I spent a little more than a week at this hotel in mid-July was thoroughly happy with my experience there. The rooms were not huge, but had clean and nice enough (fridge/mini bar, nice TV, all electronics in the room connected to wired remote on night stand) for the money, which was quoted in Singapore dollars: 40 sing for weeknights, 45 for Friday and Saturdays. Sing dollars are about 1.7-1 US dollar, and were about 5200 rupiah-1 during the time that I was in Batam. The room rate included a free buffet breakfast for two at the hotel restaurant, which is also available for 24-hour room service.

Island View is pretty conveniently located to the Nagoya Entertainment District (NED) bars, restaurants, and night clubs, plus the awesome 'pujaseras' or outdoor food courts specializing in seafood dishes cooked to order. There are also many KTV/booking places within a short walk.

Island View was exTREMELY girl friendly.

Island View featured a nice pool area (though there can be gaggles of kids playing in it at any given time, especially on weekends) plus a sauna and even a little exercise room with a couple of treadmills and some nautilus equipment.

What I liked about Island View, in addition to the great value to the dollar, was the hospitality of the staff and the convenient location. If you like the disco action in Batam, Planet Holiday disco is less than 100 yards away.

For bigger spenders or small groups, Island View also has two and three bedroom apartments for nightly rentals in a separate wing. When I was there in July MongerX got a 2 bedroom apt. for $132 sing per night, though we were told that was a pretty good deal.

Island View's contact # from a business card I got in July: +62(778)430500 Hunting

Jl. Prambanan No. 1 - Sei. Jodoh
Pulau Batam - Indonesia (29432)

Thanks Porker for the tip. Is there a website?

I am starting to sour a bit on the Island View Hotel. Some of the rooms are quickly showing a lot of age and some of the upholestery is just nasty. Also, I don't like that it's really inconvienent here to catch a moving cab for 10K, and if you are like me you end up paying more than a couple of dollars a day extra becuase of this. Also, showers are too damm small and little counter space to put your things in the bathroom. Now the biggest black mark earned is by the Island View Staff. There has been some less than perfect professional behavior with respect to the security and staff towards my more regular dates. They have turned to asking them for money to buy cigarrettes and addressing them in far too casual a way. I have now had a second girl come to me to complain about this and ask if I wouldn't stay some place else.

I still thihk the Service Apartments are a great place and deal for the money. Granted you better have someone you are compatible with to stay here.

However, overall I am going to stay over at the Melia when I can swing the extra 20 Sing a night. The rooms, staff, location, and the AIR CON room with much better breakfast have won me over. Note to get the great great rate you need to book this through Kaha travel right inside the Batam Center Ferry terminal.

I am still waying my options for when I am more budgeted. I will perhaps try to enjoy the pool life a little more a Sahid Rasinta, or just drop down to the Prima Asia, City View budget hotels

I stayed in Prima Asia my last night of my first trip. Melia was already fully booked that day so I had to get a different hotel my last night. It was dirt cheap. I think like 100k. I can't remember for sure. Really not that bad if you don't mind Asian style rooms. By that I mean typical tile floors, platform bed with a foam matress, wall shower/floor drain in the bathroom. AC worked good, satellite TV but mostly Chinese, Indonesian and Malay channels. Clean, quiet and in good shape for the price. There is no elevator so you don't want the top floor. No car bomb checkers out front either ;-) It's certainly not the Melia but for the price, I thought not to bad. I mainly chose it because my last two days I was trying to sample all the booking joints within walking distance of that area.

RE Prima Asia: You can opt for the deluxe room and get a WINDOW to the outside world, and you also get a BIIIIIIG window from the room into the bathroom. Kind of fun to be a voyuer and watch you Mrs. Right Now do the preaction shower and then after action do the squat and wash away the baby batter routine. If that is a bit too much you, there is a curtain you can draw over the window.

I wonder why my dates have always drawn the curtian when I go for the post dump brownie crumb rinse? I have gotten pretty good at handling that little garden hose provided for personal hygeine. But nevertheless don't forget to bring some flip flops to wear into the bathroom.

Hey, them butt squirters are great. Way better than toilet paper. Asia has something there. My ass never felt so clean. I got to install one for my house.

I always walk in on them when they are doing the post action squat wash. I get a kick out of that.

U guys are too much !!!!!

Talking about budget, Ghenggis and I have been using the City View these last two visits and their new wing is just opened and we transferred to use these new rooms just for fun on our last visit for Friday.

Somehow, instead of putting us in deluxe which is 128,000 per night, we were put into standard (small like hotel 81 size) and that's 88,000.

Now rooms don't come much cheaper than that and everything was so new and super clean.

Only thing with City View is that they provide one toilet roll in a holder which they leave on the dressing table. When you go 'dump' don't forget to bring that roll along!

They don't have the 'hose' as Prima Asia has but, you can reach out and use the shower hose too! If you have a habit of washing up after a dump which I have!

While the rooms in the new wing are now brand new, while the old wing is about 8 months old, City View is a very clean Asian type cheap room to stay if you are very budget oriented and not spending much time in the room except to do the deed! The money you save goes a long way for lots of other things!

The location is great for walking to most places and you can get into Asian breakfast at Sudir Mampir or Istimewa or Dju Dju.

Does anyone have an email to this place. Tried talking to three different people on the phone and they might has well been from Mars..waste of fucking time. They charged me originally for taking the aircon remote by accident but it was returned by MongerX and they still didnt credit me. I havent been completely charged yet as it is a transaction on hold but it's still counted against my card and its $58. The money isnt much and I would go for room credit if that suited them but I cant get anyone who speaks more than two words of English.

Try contacting Euis Komariah - she's the front office manager there at the Island View Hotel. I've dealt with her a few times via telephone and her English is good... for Indonesia. Give her a try:

HP: 0812.619.6001

E

I stayed at Island View for several nights last month, and as always I enjoyed my stay there. Their price of $40 Sing dollars including breakfast for two during the week ($45 Sing Fri and Sat) is an excellent value for a hotel in a decent location with a nice pool. The staff was super friendly and they remember me now and treat me great.

The rooms are good for the money. I like that they have windows you can actually open. The place is extremely convenient to Planet Holiday hotel next door, which has an air-conditioned internet cafe with decent speed on the 2nd floor, and while it's a pain in the ass to get a moving taxi from in front of the hotel, if you walk down to the street via the back way to Planet, you're only steps away from a street with a lot of traffic. If you like to walk at all, most of the places on my Batam beaten path are no more than a 10-15 walk.

Planet Ozone disco is also just steps from the Island View pool, and that can be damned convenient for picking up late night company.

Island View was practically EMPTY much of the time I stayed there last month. One weekday morning there were so few guests that they didn't have the standard Indo dishes prepared for the morning buffet. They did offer to cook us up those usual dishes (fried rice, fried noodles w/ seafood), but it seemed a little weird.