Finishing my one night stay here before moving to Grosvenor House.
Despite SNA confirming Fabulous suite, the night of the flight to AUH I noticed they downgraded me down to Fantastic Suite so I made sure to call them out on that. Their response was that they don’t offer Fabulous Suite on SNA which is clearly incorrect on their part… so asked to fix it or upgrade me to Wow suite.
Upon arrival they confirmed Fabulous Suite but didn’t even bring up the stealth downgrade. Left a bitter taste in my mouth to start the stay but I’ll let bygones be bygones. There seemed to be a cycling/triathlon event happening during my stay so the building was fully booked and very busy.
I received room 1611 located at the east end of the main building and wow it’s big and fabulous. It’s my first W stay and it definitely lived up to the reputation of W that I had in mind with the somewhat impractical shower and all (no doors, facing the washroom). Love the pressure of the rainfall shower head. More like rainstorm if anything. 6th floor suite was just below the lattice structure so we got a great view of the F1 track with no obstructions. The bed had a great level of firmness too. My only complaint of the room was the general control of the lights. When using the remote it’s OK but when you wake up in the dark you have no idea what button does what.
The corporate lounge hour was pretty nice. You can definitely eat dinner here if you were not looking for anything extravagant. I was too full and bloated coming off my Etihad First Class flight to eat but I did enjoy the dessert and beverage options (beers, various liquors and some basic cocktail service, wines). I came at the tail end of the happy hour but it wasn’t very crowded. Wish I had another night stay here to fully indulge.
The breakfast here at first felt very overwhelming with the numerous selections but in reality it’s not all that as the Asian table was very subpar compared to other offerings and it just felt avant garde due to everything being so spread apart. Nevertheless I very much enjoyed the breakfast selection of wide range of fruits, cereal, yogurt, pastries, middle eastern selections (shakshuka in a buffet!), western breakfast items, juices/smoothies. Service was excellent as well.
Also used the gym in early AM. You can enjoy the sunrise mid workout here. Selections are pretty okay here. Various free weights, smith machines, two dual cable machines. I’m a happy camper here.
Overall very much enjoyed my time here and I kind of wished I just stayed here for two nights, especially when my rate was 499 AED/night. but I’m sure I’ll be saying the same thing tomorrow when I’m leaving the Grosvenor House!