NoY

Indeed, I wholeheartedly agree with your comments, although (as I posted above) I did have a very nice stay there (Conrad) recently

Richmond_Surrey

Thanks for all the comments, Conrad seems to be better located for sighseeing. If booking, I would choose non-exec room so probably no lounge access in any of the hotels. Saw nice corner rooms on Conrad website. Also can't imagine not having breakfast or pay for it extoriate fee.

Currently, have booking at Jumeirah Emirates Towers at Ł300 per night with dining package but was looking at some options to use points.

Kiwi Flyer

A bunch of posts have been deleted for discussing other FTers. This thread is for discussion of Conrad Dubai only.

If you think someone else has posted about you rather than the topic at hand, please use the report bad post (red triangle icon) instead of responding in-thread.

Kiwi Flyer
FT Hilton forum co-moderator

gil123

Am at the property now. In spite of all the recent whiny posts on FT I decided to give it a try, based on more recent positive feedback on TA and on the fact that they were running some rooms on points special at 41K per weekend night. For me, a mostly positive experience. Good location right across from the WTC metro and walking distance to plenty of restaurants and sights. I'd agree it's not quite the over the top Conrad service experience one might expect (I've only stayed at one other, in Algarve Portugal and found the service much warmer and more personal) but everyone was helpful and professional enough. I am diamond and got allocated executive room on 45th floor with great sea view. Breakfast buffet at main restaurant was varied and excellent and included some really nice local and Indian specialties. Lounge is pleasant with good views. Afternoon tea was small selection but good quality including some killer brownies. Evening spread good to excellent, easy dinner replacement for us (and that's the way I roll whenever possible), including hot and cold items (both meat/fish and vegetarian items for those like me), soup, salad, dips/chips/bread and some additional sweets. Not as good as the best lounge fare I've had in Asia but better than most in Europe and all in the US. Rooms are modern and comfortable (great beds and bedding) though decor is not quite to my taste. Used the sauna, steam room and hot tubs in the health club which were nice but pretty standard. Overall no major complaints at all- though a welcome amenity would have been nice (got zero), the slippers provided were crappy and it was a bit tricky to work the controls for the high tech lights and curtain systems. Otherwise a perfectly good stay, and good value at 41k especially if you have lounge access. Not blown away but certainly don't get the drama about this place. It's a solid five star hotel.

Edited after checkout to add a couple thoughts: 1. As I believe others observed upthread, alcohol selection was poor in lounge. A screw-top low-end Merlot was the only red wine option. 2. We ended up being kept up for an extended period in the middle of the second night by the unmistakable sounds of a very loud and wildly overdramatic prostitute visiting the guest next door. Won't go into details about how we knew this was happening but both my wife and I agreed it clearly was. About an hour into the performance, we finally couldn't take it any more and called the front desk and they promptly sent security to knock on their door. Things quieted down and then we heard the sound of high heels clicking on marble and a door slamming shortly thereafter- so clearly we had guessed correctly. A bit disconcerting, though hotel handled it appropriately and not sure how much I can blame them. But soundproofing in the rooms is not great. 3. Spent following night at Marriott al Jaddaf (not due to the midnight visit but as planned previously) and the lounge fare and service are much better- though Conrad hard products and location still win out. Overall still stand by my previous observations, drama notwithstanding.

MellieAZ

DH and I stayed here for 3 nights, we are HH Diamond. We chose it because the location was convenient for us (and they kept lowering the rates, even with points, before our visit) but we approached with low expectations due to the previous reports. We reserved a corner room and were upgraded to a very nice suite. We enjoyed the Executive lounge, both the service and the food. We had an early tour one morning and they prepared a take-away breakfast for us. The only thing that would have made our stay perfect would have been the stuffed toy - I was told they no longer have them.

Richmond_Surrey

I stayed in mid November and it was my worst Conrad stay ever. Doesn't mean it worst hotel stay ever but I understand why I was warned on a forum.

Positives:
-good location by metro station, easy to get from airport, easy to get around
-good hard product, corner room was big, I liked remote control for the lights, curtains, etc. Nice, big bathroom.
-breakfast was ok however rather crowded and I would suggest avoiding sitting at tables where people pass by to get food. You may feel like sitting by motorway. Tea only on order, cheapest one, from the jug, unless you ask for hot water and tea bag.
-pool was ok and food as well

Negatives:
-Due to my choice of the room - corner, I had to wait for about 2h in reception when I arrived at 9.30am. Room I chose online wasn't available, I was told no other room is free and they didn't give me any upgrade. So I would avoid choosing corner room for this reason unless you're Diamond, as it looks from previous posts.
-Service was very poor. I ordered amenities from Concierge service via app, chose time and nothing arrived. I called Housekeeping to ask for it after an hour and again had to wait an hour. In the end got Aromatherapy stuff, while I requested Shang Tang. Only when I complained, I was told they run out of Shang Tang. Why couldn't they call me straight away and tell me this? Also ordered body lotion and never received it, had to write a note and leave in a bathroom.
-No turn down service. I don't know if you have to requested it specifically but it never happened on two nights I spent there.
-Tea service, one black tea, one chamomile, one green, one capsule of coffee and one decaf. Cheapest Dilmah tea. I found it ridiculous for 5 star hotel. So if there's two of you, do you have to decide who has black tea or coffee and the second person watches you drinking it? Of course you can call housekeeping and wait for an hour to get it, but I would expect to just have more choice in a room. You can get it in some 3 star hotels.

