chad75

Recently had two nights here (well technically one) and found it to be good to very good with a slant towards very good.

Rocky start with a truly annoying checkin which is not something one is really after after 17 hours flying and arriving at 6 am in the morning. Had a discussion with the night manager and a subsequent follow up from the duty manager later in the day. No compensation was asked for or given (or in anyway necessary) just a genuine conversation with two very consumer orientated Gentleman which was much appreciated.

Originally in a deluxe suite which was almost perfect, well furnished, comfortable, good size and a practical layout. Have stayed at around 6 LCs this year and this was one of the nicer suites. However my stay is this room was very brief. During my chat with the Night Manager he mentioned that there would be the potential for quite a bit of noise as it was Friday night and the nightclubs were directly below the room (I was on the 7th floor).

So I was moved to a 2 bedroom apartment. This was a step down in terms of furnishings, showed a lot of wear and tear and has a fairly average main bathroom. If you were upgraded to this room you'd be very happy and if you needed a lot of extra space and a kitchen you'd also be very happy. Despite viewing it a step down from the deluxe suite I was very happy due to the massive balcony. Sitting on the balconies with a great direct view towards the palm and side views to the marina was extremely pleasant and outweighed any of the soft differences between this and the deluxe suite.

The various types of platinum members still get lounge access. Fairly typical lounge however great staff and lots of seating. Nothing was ever explained to me at checkin but I noticed I never received my platinum amenity points for this stay so assume lounge access is in lieu of this.

Outside of the lounge the sheer size of the hotel mean't service wasn't up to the standard I'd expect for a LC.

Checkout was ok. Because I had booked the night before for early arrival I mentioned my night credits as I know some hotels have issues with this. Despite two staff members confirming they would manually process it and I would get two nights stay credit it has posted as one.

The hotel car used back to the airport was the 7 series as mentioned above. Long time since I've been in a BMW that has had the smokers package ticked as an option! Despite the numerous ashtrays the car was totally smoke free.

It may be a change of policy or uncertainty from staff but when I enquired the hotel transfers are only complementary for those on paid suites, not when using SNAs. This is contrary to experiences of some in this thread so worth checking/being aware of.

Being the weekend and basically paying for two nights for a one night stay I didn't find the price of the hotel to be particularly competitive for its class in the local market.

All up a nice stay.