of 3 AM could be very cold. I asked the restaurant for us to take away the food into our unit instead, because no way my two small children can bare to walk in that condition. Thankfully, though it was actually we may not take away the buffet breakfast, the restaurant manager fulfilled my request. So early in the following morning at 3 AM I walked by myself to the restaurant and collected our breakfast. They gave us plenty! I really grateful for that. Two thumbs up for the restaurant manager.

Around 9 in the morning, we took the free shuttle service around the complex. We didn’t do the outdoor activities because we were still fasting that day. But we stopped by in the public area of hot spring river. We took some pictures and when the sun got higher, we went back to our unit. Around 1 PM we checked out and went home.

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When I write this, the hotel management has already sent me a sorry note to address their apology and as the sign that they will improve. But they failed to give the excellent service quality because there were no service recovery. Nonetheless, in my humble opinion, the public needs to know.

I have experienced the issue that needed every level in the management’s attention. I stayed in room 630 and I found live cockroach in my room and in the bath room (I have pictures, but I decided not to uploaded to TripAdvisor website). The on in my room was crawling on the wall and on the bedside table like it tried to look for food or something. The size was medium, so I believe it’s not full grown one and usually they exist in a platoon, which only mean one thing: they were plenty of them. The other one was crawling in the bathroom wall sticking out its head and antena from the gap between the shower know and the wall which was a bit loose. This one is full grown cockroach, so I believe that that was the parent.

I address this complain upon check out. I asked to meet the MOD that morning. But even after I waited and finally left the hotel, not even single officer showed up. Not until I wrote my complain note on the hotel receipt and signed it, a lady showed up and said sorry to make me waiting. The management has finally read my note and sent me an email as their apology. But it was a simple sorry, nothing more. However, I hope they really did something significant to make sure that this hotel is free from pest.

Beside the cockroach incident, this hotel is standard 4-star hotel, with reguler breakfast. They also failed to separate the space between smokers and nonsmokers section in the restaurant to the point that even when you’re sitting on the non-smoking section, you still breathe the toxic air of cigarette smoke! So… Nothing special about this hotel.

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Though they said that this is the 3-star hotel, but I consider it’s a budgeted hotel and consider cheap. And because it’s cheap, everything has limitation. I stayed in room 480. The room was small but quite comfy. When I got there they forgot to supply the toilet paper, not until I ask the housekeeping to get me one. The bed however, was superb. It was so comfy that I slept like a baby.

The restaurant has different issue. I stayed here in fasting month of Ramadhan, so the breakfast (sahur) was early in the morning around 3 – 4 AM. And since everyone wanted to have breakfast around this hour, the restaurant staff failed to serve food on time. I got there by 3.30 and already ran out of main dish of fried chicken. Not until I finished my meal they deliver new set of fried chicken. The fruit corner was experiencing the same problem. In my humble opinion, during the fasting month of Ramadhan, they should put more restaurant staffs on duty, especially around Sahur hour.

Room Tip: Room with windows

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Not that many hotel in the small city of Merauke, the most South-East city in Indonesia. And this hotel is like oasis, stands up become landmark of the city, as the best hotel around. If you ask everyone in Merauke, where to stay in a hotel; they all would say Swiss-Belhotel.

The hotel is quite new with nice swimming pool. This swimming pool also become the best swimming pool in Merauke. It is not that big, but nice and children would love to play in the pool under the shadow of the building when the hot sun of Merauke is burning. The restaurant is also nice with variety of food at breakfast. I had a chance to order room service of Papeda with yellow soup fish in my room. Papeda is traditional main dish of people in Papua made by sago and rich in carbohydrate. Papeda simply made of sago starch with no taste and smell, but the yellow soup fish of this hotel is something. It was so good, I’m telling you. The sour, sweet and spicy was just right.

