The Hyatt Regency Bali story started all the way in 1974 when it opened as the Bali Hyatt. The resort was originally named Hotel Matahari, a project of Wija Waworuntu of Tandjung Sari and architect Peter Mueller, who later designed Amandari. Both ultimately sold their interests to the Hyatt Corporation when they struggled to attain funding for the resort.

Hyatt brought in the help of two remarkable architects to help design the resort – the father of tropical modernism himself, Geoffrey Bawa, and a 28-year-old Kerry Hill. Kerry Hill later went on to design some of the world’s best resorts, including Amanusa and The Serai in Bali. After 40 years of operation, Bali Hyatt finally shuttered its doors in 2014 for extensive renovations. The complex reopened in 2019, reincarnated into Hyatt Regency Bali and the Andaz Bali.

Location

The Hyatt Regency Bali is located towards the southern end of the charming seaside village of Sanur. The resort lies on Jalan Danau Tamblingan, the village’s main road that is lined with many independent restaurants and café. The beach here features a stone pathway that stretches the entirety of Sanur, making it appropriate for long seaside walks and morning runs. The resort is around 20 minutes from the airport and 30 minutes from Ubud by car.

Arrival and Check-in

We arrived at Hyatt Regency early at 10.00 by car from the airport. The resort was busy, but our check-in was handled within mere moments of arriving at the beautiful marble and teak lobby. The friendly front dek associate handled the registration quickly. Expectedly, the room was not yet ready by this time, so we found ourselves a seat near the reception. Around 40 minutes later, the same host went over and surprisingly presented us with our room keys, which I very much appreciated.

Our Regency Twin Room

We were assigned a room on the third floor of Building 3 (no. 16 on the map below), which is the wing located further from the lobby. As such, this required a long and winding walk past the first and second buildings. Despite the renovation, the Hyatt Regency elected to keep its historic buildings – this gave the resort a remarkably different look from other contemporary hotels.

Bedroom

The Regency Rooms are sized at a small 27 sqm, expected due to the building’s historic proportions. Likewise, the room did feel quite stuffy and small compared to newer resorts in the area. Regardless, the resort’s elaborate renovation has proven effective, since the stone-floored rooms looked remarkably new. Inside, the bedroom section featured a table and two lounge chairs, along with a minibar located near the balcony door.

I mostly liked how the room looks and certainly appreciated the soft warm lighting of the space. Despite that, I wasn’t in love with the design of the bedside lamps, which took up significant amounts of space on the nightstands. In fact, I ended up moving the lamp to the floor for the duration of the stay so that I could make use of the nightstand. Apart from that minor issue, I thought the room was very comfortable for what it is!

Bathroom

Whilst the bedroom is mostly quite nice in terms of design, I didn’t think the same about the bathroom. Accessible from the bedside Balinese-inspired doors is the modern-looking bathroom. In here, they somehow managed to cram in a pair of sinks, along with a walk-in shower and a small storage closet. Without a doubt, this made the bathroom feel very tight.

Given the otherwise small size of the room, I was honestly confused with the design of the bathroom. I felt that the use of space is wildly inefficient, taking up space that could easily have made the bedroom larger. It almost seemed silly to see the double sinks in such a small space.

Whilst spotless and modern, the shower wasn’t much better in terms of functionality. The shower taps were rather complicated to use and even required an explanation by the staff member who walked us to the room. The water pressure was okay though. Additionally, the bathing toiletries came in reusable dispensers, which were of decent quality.

Finally, another odd design choice is the toilet room, separated from the main bathroom. Whilst I certainly appreciate the cultural merits of a separate toilet room, I think it makes no sense in this room. The space is already limited enough, so why waste it some more? Oh well…

Balcony

Finally, the room also features a sizeable balcony with a good-sized daybed, in addition to a chair and a table. We didn’t have much of a view apart from the resort’s courtyard. But that’s no bother at all!

Room Observations

Again, the room felt new and the beds were very comfortable in my opinion. However, being a light sleeper, I really struggled to stay asleep in the room we were assigned. In the background was a rather loud low-humming sound that oscillated in volume. I later found out that this was the sound of the air-conditioner, which I was really surprised about. Did they not change the air conditioning system in the renovation?

Resort Grounds and Amenities

Being an old resort, the Hyatt Regency affords a massive and beautiful garden surrounding the entire complex. I honestly really liked the look as it truly exudes a tropical feel.

A few of the ponds in the gardens even had ducks roaming around, which I thought was so adorable!

Pool

The Hyatt Regency has one main pool area just by the beachside. The pool looks sleek and modern and is surrounded by a number of sun loungers. I honestly really liked the look of the pool, given the garden surroundings and the azure pool colour.

In addition to the main pool, there is also a secondary pool secluded in the resort’s spa complex. In fact, I didn’t even realise that they had a pool there… as such, I won’t be covering it in this review. My apologies!

Beach

Finally, I’d say one of the strongest areas of this resort is the large stretch of beach it has access to. Like the rest of Sanur Beach, the sand is clean and pristine and the water is calm and swimmable. The resort also has a few rows of sun loungers on the beach, which is always appreciated.

Service

Most staff members I encountered were very friendly and professional, as expected from a Hyatt. Although, I, unfortunately, found the service to be quite slow on the best of days. For instance, when I requested a hairbrush, it took nearly an hour for it to be delivered. Later, I also separately requested a clothes-drying rack, which was never delivered. The attention to detail wasn’t great either – when I asked for help to hopefully fix the loud air-conditioner, the maintenance staff just merely lowered the air-conditioning settings. Hmmm, not particularly helpful, is that?

Overall

Overall, I think the Hyatt Regency Bali is a decent resort with nice grounds and service. Whilst the rooms are quite mediocre, I could see how this can be a nice, lower-priced option for Hyatt loyalists coming to Bali. However, given its similar price point to the excellent Grand Hyatt Bali, I struggled to see significant advantages of picking this resort compared to other Hyatts on the island.

Read more Bali resort reviews here!