The Prama Sanur Beach Bali is a large, indirectly state-owned, 428-key resort sitting on some 7.8 hectares of land. The resort originally opened as The Sanur Beach Hotel in 1975, making it one of the older large hotels in the area. Regardless, it might even be Sanur’s oldest-looking large hotel! Despite being the third-oldest, the 1973-built Bali Hyatt has recently transformed into the Hyatt Regency and Andaz resorts, whereas the 1962-built grand dame Grand Bali Beach is now closed for a dramatic transformation.

Since its inception though, the hotel has only had one operator – who at one point even operated the similarly-named Nusa Dua Beach Hotel! That operator is Aerowisata, the hospitality subsidiary of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia. The hotel only rebranded into Prama Sanur Beach in 2014, as part of a strategy change at the company to better position its hotels. With its government five-star rating, Prama hence became the company’s most premium brand. Despite that, this hotel is consistently amongst the most budget-friendly in Sanur, so tone down your expectations, I guess?

Location

Prama Sanur Beach is located on the southern tip of Sanur, sharing a stretch of beach with the neighbouring aging hotels of Puri Santrian and Mercure Sanur. Nearby is Semawang Beach, which has a small bazaar with a few food stands and souvenir kiosks. The beach itself is a bit of a mixed bag since it is neither expansive nor beautiful. In fact, the nearby public sections of the beach are fully lined with rental sun loungers.

A few hundred metres north of the hotel is Jalan Danau Tamblingan, which is Sanur’s main thoroughfare. There you’ll find a lot of high-street restaurants and cafes, as well as the occasional high-street shop. Along this road, there are many popular eateries, like the famous Massimo’s Ristorante.

Arrival and Check-in

We arrived at Prama Sanur Beach late in the afternoon. Interestingly, the friendly security guard just waved us in upon arrival at the security checkpoint. As soon as we entered the hotel’s complex, we were met with a lot of banners in Dutch and German. This surely alluded to the hotel’s main clientele of European tour groups. We soon pulled into the hotel’s porte-cochère to a deserted entrance. There, nobody came to assist us with baggage until we lugged them ourselves up the stairs to the lobby. Oh well…

Afterwards, I went straight to the reception to get checked in. The well-intentioned reception staff quickly assigned us a room, and so we were on our way – or so we thought… As we walked down the corridor to our ground-level room, the same associate who check us in came running down chasing after us. Whilst confusing, it all became clear when I found our room door already open, showing a dark and messy room that obviously hadn’t been serviced. As he caught up to us, he apologised profusely and walked us back to the reception for a change of keys. Well, at least he was well-intentioned and rather friendly.

Our Superior Room

We booked an entry-level Superior Room which is located in the wing closest to the lobby. The corridors to the rooms are interestingly clad in marble and would actually look quite nice if it weren’t so dark. Despite that, getting into the room was something different altogether. It took three tries to open the room door… The door wouldn’t budge the first two times and then suddenly worked the third time. Third time’s a charm, maybe? Regardless, this was consistently the case whenever we tried to enter the room – it was clear that the door hasn’t been maintained properly. Sigh.

Our entry-level Superior Room is sized at 25 sqm, which is small by the island’s standards. At first glance, the room looked quite nice – small, but nice. In particular, the wooden floors and the warm lighting made the room feel quite cozy. Yet, following closer inspection, it is clear that the room wasn’t in great condition. Sadly, nearly every piece of fabric in the room was stained, from the lounge chair to the bed sheets to the headboard. Needless to say, it wasn’t great. But hey, at least it was cheap.

There is a small and rather dark foyer next to the bathroom and by the entrance. Located here are the unlit closet and the minibar, which featured an unexpectedly large chiller. Coffee and tea are provided, in addition to the free two bottles of water.

Bedroom

The bedroom is equipped with a luggage rack, a small lounger chair, and a vanity table that doubles as a desk. Between the beds is a very small nightstand with a telephone. Frustratingly, there was just one unused single power outlet – located over the vanity table. As such, this made charging phones and laptops quite a hassle.

When I checked out the vanity table, its drawers fell off, giving me a bit of a startle (hmmm). Furthermore, the small lounge chair next to the bed had a large stain on it. Regardless, it wasn’t comfortable to sit in, due to its design with a large gaping hole in the seatback. Wow, there sure is a lot of maintenance work to do. Sigh.

Interestingly though, the bed featured bolsters, which I haven’t really seen at any other hotel. If not for the small stains conveniently located under the blanket (hmmm), the beds were quite comfortable for what they are. Honestly, I was really quite disappointed, because many of these issues are cosmetic and quite minor and could be rectified by simply replacing the fabrics in the room. But alas, who am I to say?

Bathroom

Compared to the state of the bedroom, the bathroom was slightly better. Nothing apart from the tissue holder was falling apart, but it did look very no-frills. The small bathroom features a walk-in shower, a toilet, and a sink. The toiletries were Aerowisata-branded and proudly stated ‘made in Indonesia’. Whilst not as nice in terms of construction material, the bathroom was completely serviceable.

