Freddies Villas Ubud

Karana is a very nice hotel. The room and bathroom area is well taken care of and practically new. The staff is very kind and were readily available when we needed something. There are a few things that I think the property should work on. We stayed there for about 6 days so there are probably a lot of things that other travelers will not have to deal with. Breakfast that was offered was mediocre. The dinners that we ordered, except for the mei goreng, were also mediocre. The property is located on a busy street so if you are coming for total zen, you may want to upgrade to their villa away from the street instead of a room. Not much to do around. Their shuttle service can be a bit frustrating. They only have shuttles for free to Ubud and back to the hotel between 1-2 pm and 5-6 pm. If you are already in Ubud and call the hotel for pick up around these times, you will need to call them multiple times and give them at least a 30 min to hour notice due to traffic. Also, make sure you insist on speaking to the person in charge so that they pick you up on time. We had called for a shuttle about an hour before and we ended up waiting another 45 mins because the person we had initially spoken to never relayed the message. These are small issues that can be managed. We still enjoyed our time and made sure to eat in other restaurants in Ubud to make up for the hotel’s lackluster food and we used taxis that they called and paid them when we just wanted to get to Ubud earlier.

Villa was good and experience was actually good from when we check in. However, on our check out day, we packed our luggages and left it to the reception very early in the morning, told them we needed to head out and they can go ahead to check out the room. When we came back with our driver to the next villa, we picked our bags and the receptionists wouldnt let us go until we handed over the room keys! There were 2 ladies and i clearly remember they told us they couldnt find it in the room. When we insisted that we left it in the room, they went back to check and indeed it was in the room. This is very disappointing. Who would be responsible if imagine we had a flight to catch? The procedure is very rigid and i suggest that the staff can be more flexible.