Name: Villa Belong Dua
Address: Jalan Pantai Seseh, Seseh, Seseh, Seseh, 80351, Indonesia
Rating: 9

Smoking areas

Garden

Outdoor furniture

General

Laundry

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Restaurant

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Multi-language staff

Languages Spoken

Barbecue grill(s)

Barbeque

Recreation

Parking

Conference Hall

Business

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Extra decontamination measures

Additional measures against COVID-19

Health and Safety Measures

Location

At the villa

Echo Beach

Batu Bolong Beach

Tanah Lot

Kuta Beach

Seminyak Beach

Double Six Beach

Legian Beach

Segara Beach

Kuta Square

Tuban Beach

Waterbom Park

Ngurah Rai International Airport

Jimbaran Beach

Pura Taman Ayun

Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park

Uluwatu Temple

Ubud Monkey Forest

Ubud Palace

Nusa Dua Beach

Pandawa Beach

Tegallalang Rice Terrace

Bali Botanic Garden

Pura Ulun Danu Bratan

Mount Batur

Villa Belong Dua

Seseh

After consulting with 18 adults in our group, who have extensive experience staying in over 50+ villas globally, we regrettably cannot recommend Shalimar Villas. Despite the allure of its well-promoted garden and pool area, which indeed met our expectations, our week-long stay revealed several shortcomings. 

The villa's maintenance level was disappointing, aligning more with entry to mid-level standards rather than the luxury or deluxe category expected. A small example that illustrated this point is hand soap labels written on peeling tape (see the images). Issues ranged from severely inadequate upkeep to significant problems with air conditioning (one AC even broke down during our stay and had to be replaced). It was unusually hot in Bali, so you can imagine what it's like to have underpowered ACs in the rest of the rooms. The food was limited to 5 items as cooking capacity is limited. 

The presence of insects within the rooms, although understandable given the location, compromised our comfort. There were lizards, frogs, geckos, wasps in the room, ants crawling on the bed, etc. We had to move with our children to go sleep in the basement because of the wasp nest (see photos).

We could not even coordinate easily with each other because of WiFi connectivity issues and our mobile reception was too weak on local SIM cards. We understand if there is an internet outage across town (which is beyond their control) but on those very same days, the villa office WiFi was still functioning and so were the neighboring cafes. 

On a positive note, the service was decently good, particularly from the villa staff and manager, Santiago, who was attentive and helpful, especially during a brief medical incident we had. He even came down to meet us at a busy time in Bali and coordinate for our anniversary celebration. The gesture of compensation (free dinner for all and six massages costing $12 each), offered by the management were appreciated, though they fell short of fully addressing our overall experience, especially if you consider the US$24,000 we paid.

I have been writing reviews on TripAdvisor for 14 years  and will go out of my way to ensure an accurate representation of an experience, both good and bad. Our group's critique stems from a belief in the importance of attention to detail and preemptive measures, especially in premium or luxury accommodations. It is based on a balanced view of our experience, considering both the positives and the areas that fell short.

We hope this review will be taken as constructive feedback, aimed at enhancing the experience for future guests. Given the substantial investment guests make to stay at the villa, the disparity between the expected standards and the reality of our experience indicates a significant oversight and commitment to guest satisfaction, which cannot be overlooked or excused as mere anomalies or "bad luck".

It should be called Shalimar Lodge or Guest House, not Villa. Avoid if you can or significantly lower your expectations

We got married at Shalimar last month and whilst the venue is a beautiful backdrop and space for a wedding, the stay at the villa was less than ideal. There were so many things wrong with it I don’t even know where to begin, but our main issue was that the largest villa of the estate (Kalima) had no hot/running water for the entirety of our 3 night stay. We mentioned it on day one and they told us the next day it had been fixed. It had not been fixed and there was absolutely zero communication about it. We were there to get married so didn’t have time to be chasing them on everything so we just got on with it and showered in a different villa. Two of our guests staying in the smaller villa also got bed bugs (the villa denies this of course and tbh there is no way to prove either way) but the guests are regular visitors to Bali and were staying at Como Canggu either side and had no issues there. Aside from the issue of no hot/running water and bed bugs (as if that isn’t enough) we also had issues with the poor wifi connection, filthy curtains/mosquito nets, lack of staff presence and we arrived to find an enormous construction site next door that used angle grinders late into the evening. The manager claims this had been mentioned to the Booking Agent (he tends to use the booking agent to avoid accountability for a lot of things, you will also see that from other reviews on here) but it had never been communicated to us. We did lodge a formal complaint regarding all our issues with the manager once we returned home from our wedding/holiday and as mentioned above, whilst he acknowledged the hot water situation, his lack of responsibility or accountability for any other issues was quite concerning. Instead, he had an excuse for everything. I have no doubt he will respond to this review with an essay of excuses too, he is that type of person. I will say that they did offer us compensation for the water issue… the compensation being a complimentary 3 night stay in the 2 bed villa, but only in low season and only in the next 12 months. Laughable. A completely empty and insignificant offer considering the huge amount of money we spent to have a functioning villa!