Despite that, I did have two qualms about it. First, the built-in soap holder on the wall had an incline, which meant most shampoo and shower gel bottles would easily slide off it. Second, the towels looked really worn and were getting quite grey. I was really glad that I constantly travel with my own towels because… yeah.

Balcony

Finally, there is a small balcony just outside the room, featuring two chairs and a small table. The balcony viewed the hotel’s lawn and courtyard. Due to the position of our room, we could also catch an obstructed glimpse of the sea.

Dining

Due to the low rates the hotel consistently charges, I was quite surprised to be told that our room included breakfast. Yay(?). Anyways, the meal is served at Tirta Poolside Restaurant, which can conveniently be seen to be across from our room! Yet, getting there from our room meant going past a few back-of-house structures, one area of which off-puttingly had a strong sewage smell. 🙁

Breakfast

I wasn’t really sure where the proper entrance was, since I didn’t find a host stand. Regardless, the restaurant staff kind of shrugged when I told her my room number. She was quite friendly otherwise though. Yet, it was quite difficult to find an empty table since the restaurant was exceptionally crowded. In fact, when we finished our (quick) breakfast, another guest quickly rushed to claim our table. Even the staff looked quite overwhelmed by the number of guests coming in.

The restaurant’s breakfast offering was purely from a buffet set on two sides of the restaurant. One spread was a proper buffet complete with heat lamps, whereas the other impressively featured live cooking. The food options ranged between Indonesian and Western. The Indonesian options included things such as fried rice, rice congee, and stir-fried noodles, whilst the Western options included pastries, cold cuts, cereal, and the mandatory fry-up. You could also request freshly cooked egg dishes and pancakes at the live cooking stations. There was also a fruit, yoghurt, and salad station near the live cooking stations.

Whilst it was nothing to write home about, the food was surprisingly pretty decent! Whilst I’d stay away from the cold cuts and the stale-looking pastries, everything else looked quite standard. It was fine in the sense that they were warm and not bland. The juices were expectedly artificial, however. Additionally, it was really nice that the chefs at the live-cooking stations were very friendly and chatty.

Hotel Grounds and Amenities

Given the age of the hotel, it is not surprising that it looks really quite old. Sadly, it isn’t one of the best-maintained hotels, as evident by the look of the rooms and the hotel’s buildings. Unfortunately, some parts of the façade did start to look a bit run-down. I imagine a fresh coat of paint would really spruce the place up!

As the hotel is essentially owned by Garuda Indonesia, this is also where the airline sends its crew on layovers in Bali. During my short stay, I encountered many Garuda Indonesia cabin and flight crew, some of whom were still in uniform when they walked around the hotel. There is even a dedicated Garuda Indonesia Crew Lounge just next to the reception.

Pools

Prama Sanur Beach has three pools, all of which are located near the beach. The first pool is located on the left-hand side of the Tirta Poolside Restaurant and was also the oldest-looking one of the three. The pool is organically shaped and is surrounded by sun loungers, all of which were consistently occupied whenever the sun was out. This pool is also the only one that offers views straight to the beach and ocean.

The second and third pool shares one area, located on the right-hand side of the Tirta Poolside Restaurant. These two pools have darker blue tiles, which looked quite modern compared to the first pool. Of the two, one is a dedicated kids pool that is a lot more shallow and features water slides and a splashing bucket water feature.

Finally, the other pool is just a run-of-the-mill square pool similarly surrounded by sun loungers.

Beach

Whilst Sanur is one of Bali’s nicer-looking mainstream beaches, the stretch of beach behind the Prama doesn’t look very nice. There are rows of sun loungers by the beach; however, since most of them are shaded under trees, I imagine it is quite difficult to sun tan. The water is calm, however, making it possible to swim.

By the beach is also the hotel’s Bamboo Beach Bar, where all welcome drinks are to be taken. Next to it is also the hotel’s pizzeria.

Gymnasium

The hotel has a single gym located on the ground floor of the wing closest to the beach. Whilst a bit dark and small, it looked fully-equipped and completely serviceable.

Service

Apart from the friendly service at the Tirta Poolside Restaurant, I thought that most members of staff were simply well-intentioned. In fact, most staff members weren’t proactive and wouldn’t greet guests, unlike other hotels. In addition, as expected by the scale and price range of the hotel, it is also no surprise that the service I received was neither detail-oriented nor attentive.

Overall

Well honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from my stay at Prama Sanur Beach, given the consistently low prices charged by the hotel. Yet, it is truly saddening how poorly kept the rooms and hotel buildings were. In such a sense, I’m genuinely confused as to how this hotel manages to maintain a five-star rating from the government. Furthermore, I’m just disappointed because many of the issues with the hotel’s hardware can be rectified relatively easily. For instance, most of the issues with the rooms are cosmetic more than structural.

Regardless, I think Prama Sanur Beach can be a serviceable option if you’re on a tight-budget. The stay could be quite pleasant if you make the necessary preparations (like bringing your own towels). Other than that, I personally couldn’t recommend this place unless significant works were done on the hotel.

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