I was so disappointed with my initial experience at check-in that I cancelled my second reservation for third night. Moved to Jumeirah Creekside's for last night and service was much better, even though the hotel was cheaper. Chose it due to proximity to airport and free access to water park.

I certainly do no plan to visit Conrad Dubai again. It's miles away from service offered by Asian Conrads.

I checked out location of Waldorf and I don't thik it would work for me on this trip, so as someoone said, there are much better choices in Dubai than Hilton chain.

arlflyer

When is check-in at this property?

Richmond_Surrey

Probably at 3.00pm but most hotels are able to come up with some rooms. As long as you don't book something that's in limited supply. I put my arrival time at reservation and asked for early check-in. Read reports from others, who were checked in at 8.00am and were allowed to have breakfast on two mornings during one night stay. Even if rooms are unavailable, there are ways to handle it and I don't think it was done nicely. I asked for other type of room or upgrade and was told they don't have anything but hotel wasn't sold out on that night. It's not like you're going to go out for a walk in Dubai weather and come back later.

gil123

To each his own, and there are plenty of things I can think of to not love in this hotel-- but I find it hard to understand why allowing a guest (with mid tier status) to check in three and a half hours early would be a legitimate source of criticism. Also on my stay, they did provide a turndown service in our room- though personally I find this ridiculous. Turning the corners of the blanket down and placing our slippers by the bedside spread out on a washcloth mat does nothing for my personal wellbeing. Now if they had left some chocolate or another treat that would be another story...

PaulH1

Conrad Dubai used to excel in many areas back in 2014 turndown included.

Housekeeping was simply the best with chocolates on pillow every night at turndown, mini box of dates left one night, plate of chocolate strawberries another, rose petals on bed, ample quality twg breakfast tea bags and 6 coffee pods topped up twice a day in morning and again at turndown. 4 bottles of water left each day. Personal service from housekeeping manager who got in touch regularly to ask if there was anything we needed and asked what sort of time we would prefer room to be cleaned.

last visit - chocolates have gone, dates have gone, strawberries have gone, just one cheap tea bag to share, one coffee pod to share per day, no water left in room on 3 occasions, room made up at different times each day between 10am and 4pm.
turndown only occurred on half of evenings. So last poster was correct turndown is not needed now as it is just to draw the curtains and lay your slippers by the bed. One tea bag is costcutting gone mad !!

This is just one area of service that has gone from exceptional 5 star luxury to 4 star average.

Front desk was an absolute joke their total incompetence meant us having to change room 5 times on our day of arrival as we kept being allocated twin bedded rooms,it was like a farce from fawlty towers, manager Devish was so rude and abrupt and had no customer service skills whatsoever.

Service deteriation is one thing but when serious issues occur and are not handled well they leave a bad taste in the mouth.

It is good to read more positive reviews lately and hopefully things are improving.

Richmond_Surrey

I'm sorry I'm only Gold and expected better service offered by other Conrads. Maybe for some turn down service is only things mentioned above but I expect new set of toiletries, re-filling of tea service, etc. Dubai is hot place and it shouldn't be surprising that guest wants to take more than one shower per day and needs toiletries. I also like to drink more than one tea per day. What if there are two guests and both would like to have black tea? Should they share tea bag? Or coffee capsule? I don't think these are ridiculous expectations when staying in 5 star hotel?

1

Any recent experiences at the Conrad Dubai? Has a new GM made a difference or are they still on a cost cutting mission?

Beolab

I recently finished a 7 night stay here. The cost cutting mission is still very much on and the level of service is incomparable to my last stays here in 2014 & 2015. Even though many of the staff really try their best, they cannot manage it. The hotel is just understaffed. Furthermore the management apparently has rented out multiple F&B outlets to third parties since I was here last. There is a venue callled The Amira Club on the top floor that is open every day until 3AM. The bass of there sound system can be noticed clearly in guest rooms many floors down. I had to switch rooms at 1AM to get a decent night sleep. The other two third party venues are called Little Black Door and VII.

None of these 3 venues are in any way mentioned on the hotel website or in the hotel guest directory. After a few days I realised why. These places operate as very well run prostitute pick up venues. After around 11PM, the Conrad Dubai changes into a very sleazy place with ladies from all corners of the world working the lobby, the pool bar area and the 3 mentioned outlets. I have stayed at many Conrad locations worldwide, but this was truly a first on this scale. The number of girls working at Conrad Dubai is just staggering. You simply can’t avoid them, since they are everywhere. In the lobby, bars, in the elevators and on the guest room floors with their clients. Their loud and overdone performances can be heard when you walk from the elevator to your room or you can enjoy hefty discussions regarding payment for services rendered.

I was woken up in the middle of the night by loud banging on my door. When I went to see what was going on, I found a drunk Russian working girl in front of my door on just one shoe. She demanded her other shoe. When she realised that she came back to the wrong room, she shouted some more and left. No this hotel is far gone from it’s glory days and should not have the name Conrad on the building. It is a disgrace for the Conrad brand.

ashkale

Wow..that is appalling. Best avoided as I cant see this changing anytime.

saaveraward

How many Honors points for a Russian hooker? Or is that a Diamond benefit?