My husband and I stayed at the Honeymoon suite at Aria Luxury Villa for two nights and honestly wished we hadn't for the price we paid and the expectations we had before our arrival at the villa.

I had initially booked for Aria Exclusive through the site but the email confirmation stated Aria Luxury. The difference didn’t bother me until we arrived at the villa; i honestly think that the pics I saw on the website of Aria differed greatly from the actually look of the villa. It then got me thinking if “Exclusive” and “Luxury” were two different villas. But then found out they are situated with the Luxury Villas behind the Exclusive. Very confusing and kind of felt deceptive.

The honeymoon suit (villa 5) we stayed in looked quite old and lacked maintenance. The pool looked quite dirty with pedals and leaves floating around. It didn’t look like it was cleaned before our arrival. Also, the pool side was filled with “plants” that looked more like weeds, yellowish and lifeless. It was around 3 pm when we arrived at our villa, but due to the lack of sunlight in our villa the pool looked more like a pond. Honestly, my husband and I did not feel like swimming in the pool at all and we never did so during our two-night stay at the villa. There was a lot of grime in the bathtub as well.

Additionally, lighting in room was very POOR! We called reception the first night about fixing one of the light bulbs that had burned out before our arrival (again it should have been replaced for our arrival). They said they would fix it while we were out the next day but then it still wasn’t fixed when we returned in the evening. Their answer was “Sorry sir, we couldn’t find the parts needed to fix your light.” It’s reasonable to assume that they could have gotten the parts during the day to fix the light. How many staff does it take to replace a simple light bulb? The two nights we were there, we had to use flashlights in our room. Our entire villa was extremely dark giving the villa an eerie ambience. The light was so dim you could barely read!

Also, the gate to our villa was left half-open when we got home the second night. Reception said that room service might have left it half-open by mistake. Another big disappointment to us….

And there was only one car and driver to take guests places, which we thought was inadequate. We ended up having to take a cab.

I wouldn't stay at these villas again as they are too far from the Seminyak shopping districts and the villas have too many faults to be worth $225 per night.

Can't recommend these villas enough. I travelling with a young family and could not fault this place. The staff were amazing and great with our toddler. The villas are spectacular - very modern and beautifully presented. The location is wonderfully quiet as well - close enough to some great local restaurants whilst being away from the main drag of Seminyak - however equally close to jump in a cab or the hotel shuttle bus and get into the centre of the action.
One of the things I was concerned about in a villa was the open pool - with having a toddler - but the hotel manager assisted me with arranging a pool fence which was in place in advance of our arrival and was perfect - couldn't have asked for a better place to stay. Will definately visit again.

Our stay at Aria Exclusive villa was really fantastic.
A run down of positives:

1) Beautiful, quiet completely private villa - we stayed in villa NO. 8. It was clean, excellently maintained and with the baby the kitchenette facilities were indispensable.
2) The staff were fantastic from start to finish. They all knew the baby's name within 24 hours. They organised for us a birthday cake on her birthday and really went out of their way to fulfill any requests or needs we had.
3) The privacy - some reviewers have complained about needing to call for the room to be turned down. Thats what you are meant to do. We were told as soon as we checked in that we will not be disturbed during the day if we were in. Whenever we went out we dropped the key off at reception and when we got back the room was always immaculately clean including the swimming pool, baby's toys, baby's cot and the outside area. As we spent a large amount of our time in the villa making use of the private pool, we appreciated this way of operating rather than being woken up at 9am every morning for" the rounds".
5) The massage service. We booked a massage and they offered to do it in the room. It was two hours, on the outside space which was great after which the masseuse ran a "flower bath" in the bathroom
6) The bathroom deserves a mention. It's an outside one. Though the shower is not very strong the bath is enormous! I'm not normally a bath person but this stone ast bath was large enough for all three of us to get in with space for another 5 kids if we wanted to! Really unique feature of the Villa.
7) The shuttle service - always available to take us to the beach or Seminyak square etc.
8) The attention to guests - we received an e-mail from the Manager, Marcel, prior to arrival and were offered the express visa on arrival service ( TAKE IT!!) whilst other people we knew stood in the airport for over an hour on arrival - we were already in the hotel. Marcel was in touch with us quite a bit prior to arrival with regard to what we would need for the baby and to help us organise a driver for the day to Ubud. He was really great and it was wonderful to have all the stress taken out of the trip.

A few points for improvement:

1) Road leading to hotel is a little rough - yes. However as you spend a whole 30s on it this does not even really deserve a mention. It is only applicable if you take a car out of the hotel. if you walk for 3 mins from the back way you can catch a Taxi at the end of the well paved road. Taxi will also drop you off at the back door, which is smooth sailing, if you instruct them to.
2) Breakfast though fresh and hot was a little lacking in imagination and variety. Last two days we treated ourselves to the breakfast buffet at one of the big beach hotels
3) The shower is not very strong - small thing but I like strong showers

Overall the above points do not detract enough to lower the overall rating of this place. Having stayed in quite a few 5 star hotels across Asia and Europe including the Banyan tree group - this villa hotel far exceeded them.

Thank you all for a great stay - we will recommend you to our colleagues and friends in Singapore or the UK.

We stayed at Aria Villas for the last 5 nights in Bali, and were glad we stayed there last and for the longest period of time! The only down was the access road which was in need of some re-gravelling as nearby construction works were causing erosion of the road. After we got inside, though, the lovely breezy foyer heralded a classy, modern and well-equipped establishment. We enjoyed the clean, private villa pool and large rooms. The service was outstanding; friendly, helpful and professional. The free shuttle bus was ready to go whenever we pleased and was clean, as-new and spacious.We were given a villa for free on our last day to spend the last 8 hours as we had a late departure from the airport. All-in-all, a terrific place and we intend to return!