Mandarin Oriental, Dubai

Stayed - October 2019 for four nights
Upgrade - Booked Superior Room (their entry room), and was automatically given an upgrade to their next room type - Deluxe Skyline view, which was roughly $60 USD/night more for our stay***. I asked for an upgrade to Deluxe Sea View (double upgrade) and was rejected
Early check in - Arrived 1230PM, room was not ready until 1PM, check-in process took full 30 minutes (see note below)
Late check out - Was proactively offered 4PM at check-in. We had a late flight on our departure night and were very generously given a 7 PM check-out time
Wifi - Included in regular room rate, nothing extra for FHR
Amenity - 367 Dhiram Resort credit, equivalent of $100 USD. Also, breakfast for two per day @ The Bay (buffet) - amazing food, service, and beach view

Do not hesitate to book this hotel if you are looking to stay in Dubai. This hotel was AMAZING. It is currently ranked as the #1 hotel in Dubai on TripAdvisor and would not doubt this ranking for a second...it is pricey but worth it. Service, food, location, pool, beach, rooms were all amazing and rank at (or near) the top of any hotel we've ever been to.


*** - Very weird experience at check-in. My reservation was setup to pay at resort, and everything went fine until they swiped my Platinum card for the pre-authorization. The terminal rejected it almost immedately with a "call card issuer" rejection. We tried three different terminals, with three different AMEX Accounts (Personal Platinum Canadian, Business Platinum Canadian, Personal Platinum USA) and all had the same message which to me said it was a hotel issue. The check-in manager said it wasn't an issue on their end. I called Amex from the front desk who confirmed it was not a card issue, as they could not see the request on their end, but they could see two earlier expenses that morning. They said it was a merchant account issue. This whole process took around 30 minutes...I put the pre-auth on my VISA to at least get in the room but was told the bill had to be paid by Amex since it was FHR. At this point, the check-in agent gave me my requested room upgrade to Deluxe Sea View to apologize for the issues that had occured during check-in, room type was roughly $220 USD/night more for our stay. The next day I went to the front desk and explained my issue from the day before (they heard about it already) and they confirmed they resolved the issue on their end and the pre-auth worked fine.