SkiAdcock

Hotel website:

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/trave...san-abu-dhabi/

Opening February 2017.

Category 5. Executive lounge open daily.

"right in the heart of Al Forsan International Sports Resort. six restaurants and lounges, or sooth yourself steam and bathing experiences include exclusive rituals in our traditional marble Hammam"

Parking
Complimentary on-site parking
Complimentary valet parking
The parking is complimentary only for the guests of the hotel and restaurants and visitors to the event.

Property Details
5 floors , 361 rooms , 39 suites

crimsona

In Abu Dhabi for a short one night layover next month. Arriving from London at 8 pm and not sure if able to make it to the grand mosque before they close at ten (closed to visitors on Friday the next day, unfortunately). This was the second closest Marriott, but was half the price of the Ritz Carlton with club lounge access...

Will be guinea pig, I suppose!

SkiAdcock

Please do a trip report after your stay. Thx!

Cheers.

crimsona

Found out that the Hilton capital grand was cheaper and closer to the mosque than the new Marriott. No more guinea pig for me! Unless Marriott comes out with a killer promo staying May 1st and not the 15th

EHAM1

Anyone who stayed here recently who can share some experiences als Gold or Plat (i.e. What is the lounge like)?

NoY

I had a one night stay recently with my wife (who is a Gold, using her free night cert). Checkin was OK but very “cool/detached”. We had been pre-upgraded to a King Executive from a Standard King. Not really an upgrade as the room is identical to Standard King rooms & we had lounge access as Elites. Room was OK but dark, overlooking the road & not even a balcony. I returned to front desk & politely asked for a lighter room, with balcony & was (somewhat grudgingly) given a Premium King corner room with balcony. No view again but much better than the last room offered.
Rooms are OK but furnishings are done on a tight budget, IMHO, although ironically the bathrooms are very nice with good double-ended bath & large separate walk-in shower & nicely fitted out.

The pool is huge & there are plenty of sun loungers & the staff were reasonably attentive. It is (notionally) split into adults & kids sections & was never over-crowded at the weekend.

Executive Lounge was never too busy. Daytime its coffee/tea/sodas & cookies/whole fruit. Evening drinks were very nice, 6-8pm, with excellent service. Usual wines/beers/spirits & a choice of 3 hot dishes plus salad & an excellent cheese board & mini desserts. Very good indeed.

Breakfast in the lounge was terrible. A weak choice of poor quality fruit/bread/cereals. Grim looking hot dishes on the buffet & some pastries which were just about OK. The saving grace of brekkie - cooked to order eggs & the service from the staff. I fed back on the brekkie upon checkout & the agent confirmed that they have had a number of complaints about this & it was “with management”! Quite right too.

Its a pretty decent, relatively low cost option in AUH & not far from the airport. Once the lounge breakfast is sorted out (if it gets sorted!) it will be perfectly fine if not exactly aspirational place to stay as a Gold/Platinum Elite.

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the update. Much appreciated.

Cheers.

GT80

We recently stayed in the Al Forsan as well ...

Room:
Got upgraded to a nice Executive Suite with 2 balkonies, huge sitting area, one bathroom with shower & tube and an additional toilet. Excellent relaxing stay for 5 nights. Turndown service was done quite early but this was no issue for us.

Lounge:
I liked the excellent service team. The breakfast was fully sufficient for us (I don`t understand why NoY wrote terrible but maybe they changed it already) only point was that they had no big variations during our 5 days stay but fresh juices every morning, salmon and fresh made Omelet. The evening offer was just perfect, nice wine, hot dishes, salad and desserts. We had several evenings with many people and it became noisy sometimes.

Hotel Overall:
Excellent if you have Lounge access and a reasonable price for the room; however you need to be aware that almost nothing is around. One supermarket in walking distance in the residential area next to it. The Airport is close but you need a rental car (or Taxi) for Abu Dhabi Downtown, the new Louvre and Beaches.

Our Video (incl. Executive Suite & Lounge):

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the update & pics.

Cheers.

NoY

@GT80, are you Gold or Platinum?

GT80

Downgraded to Gold this year after a long periode of Marriott Platinum :-(
We are just working to get back to Patin as the recognizion of the status was much higher.