I stayed in room 220. The room was small but quite comfy. One thing though my bathroom floor was always wet because the plumbing system of the closet was a bit broken to the point that water kept dripping and wet the floor. I told the staff, they fixed after my first night, but it was not quite right. So I hope they close this room 220 for their guest until they are sure that the problem is really fixed.

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I stayed in this hotel because I would give a seminar in hotel ballroom. I’d rather stay in a better hotel if I had a choice. They said this is 4-star hotel, but I can assure you that it isn’t. I stayed in room 1015, and the room was gloomy, with old furniture, broken and dirty carpets. I really think that the management should start thinking of refurnishing their rooms. I stayed for two nights and I got the exactly the same breakfast menu for those two mornings, to the point that I assume it was yesterday’s food that they put for the second morning!

The seminar was a total failure, especially for the first 2 hours. Though we had checked everything the night before, it turned out to be so many things went wrong. First, the projector’s cable was broken, then followed by the audio cable was also troubled. Every time audio cable plugged in to the laptop, the picture went crazy. Not until 2 hours of seminar they came up with the solution to bring the portable speaker and place it at front.

In the middle of seminar, the electricity went out. Though it only took them about 10 seconds to switch it to gen set, it already changed the mood of the audience of those 10 seconds black out. But I think this issue of electricity went out, is the issue for every place in Jayapura. Just be prepared if you have a seminar in this city that this might also would happen to you.

The design of the lighting in the ball room was also has flaw. The ball room has several dozen lamps an almost every single of them has a single switch. So many lamp switches in the control room, to the point that even the staff got confused to turn off and on the specific lamp. I can only say that the lighting for this seminar was a total chaos!

What made things even worse that the hotel staff and supervisor, did not want to get critics and always defending themselves every time me and my team complaints. Not until me and my colleague ask the supervisor to had a word with us down stair and really tell him the convenient way in handling customer complaints. I believe that this hotel staffs never got the training of quality service excellent what so ever.

Room Tip: room with ocean view

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Overall Rating: GOOD

Visited May 2016

TripAdvisor website rejected this entry due to lack of Google Map data on it's location. But believe me, this hotel is exist!

You can not find fancy 5-star, 4-star, or even 3-star hotel in Gunungsitoli. The best hotel in this town is Hotel Kaliki which rated below 3-star. But I guess you don’t come to Gunungsitoli to find luxury place to spend a night, so this hotel is just acceptable.
 
It’s located by the shore where you can enjoy the view of sunrise. But the beach is not for swimming since full of sharp coral. This hotel has swimming pool for adult and for kids, but they failed to maintain the pool to its best. The water is not clear and lots of leaves on the bottom of the pool. Near the swimming pool they have series of place to sit and eat and they have a big open wall restaurant at the far end of the field. This restaurant is not for breakfast, because your breakfast would be serve in front of each room on the terrace or balcony where they set dining table in front of every room. Breakfast always fried rice, but don’t worry because it was tasty and delicious served with sunny side up, sliced cucumber and tomatoes, also fish chips.
 
The room are spacious with big unused space in front of the bathroom. In the room you will find one flat TV with TV cable decoder (though the signal sometimes lost and only has few channels other than local TVs), one AC, one office table, and one huge wardrobe. I stayed in room 15 on the second floor (this hotel only has 2 floors), and the shower hanger in the bathroom was broken. I didn’t complain to the hotel since I’ve already set my expectation was low for this accommodation. The hot shower is frequently disrupted with cold shower. Maybe this was caused by the hot water pump didn’t pump the water continuously. Don’t forget to bring your own toiletries because they don’t provide the good one for you to use.

Two-third of this hotel guests are lion group flight crew because it is located less than 8 kilometers from Kualanamu Int’l airport. I believe Lion group flight crew like to smoke a lot, because the hotel staff mentioned to me upon checked in that they can not do anything to their guest if they are smoking in the non-smoking room since a lot of their guests are smokers.

