I just checked out of a four night stay here and agree almost entirely with [MENTION=784289]brokenwindow[/MENTION] above. I’d say this is a decent five-ish star hotel but somewhere in the middle of the five star hotels I’ve stayed at in Dubai and far from luxury. Also somewhat limited loyalty recognition.
As I was aware suites are hard to come by here I selected a paid online upgrade to a Deluxe Sea View Suite and was glad to see it cleared, giving a reasonably large discount to just booking a suite directly over peak periods. Nice big suite but somewhat lacking in furniture and the decor isn’t really to my taste, to be honest. The bathrooms are great and luxurious but the rooms are very sterile feeling - could fairly easily be a Westin or something.
As a Diamond booking an Impressario rate there wasn’t much recognition - no welcome gift in the room, no letter, drinks vouchers, etc. There is a 25% discount on dining which is nice.
Housekeeping generally very good, as were the staff at breakfast and on the beach. Very good QR code ordering system on the beach and orders also came quickly. The beach itself has nicely spaced loungers but has that slightly odd/fake Palm feel.
Breakfast quality and selection was OK but no better, frankly. For example, the smoked salmon was poor quality and relatively cheap offcuts, no bowl of capers to go with it, poached eggs are pre-done and kept in a warmer rather than cooked to request, coffee is poor quality from a fully automatic Lavazza machine, etc. The selection of non-Western items is almost non-existent, which I suppose makes sense since I’d say the guests were about 50% Russian and mostly Brits or a few French otherwise. It all feels slightly resort hotel in the Med.
It is indeed extremely annoying that the chat feature is disabled and it took three attempts over 30 minutes just to get through calling my ‘personal assistant’
and then almost another hour just for them to actually deliver a bucket of ice. The Four Seasons this ain’t.
Overall, not sure what makes this a Waldorf Astoria and not e.g. a Conrad, other than they want to be able to charge Russian guests for the brand name. At the right price I wouldn’t rule out going back, but already have multiple Dubai hotels I prefer.