I picked Villa Saia after reading the rave reviews on here and I have to say it fell well short of my expectations for several reasons. If you're looking for instagrammable shots and that's your priority - go for it!
If you are looking for a luxury stay where you can relax - YOU WILL NOT FIND IT HERE. I can't emphasise this enough!! I felt the need to write an honest review to give a guide to all those travellers considering this place, so you can book with your eyes open.
Pros:
Good size swimming pool, much better than most on the island
Fairly private (only 3 villas in the complex) although you can hear everything from your neighbours
Breakfast is served by the pool in your villa, which is nice.
They were able to provide yoga/exercise matts
Owner went through the Gili map with us, with a range of recommendations and information.
The staff are helpful.(especially the new starter from Lombok, who went out of his way for me - even cycling out to try and find an Indonesian desert I wanted to try!)
Cons:
- You are very very close to the mosque. They blast out at least a 1 hour prayer on a huge megaspeaker from 04:30 - 05:30AM and there has been absolutely no effort to soundproof the villa (there is a small gap between the roof and wall at the top which is open air). Even with my music playing in my earphones, I couldn't drown out the noise. You will not sleep. It was so bad we actually considered leaving after our first night, but decided to stick it out as we had already paid for 3.
- Bed was very uncomfortable (too firm)
- Wifi was awful (worked 10% of the time at most, with an incredibly slow connection)
- Air conditioning does not work properly. After we raised this, management did send in people to check it and fix a fluid problem, but the difference was marginal. Plus, the villa is open air at the top, so even if it was working, the cool air simply escapes.
- POOR breakfast: A shame as I was really excited for this based on the reviews. Presentation was spot on, but flavour was absent. Banana juice was made from what was clearly unripe banana (very chalky). Pineapple similar. They tasted of very little. Watermelon was ok. There are no meat options. We were told however, that with advance notice - the villa could source 'almost anything we wanted' (sounds great right?) After the first night, we requested some sausages and were told 'no' (apparently there are no good quality ones on the island, but no alternative was offered). Oh and also, 'special requests' extends to things like tomato sauce - which you'll need to request the day before.
- There is only one small hairdryer between 3 villas, so I had to wait several hours to get use of it. This seems like a poor oversight - how cheap is a hairdryer per villa to buy when there are three!
- Again, with toiletries, I was told they could provide anything I had come without, yet on requesting some conditioner (a basic request in my eyes), I was told they didn't have it.
I really don't like writing negative reviews, and these are lovely villas, but there are SO many aspects that let them down, and for the price/standard I really think they should be offering a better service. Many of these are simple changes that would make a big difference to the stay.
Toutes les réservations sont effectuées directement auprès du propriétaire 