I arrived in this hotel almost midnight to stay only for several hour to catch early flight in the next morning. The room that I wanted was with single king size bed, but when I walked in to my room I smell nothing but cigarettes smoke, like I was plunged in to the ash tray. I called the front desk and complained. They said that they will spray the room with perfume which I directly disagreed since the perfume would not do much to eliminate the odor of cigarette’s smell. I asked to be moved and they did. But I was not that lucky because the hotel is full and I was moved the smaller room with twin sharing bed and I can still smell the cigarette smoke in my new room, though it was not as bad as the first one. If it was not because it was almost midnight and I just stayed for several hour, I would have decided to move to another hotel. But even until I write this, I regret my decision that night, because I should have moved anyway.

The breakfast was OK for 3-star hotel. At least I got something beyond my expectation. And thank God, this hotel now has free shuttle to the airport the next morning. Once again, at least I get more than what I’ve paid for.

Room Tip: If you don't smoke, ask the clean room.

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The decision to stay in this hotel was made to the last minute, when my team and I tried to find the place to give a seminar. So when we decided to stay in this hotel, the room were full. Since we are about to give the seminar the next morning, they gave us 3 junior suite rooms with reguler price for me and my two other friends. What a surprise! I thank the management for this.

So the room was spacious, clean, big bath room, has separate sitting room, etc. But when I stayed there they had music show downstairs to the point that I could still hear it in my room (I stayed in room 1012) up until 11 PM. I called to the front desk and asked them to do something about it. Soon after I called, the sound of music is subsided. Quick response, good!

Too bad that the seminar and meeting rooms are all located in 2nd floor where this floor is smoking floor. This is the good recipe for room full of cigarette smoke at coffee break time, when every smokers racing to kill themselves and polluting the air outside the meeting/seminar room. To the point that I stayed inside the room all the time in order not to inhale the toxic air.

At the seminar we have a hotel staff name Muhammad Sodiqin or Iqin for short, assisted us in everything that we needed and gave a very good service. I think the management of this hotel needs to give him appreciation for his excellent service for me and my team. I didn’t have time to thank him personally, because after the seminar I have to catch my plane back to Jakarta. Thank you Iqin.

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When I checked in, I asked the front desk to assign me the smoking free room. They did, but they didn’t ask me to sign anything stated that I will not smoke in the room. Curious, I asked if that was really a smoking free room. It turned out that though they prohibit the guests to smoke in nonsmoking room, but if they smoke anyway, the hotel will not do anything. In my mind, I could smell directly the smell of ash tray in the room. I asked them to give me the room that doesn’t have even slightly smell of cigarette smoke, or I will move to other hotel.

The Manager on Duty (MOD), finally gave me the room I wanted, but they had to upgrade it. It turned out that they still have some rooms which are still sterile from cigarette smoke. I stayed in room 1518, which has the fresh smell, far from the smell of cigarettes.

Thank you for the room upgrade. But, in my humble opinion, for the hotel this scale, Planet Holiday Batam should have been strict to the regulation of nonsmoking floor and nonsmoking room and they need to be more persistent to their guests about this. Because right now, more and more people like me who hate cigarettes very much.

Room Tip: If you are don't smoke, ask the room which is sterile from cigarette smoke.

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This hotel is quite new. Of course the building condition is good, because it is new. But the skill of the hotel staff in giving service to hotel guests is still need to be improved. They still need lots to learn. I say this because I just stayed in this hotel for about 3 hours. As a matter of fact, I only stay in Tanjung Pinang for 5 hours. I went to this hotel directly from the airport and after the seminar I had to catch a boat to go to Batam. But even in those 3 hours, I can give comments about the hotel staff.

When my friend and I needed them to assist us preparing the room setting and audio system for the seminar, they didn’t seem giving their best to do just that. To the point that we had to address so many times what we wanted before they even understood and willing to do so.

But I still have to give the good point for this hotel. My friend who stayed here for a night, said that room was superb, and he slept like a baby. So maybe this hotel is just not meant to be as the place to support a seminar.

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