HUGE disappointment

Second stay in 5 months. How lucky am I (lol)

1st stay 1month in September to October 2022 and now back for 3 weeks in feb 2023 would have love to stay a month but sadly booked.

There are 3 villas in complex all with fantastic pools and well kept gardens
6 bed 4 bed and 2 bed.
Plenty of fans for hanging out under the veranda on daybeds and aircons in the bedrooms, big comfy beds great pillows.
Serviced twice daily if wanted ( we didn't always want or need turndown service)
50 meters to beach

Staff are amazing!!!!!!!
Ketut, her smile and laughter can lift your heart and her food is her secret power.
Nyoman, great cook and great to have around.
Budi, keeps everything ticking along with serenity and ever so helpful
Joe, just wants to make everyone happy and he does
The rest of the staff are such an asset and special mention to the pool guy , I'm a pool snob and the water quality is on point. Tested every day and it felt like warm velvet. Crystal clear.

We ate 80% of all meals in villa.
Breakfast is included and for a few dollars they will shop and cook for you, after staying so long and loving everything Ketut and Nyoman cook (we love Balinese food but they can cook anything) we would leave it to Ketut, she's switch on and worked out very quickly what we liked and it was a fantastic feast every day. I personally leave a kitty with Budi/Joe and every week they reconsolidate receipts so we are all on the same page.

Seseh/Munggu is just past Canggu yet a world away.
Still a fishing village with real soul.
Daily Balinese life with rice in the fields.
A few Quality coffee shop (General store, surf coffee)
Some memorable restaurants (BuReka bistro , the Lodge)
Warung Alus best sunset beach bar and fresh Lobsters.

A short (depending on traffic) ride or drive to big night out or posh restaurants.

I read some of the previous reviews and the negative ones sounds like they have never been here. I suppose that a thing.

A little paradise

Be wary of staying at this villa, management changes their terms whenever they fancy and then tries to bully their guests into making changes to their bookings last minute. The most unprofessional dodgy villa I have ever experienced. Dont put your faith or money in booking with them.

Beware of scammer and bully management

We stayed at Makanda, 4 bed Villa in Shalimar Estate. Great property, love the atmosphere, pool area was the best. Staffs were excellent and despite property being old, it was maintained very well and clean. We really enjoyed our stay there. Highly recommended for group stay

Wonderful Property

Beautiful place, beautiful staff. Big rooms, huge entertaining areas, great pools. I can not recommend this place enough. The staff all went above and beyond to make us feel welcomed and comfortable. Do yourself a favour and check it out.

Truely amazing

Amazing villa, even better staff. Always friendly and willing to help with anything. They were really good with the kids too! Always said hello and made us feel so welcomed. The entire villa was so beautiful. Couldn’t make a complaint. Amazing stay!! Would recommend 100%

Beautiful place to stay!!

great villa, staff were so amazing and friendly. they would do anything and everything to help us out during our holiday. couldn’t complain about anything during our stay here. everything is so beautiful and perfect for a family holiday. really great with the kids too!

unbelievable villa!!!!!

