This has always been one of my favorite hotels in Dubai because it seems a world away from the hustle and bustle, but having stay with my family last week, i'm not sure i'll stay again as it's definitely gone downhill.

The frustrating thing is most of the things that make it good like the excellent staff and breakfast have stayed the same. Things like these make you not mind so much that the hotel and rooms are looking pretty tired in places now. However, what's made it worse is there seems to be relentless efforts to make money everywhere, to the detriment of the product. Examples:
1. Beach open to the public at weekends now - every 5* beachfront hotel i've been to in Dubai has a private beach - this is the exception
2. Even within the beach there are areas being charged for - completely empty family beach and have a baby you don't want in the full glare of the sun? Sorry you can't sit in the cabana unless you've pre-booked and paid for it in advance.
3. No water by the pool anymore unless you buy a $10 bottle of Evian - it was only a couple of years ago I was here last and without asking they'd bring you over some bottles of water in an ice bucket - how much money was that really costing them to get rid of it?
4. Similar to above, switching out the L'occitane toiletries for some generic make which also meant no shower gel, instead you were expected to wash with bars of soap labelled as facial soap. As above, how much money does a switch like this actually save the hotel to make it worth doing?

The one that really annoyed me was the family beach thing. Emailing the guest experience address after just led to a generic "sorry, we'll learn from this" kind of email. I'm due in Dubai again in January for work - any suggestions of somewhere better to stay?!