The Room 

Environment

Ibis. Smack in the middle of town on a street so busy it gave us a headache from exhaust fumes. It's a compact hotel with no pool (shame!), a "modest" (read: depressingly small) gym, and a breakfast area that doubles as a lobby. Basic. However, the one redeeming factor: great restaurants were easily walkable, which means finding good food didn't require a Sherpa nor a need to split the credit card charge.

InterContinental. A sprawling resort that's clearly compensating for something. Beautiful grounds, multiple pools designed to confuse you, a gym, a spa, and swanky gift shops where you can pay $50 for a bottle of water.

Mermaid View: This is where the Ibis unexpectedly offered some unexpected pluses. It did a significantly better job of providing hand rails, ramps, and enough hand holds to make navigating the various halls and rooms easier for those of us who don't glide effortlessly. IC had slick, unforgiving marble surfaces, wide (and far too many) staircases with no rails, and paths that changed paving and added steps or decorative gateways just for the heck of it. The gardens were magnificent, provided you could gingerly weave your way through the many buildings without slipping and breaking something. 

Staff

Ibis. Check-in was friendly, fast, and wonderfully efficient. We were ready to go to our room in a magical three minutes. Our bags were promptly delivered, and we were given a quick, understandable explanation on how to operate the room and where the coffee was. Perfect.

InterContinental. As we entered the palatial, hushed lobby, our IHG status afforded us the privilege of checking in at a formal waiting area. We were treated to a cold beverage and handed a moist towel to wipe the sweat we hadn't actually worked up yet. Compared to Ibis, the check-in process was tedious, ceremonial, and many of the complex explanations about the resort grounds were utterly incomprehensible for lack of context. In other words, the check-in was needlessly formal, drawn out, and required entirely too much smiling. That said, all the staff we encountered were genuinely excellent and, frankly, unnervingly attractive.

Mermaid View: No complaints about either staff. It must be a Bali thing—the people are simply wonderful, even when they are needlessly polishing the marble we are trying not to fall on.

Dining/Lounge

Ibis. A simple, but shockingly tasty breakfast offering. It was efficient fuel before leaving. Food box checked, with minimal fuss.

InterContinental. Due to our Diamond Elite status with IHG, we had a plethora of dining options. The food was undeniably very good. Interestingly, we felt the lounge offered a superior breakfast—where we usually opt for the main dining (buffet) for the sheer scale of the offerings. Also, the main dining area had steps with no rails and the deadly marble floors, presenting a clear mobility challenge. Whereas the lounge cocktail hour food was not nearly as inspiring as other properties' lounges. Crucially, it was also infuriatingly hard to get your drink refilled in the evening. The lounge is huge, but the wait-staff seemed to have developed bizarre blinders, choosing to service only one table at a time, very slowly. On our last evening, we discovered we could also have the lounge experience at the Club pool. This provided better drink service—only, it was raining so hard we had to huddle under the cabana bar roof with open walls, ensuring we got thoroughly soaked and subsequently sick. We had tons of unused food credits for the other restaurants scattered around the property, but reservations were often required, and it was a long, dark, and potentially fatal walk to find them. So we didn’t go. Luxury!

Social

Ibis. The Ibis experience is not about social connections; it's about tactical retreat. We didn’t expect to make any new friends with a one-night stay. And, we didn’t. Mission accomplished.

InterContinental. One of the huge, unexpected perks of our IHG status has always been the social aspect of making friends in the lounge of different properties. We have made many genuine friends in Crowne Plaza lounges that we continue to associate with and even make plans to meet at future dates. We made exactly zero social contacts at the IC Bali resort. The sprawling layout of the lounge actively encourages people to stay hermetically sealed in their own little bubble. The IC lounge is massive with little chance, or apparent desire, to mingle. Also, the resort dynamic may be fundamentally different from the city hotel vibe. It truly seemed as though the other guests had absolutely no interest in socializing. It was a sterile mix of intense couples, young families who used the lounge as a daycare, or retired vacationers who were actively avoiding eye contact. We were profoundly disappointed.

Mermaid Perspective

We were happy to stay at both properties, mostly because it meant we weren't sleeping at some airport gate. Ibis was far easier to navigate and faithfully fulfilled its implied promise for a room and limited board—nothing more, nothing less. The InterContinental was beautiful, spacious, and luxurious. However, the property was so ridiculously large and the layout was so spread out that we spent half our time power-walking just to get anywhere. Ultimately, it was hard for us to appreciate the full, expansive benefits of this property when a simple trip to the pool felt like a mini-marathon.

I like to think of these two experiences as the difference between taking a commuter ferry versus a large cruise ship. The ferry got you from point A to B with zero fuss. The cruise was a luxury, over-the-top experience that offered so much that we couldn't properly access it all, and ultimately left us feeling lonely.