(The upgrade to Executive Suite in Al Forsan was mainly driven by the fact that the hotel was overbooked with sport teams; had the same once in Den Hague with upgrade to President suite for 6 nights)

Blumie

See my August 2020 review of this hotel here:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/32635095-post119.html

Blumie

Just an update, as I'm back at the Marriott Al Forsan. My original review was in 2020, and I have been back in July 2021 and currently. I really like this hotel. This is my first time staying in a "regular" room -- on my first visit I used suite upgrades and on my July visit I was comped an upgrade by the sales staff -- but I find even the regular rooms to be nice and adequately spacious (although no where near as spacious as the suites). The breakfast in the lobby restaurant is great, offering an incredible selection of items and made-to-order eggs. (I don't know whether it's free for me because of my status or because of my rate, but in any event it's free!) I haven't been to the executive lounge in the mornings, so don't know what they offer, if anything, for breakfast, but their evening happy hours offer enough decent quality food -- different options each night -- that you can snack on them before going out for dinner, or just make a dinner out of them, as I have done on two nights during my stay. As I reported previously, this location is a 20 minute drive to downtown Abu Dhabi, so it may not be for everyone, but I am very happy here and plan to keep it as my Abu Dhabi base.

ElevatorEnthusiast

A very middling experience here at Marriott Al Forsan - there were some nice moments, but there were also a lot of small deficiencies and annoyances that added up to an experience that doesn't compare with others in this part of the world. Sure, I only paid $150 USD, but I paid the same at the Westin Doha the night before and had a much more fantastic experience. Oh, well, YMMV, but here are my pros, cons, and photos:

Pros:

• Upgraded to a One-Bedroom Suite on the top floor (5) without having to ask at check-in (though, I did have to ask if I had been upgraded, but that was more of a function of me not logging in to Wi-Fi after landing to check on the app)
• The bed was fine - just-right mattress (tad on the firm side), plush pillows, but the covers were pretty thin (more in Cons) - I did sleep fine
• Styling is okay, but uneven - the bathroom was nice-looking
• Two balconies, but I didn't use either - not really an outdoors person, and one had a resident bird that kept staring at me
• Offered late checkout proactively - I asked for 2 PM, which wasn't an issue
• Executive lounge offering (only in evening) had tasty Oreo cake (more in cons)
• Breakfast is served in the restaurant (no lounge breakfast) and was pretty good - though, I've had better - tasty salmon omelet at made-to-order eggs station, and I liked the tater tots - pancakes (not pictured) also tasted pretty fresh and had good texture
• The agent at check-out was really nice - called a taxi for me, verified they had a working credit card machine, and walked out with me to put my bags in the trunk (made up for poor bell staff)
• Bath towels were large
• In-room light controls were better labeled and easier to use than most systems that hide things behind opaque scene buttons

Cons:

• No Internet TV OS (though, the TVs did have a weird Internet browser - not really a valid substitute to apps or Chromecast)
• Shower pressure was pretty poor
• Bed covers were too thin and did not match the strong AC
• It appeared that the AC couldn't be turned off unless the balcony door was opened - however, I believe I didn't try holding down the Power button (which worked on a similar system at the Conrad Abu Dhabi)
• Noise isolation from the outside was poor
• Suite looked pretty dated and beat up for a 2017 build - the couch, bedside lounger, and other furniture had lots of stains and debris that could be picked up by lint-rollers, etc.
• Hallway carpets needed a good vacuuming
• Most food in the evening executive lounge was poor - inedible fish sticks, and other options didn't look appealing
• Weird experience at breakfast where they tried to add my membership number so that I would get points and then tried to charge me for breakfast - seemed to be some sort of identity mixup after I reconfirmed my room number, and they just walked away
• Multiple bell staff standing outside when I arrived, but none walked over to assist me with bags or greet me (just like back home ;-))
• No in-room welcome treat - weird for the region
• Tried to go order a burger at one of the dining venues (the sports bar) as that was the only place that served casual food, but was turned away since I didn't have my passport (my driver's license did not cut it, even though it confirmed my age and photo) - I felt like having to show my passport to order a burger was a bit much so I decided to not spend any money with that establishment - the hotel should have casual dining options outside of bars
• The location is pretty bleak - pretty much nothing around except for copied-and-pasted houses

Overall, I likely won't be returning here.

Photos:

diablo77

I would say that is a bit odd for the middle east, although I've mostly been going to Dubai for the last 15 years. Never had that experience with Bell hops, especially since there is usually a tip involved at the end.