We loved it!
Novotel Benoa is such a beautiful place, my whole family enjoyed our stay. The hotel setting is very charming, staffs are very friendly and helpful, we had beach carbana, which is not exactly in front of beach, but we had no complaint, it's just a short walking distance to beach and it's very pleasant to walk around in hotel, rooms are very quiet and spacious, but be aware of mosquito. Hotel itself is not huge, it's divided by a street, crossing street is not a problem, a guard is there all day to direct the traffic, but I'd rather stay at beach side so can easily access to all facilities. Breakfast buffet is excellent, they have different dinner theme each day, such as Balinese, Seafood, India, etc., and there is nightly show to entertain guests (free). If you like to go out, there're plenty of money exchange, shops and restaurants right outside of the hotel just steps away, and convenient stores too. Kid's club is fantastic, they have all kinds of activities, not just babysit your kids, learning local dance, crab hunting, sand castle contest, games,etc., kids loved it and adored those wonderful staff.
The beach doesn't stretch long, and with lots of seaweed, they have it cleaned daily, it's not a huge problem though, wave is not big, but sea level can change dramatically daily and leaves only swamp in front of beach, quite stunning. There are lots of water activities next to the hotel, so once a while it became noisy and smelly.
Hotel is not too far from airport, taxi is about $10. Exchange rate changes everyday, $100 bill gets the highest rate. And there're lots of taxi waiting outside of hotel if you need to go anywhere, to Kuta is around $8 by taxi, hire a driver all day (around 7 hr) cost about $30-40, remember almost everything is negotiable there.

The hotel is very nice, the staff is flexible and professional (although sometimes a bit slow, especially in the restaurant). The location on the island is not the best, but the amenities are perfect. Various possibilities to relax, swim, enjoy the spa, etc. When I am around, I will go there again. The swimming pools are big and look good and clean, the services from the hotel are well organized and the rooms are quiet and spacious.

After reading much of the reviews here on Trip Advisor, I decided on Novotel Benoa Bali and looked upon my trip with much excitment.
However, upon arrival at the hotel, I was given a deluxe room that was facing a hut and a farm. I told the lady at reception that I had read reviews of chicken cuckooing in the early hours of the morning and she said that it was not true.
Well, anyway, I asked for a pool side view room and she said that it was unavailable. I asked if it was correct that I was given the deluxe room as reserved and not the superior room. She said that the hotel was changing all the superior rooms to deluxe rooms and hence, there was no difference.
Anyway, it was her word against mine.
Following that, I asked her about breakfast as I had also booked for breakfast. She said to just make my way down in the morning to the cafe.
After getting to my room, she called up and announced very proudly that I had not included breakfast in my package and that if I wanted to have the buffet breakfast, I would have to pay for it.
This was simply absurb. I had the confirmation letter stating very explicitly that I had made bookings for breakfast too. She insisted that I did not and challenged me to go to the reception area to settle the matter.
I was infuriated. My confirmation letter stated that there WAS breakfast. I charged to the reception area and showed it to her. She, or the hotel, had already made a copy of my confirmation letter. As she was incapable of settling the issue, she got someone else to handle the matter.
After much confrontation, she just said, "It didn't show on the computer", with nary an apology. This totally spoilt the beginning of my holiday.
After this issue was resolved, I proceeded with my activties.
When it was time to sleep, the dogs were barking in the backyard incessantly and in the middle of the night, even before 6am, the chicken were crowing loudly!!!
How could I even get to sleep? I was very sure I saw a review on this and had told her of this matter, which she denied.
I was absolutely frustrated. The next morning, I called up and demanded for a change to the pool side view room, which was much better of course.
I would definitely not stay in Novotel Benoa Bali again. I have stayed in villas in Bali and stayed at numerous Accor accomodation in Singapore, Hongkong, Malaysia and Japan and honestly, nothing beats the kind of service and treatment I was accorded here in Bali.
It was SIMPLY horrendous!!!
Being an Accor member, I am considering cancelling my membership because of such a lack of commitment to details and service as demonstrated here in Novotel Benoa Bali.

We originally booked a superior room for my wife and 14 year old.On arrival the hotel offered an upgrade to a Tropical Terrace for an extra charge of $30 US per night and after seeing the small superior room we opted for the upgrade, to be closer to the beach and have enough room to swing a cat so to speak.The gardens, pool and restaurants are all you expect of a top quality resort. They have a nightly themed buffet dinner in the main restaurant which was probably a little disappointing the night we dined there(Balinese night).We also dined at the restaurant on the beach which was probably the best dining experience of our trip.My tip is dont worry about the extra cost, dine at the resort as the quality is a bit more certain than other establishments outside( I got sick after dining at a restaurant in Jimbaran Bay).The beach is good for swimming however if you decide to walk north along the beach you may soon realise that the stretch of beach in front of the resort is a lot cleaner than the beach further up which is dissappointing that the locals and tourist dont care for the local enviroment and have some pride in where they live and holiday.This is not the ideal location to shop. however there is a free bus put on by one of the local shopping centres at Nusa Dua to get you there, however probably better to grab a taxi to Kuta, where competition demands better prices.One special touch is that the first night of my stay was my birthday and we got a knock on the door just prior to going to dinner, and it was a staff member holding a birthday cake compliments of the resort. It is special touches like these that make your holiday more enjoyable.