Banyan tree Bintan

[pampered]

Has anyone been there lately?  The last time I stayed, it was looking a bit tired and lacking TLC.  
Also has the opening of the Angsana next door lowered the exclusive feel it used to have.  It used to be mainly couples only, but this may have changed with the new hotel on the doorstep.

[NOT WRONG!!]

not wrong !!! banyan tree bintan is a piece of sh$t.

could not believe how crap it all was and for the bargain price of about $700 a night. what a joke!

my partner and i wrote down a list of about 20 problems that we encountered whilst there. so many things, it was ridiculous ..
- unclean , dirty windows
- oil/grease stains over the balcony timber decking
- rusty speaker grille on the cd player
- no hand towels or bath mats
- the bathroom hand basin had been painted and was peeling - who paints a ceramic hand basin
- stains on the bedsheets, pillow cases
- they closed both pools at 5pm on sat night because they had to add chlorine
- ordered a bowl of wedges and 20mins later a guy turns up holding a bowl of 5 wedges with glad-wrap over the top. no napkins, cutlery, sauces, anything??
- they tried to give up a cheaper villa than what we paid for
- took us 3 hours to check-in as they tried to give us a cheaper villa
- the spa water was yellow
- we could clearly see our neighbours adjacent to us
- crappy quality buffet breakfast
- blunt pencil in the room
- stains on the mosquito net over the bed
...

the list does go on a bit more too.

some are small things, i agree, but they all add up. and again it was $700 night.

the chedi in bali was much better.

banyan tree bintan ... never again!

i am in the process of drafting a complaint letter to the managment of banyan tree to advise of the above too!

[beachy]

What a shame as it used to be a lovely haven of peace and tranquility.  For Indonesia, the price is daylight robbery, but the poor hotel maintenance certainly doesn't merit the high cost of staying there.

[Not worth it]

I stayed at the Banyan Tree in Bintan about a month ago.  I generally agree with the sentiments expressed above.  Don't bother - it is simply not worth the money!  While I thought the food was pretty good and the villa was OK, there was no way it was worth the $800 or so that the weekend ended up costing.  For that sort of money you can do *so* much better, although you will need to travel further afield than Bintan.  Just to take an example, on a per-night basis it would be cheaper (and much much better) to stay at the Oberoi in Lombok or maybe the Royal Meridien on Koh Samui.

[BTB Sucks]

I stayed there a year ago. We had no airconditioning on one of the rooms, so no sleep for the entire night. The engineers couldn't fix it. They apologised and gave me half back, but it was tremendously dispointing. I just stayed at the Nirwana resort (in the cabins) and it was fantastic, highly recommended./

[london babe]

what a shame...
i stayed there 3 months ago and had a fantastic time!
the staff were lovely, the food excellent and the villa beautifull, i dont htink its expensive compared to europe.
can anyone recomend somewhere similar thats not too far to go for a weekend?  incidently is indonesia safe at the moment?  not jakarta obviously.

[Mediterrean]

If Jakarta was OK, then you should try this:
1) Fly into Jakarta on Emirates for $150 and start your party in tonw.
2) Sat morning, take a ferry to Putri island. Whole packages costs USD90 including all transport, 3 meals/day & room (basic, but clean)
3) Sun afternoon, return to Jakarta for a 3 ht spa at the Tamarind fo SGD 60 for body scrub, massage, mud wrap, manicure & pedicure
==> what a great weekend is!

Otherwise,
1) Koh Samui is good. Party or chill by the sea.
2) Bangkok for food, Thai silk shopping and party.
3) Sibu island to snorkel and chill
4) HK, Ho chin Minh - to party..

really depends on what you wanna do.