I'm a frequent traveller. I travel on average 20 times a year outside the country. Most of these trips are to Dubai, and hence I've stayed in a lot of different hotels. Here is my review of this hotel:
1. Location: Decent, if you want to stay in the old part of dubai. Which no one really does now, since all the nice places are in Downtown.
2. Cleanliness: ZERO/10. The bathroom has mould and fungus all over. There are strange brown smears on the tub glass. They don't change the bed sheets. I marked bedsheets with a washable marker.. and guess what in the last 4 days they didn't change them once. I asked someone to give me new glasses, as the ones in my room were dirty. A guy came and took the glasses to the bathroom. I watched in horror, as he washed the glasses in the bathroom sink (without any dishwashing liquid). Only rubbed it down with his hands.
3. Room: Dated furniture. Very gloomy. Not enough lighting in it. The television has mostly Indian channels. The tele itself is something like 20 years old. The phone had a broken cable. Looked like something out of the mid 1990s. The mini mugs that are in the room (for tea) are cracked, and stains on them (inside and out). The windows of the room were also very dirty (as were nearly all of the other windows in the hotel).
4. Interior of the hotel: Very dark and gloomy look. In a hot and sunny country like Dubai, you expect some degree of light. You don't want to feel like you're in a Yorkshire winter. The lifts (American friends read elevator), have steel sheets on the inside (resemble cargo lifts). The glass on the lifts is dirty, which gives a gloomy hotel an even worse look.
5. Breakfast buffet: If you like South Indian food (which most people don't - including those from North India) then its okay. There isn't much continental food available. The croissants and muffins were stale. The toaster doesn't work. There is something which looks like baked beans, but I was too scared to give it a go. The watermelon was fermented. The place (some sort of a night club) where they serve the breakfast is also extremely very dark. The coffee... err, or that's they called it, was the worst coffee I've had in my life. The middle east is known for good coffee.
6. Pool. If you call it that, is like a baby pool.
7. Noise. If you like to stay up every night till 3:00am, then this is the place for you. Business travellers & families stay away.
8. Safety. I asked for an Iron. I got one, but the plug was broken. Could have gotten electrocuted!
9. Staff: Very unfriendly. Actually many are rude. First no one picks up the phone when calling housekeeping. You have to keep calling. When someone does, they don't speak english very well (for a country like Dubai, where everyone speaks english - this is hard to believe). I asked for an Iron so I could press my clothes. The guy who brought it, told me that I better leave it back outside the room after 30minutes or, he'll come and wake me up in the middle of the night!
10. Parking: There is parking in the basement. However they have their trash dumpsters there. So there is a horrendously foul smell. You have to hold your breath, and dash towards the car. Not a problem you are Usain Bold.
