Originally Posted by mecabq

+1 A lot of people post things like, unmarried non-Muslim couples are not allowed to share a hotel room, taken from internet forums like the one quoted above that are not official. I have asked someone to post an actual law, to no avail. It may exist, but we should remember that there really isn't much of a rule of law there, anyway, so I agree with your interpretation.

Same with the point about needing an alcohol license. This may be an actual regulation, but do you really think that every hotel in Dubai would risk losing its license by not checking for customers' alcohol permits? The fact that they don't seem to worry about this leads me to conclude that, de facto, there is no such regulation.

Prostitution is less of a gray area, but, as others have noted, they obviously tolerate it in a somewhat delicate balancing act.