Long post. I use TripAdv so much when planning my trips so I want to “give back” with this review. We hired the whole 3 villas for 11 girlfriends’ 50th. It was HUGE but if you had more people (and your partners) and wanted to break away into smaller groups it would be perfect. Villas are separated by garden but you can walk across the front lawn to access each other. Would be perfect set up for wedding with oldies v young party goers or young children (obv no pool fences). Turn down service each night drops down mozzie net around bed and turns on ambient lighting. (Never any bites from mozzies). Morning service make bed, tidy up etc, nice treat when on holiday. COFFEE; walk down beach (to the left) and get to THE COMO hotel- great coffee, villa’s coffee didn’t cut it for this addict. MEALS. We did the Special BBQ on first night, very reasonably priced, chick and seafood over cooked but we may have taken too long to get to dinner. Ribs were amazing. Veg salad great. Other meals; to use the in-house chef, you need to have a minimum of 6 people eating so we didn’t get to try that, menu looks great though. They have a takeaway menu that you can order from without needing the 6 orders, delivered on scooter, chicken satay was great, curries nothing special so I would recommend using in-house menu. You can by cold cheep beer on beach in front of villa. There is also a small warong down there but we weren’t brave enough to try it. Evening times local families would gather at beach in front of villa which I loved hearing and seeing. Definitely felt removed from the world. Staff were ok, we had a disagreement going on with in our group so they may have been keeping their distance a bit on purpose which is totally understandable. Free transfers to and from airport and villa were appreciated. Very easy to find our driver when we arrived compared to so many other drivers. He was right at the front in plain view- must have arrived early to get such a good spot. Villa grounds are spotless, as are rooms and living areas. Sure a little bit tired but still stunning and clean. You have to let the hot water run for a while for the hot water to kick in- which felt terrible to do coming from Australia. Aircon is excellent. I felt two earthquake tremors while I was there which scared the life out of me but I came with a real fear of tsunami so an over reaction by me for sure. Maybe just accept that they happen in that part of the world and don’t let it scare you. If you are still scared from Bali Bombings 2002 like I was, I felt 100% safe. No fear of that at all. Only one of our guests got an upset tummy. I have friends who have stayed in villas and “walk out front” to go shopping or dining (in Seminyak prob?) which is not an option here. You need to get a car. So you sort of have to make that happen if you want to try Bali’s restaurants or shopping. But that might be perfect for you being away from the crowds. Bottled water provided but I brought my drink bottle from home and just kept filling it up from the cold filtered water machine in kitchen. Try to do that as Bali seems to be drowning in plastic rubbish. SNACKS: there aren’t any. So you will need to do a supermarket shop for mixers, snacks, lemons, bread etc Obviously grab your spirits from duty free and then get the rest in Bali. MEDICINE; I had a migraine while there and didn’t bring enough of my prescription tablets from home. The staff were able to buy what I needed over the counter for me and bring it to me at the villa (sumatriptan if you’re a sufferer). This help was so amazing and I am so grateful to the staff for sorting it out for me. We had MASSAGES each day which were excellent and cheap, organised by villa. If you are planning on getting lots of massages at villa, maybe bring one of those U shaped pillows for airoplane travel. You just lie on the couches to get massaged to had to turn your head on side when on stomach as no “hole” for face on couch. Maybe one of those travel pillows would help? YOGA was organised by villa and was excellent. Man spoke perfect English and catered for beginners and experienced. Cheap. Brought mats for us. Highly recommend. Bring your own Bluetooth SPEAKER. Not sure if villa had one. Breakfast is provided each day and caters for everyone from very healthy and delicious “dragon fruit bowl” to full cooked breakfast, but coffee didn’t cut it as mentioned above. You might be able to walk down beach to Seminyak etc, I only went as far as The Como. The ground level bed rooms have outdoor bathrooms, upstairs are all enclosed but still huge. Both are excellent. There are a couple of rooms downstairs in basement style which still have en-suites, probably best for children. Maybe you could put a child rail across top of stairs to ensure little ones never escape towards non-fenced pool?? Ground floor you look straight out to sea (very close) upstairs you look over beach before sea so see people and a bit of rubbish but I liked that ‘real’ part. 
So in conclusion, perfect for a large group to be able to be together but still space apart, not the fanciest most top end villas I could imagine but gorgeous and clean, ask for anything from the staff and I’m sure they’d help. Perfect open space to gather for a wedding ceremony or long dinner tables etc.

Huge, remote, clean, great help with migraine.

My wife and I hired Villa Shalimar for our wedding and what an incredible venue. 

We had actually been to Bali twice before during the planning of our wedding but both times Shalimar was booked so we couldn’t see inside - when we checked in on the Wednesday it certainly did not disappoint. 

Budi and Arim (villa managers) and their teams were great and so helpful throughout. The service and food was great - on the Thursday we hosted a bbq for our families (27 people) which was arranged through the villa and the entire spread was amazing, everyone loved it and there was more than enough food. 

We can’t recommend this villa enough for; weddings, family holidays and events - it really is stunning. 

Villa Belong Dua

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