Habtoor Grand Resort, Autograph Collection

The sevice is very goood! Cyndi is also nice and very helpful! I had a pleasure to be there and watch some football matches. Very convenient and nice place to relax. Hoping to come back here later soon.

We visited at the end of February, a couple and 14 year old son. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great, it was quite overcast and a bit chilly. I had stayed at the Royal Meridian two years ago which was stunning but alas the Habtoor didn’t have the same wow factor. The reception area wasn’t amazing. The underground bar was good and the people who worked in there gave excellent service. We ate breakfast every morning in the restaurant near the pool and the staff there were great, very welcoming. The bar on the ground floor (can’t remember its name) was lovely inside and the service was good but they couldn’t seem to make their mind up as to whether our son was allowed in. A lot of the time we were sent to the outside area which faced a brick wall. The room was lovely and the service throughout was very good. The pool area was nice but nothing special. I was expecting something grander I think and felt slightly deflated by our stay here.

We booked a seven night stay at the Habtoor Grand Resort, Autograph Collection 5* hotel based on a web site description. The key points being ‘ultimate tranquility’, ‘great proximity to Dubai Marina where shops, restaurants and nightlife’, ‘Tower Oceanfront Room’ and ‘5*’ hotel. What we got was (we could list more): a. No tranquility in the night or day. We had two lost nights sleep due to noise from night clubs near the hotel (one in the hotel grounds – it is on the hotel grounds map). Very noisy pool and beach area during the day. b. The hotel may be ‘near’ the Dubai Marina, but there is no easy safe, short walk (there is a long way to get there, but who wants a hike after an evening out), access due to completed road building and ongoing development. c. The view from our room overlooked the night clubs and was across a construction site and an active, during the day, runway. d. We gave up our oceanfront room in order to get away from the night time noise. We did get an upgrade room but all we wanted was quiet during the night. At no time did the hotel say to us that the ‘upgrade’ or the free meal they gave us was ‘compensation’. If that had been said we may well have walked out. Two lost nights sleep in a seven night holiday is not compensated by the loss of a room with a view and a cafeteria type meal. e. The hotel is not 5* by any standard even ‘local standards’ (a term used to often describe poor quality hotels). We have stayed in 5* hotels before, including in Dubai, and these have always met our expectations. Our experience here included hole in bed sheets, broken balcony door latch, etc in a 5* hotel! f. Beach closure due to no lifeguard on duty! This closure only applicable at this hotel – there were no lifeguards on duty at any other access point to the beach at night and the beach access was not restricted. We cannot see any reason why only the beach, at this hotel, has to be closed off at night. Perhaps the big difference here was the night club in the hotel grounds. We have complained to our holiday provider who has compensated us. But also stated that we are one of the only two out of seventy bookings to complain.