Transit hotel/lounge at Doha airport options?
 

Hi I'll be flying Qatar airways in business class, arriving doha at around midnight. My flight does not qualify me for the transit hotel that arranged by Qatar, with that being said, what are my options to stay at night in the airport and don't want to exit immigration control to catch my flight at 6am in the morning back to US?

Not sure if the business class lounge opens 24 hours or not?

Al Mourjan (business class lounge) is open 24×7. So one option would be to go to the quiet rooms in the far shower area. I just did that a few days ago for a 14 hour layover, and it was fine. The sofas are deep enough to allow you to sleep almost as if you're in a bed. It's quiet and dark (but not completely blacked out). One thing, they tend to keep the temperature fairly cool, so a sweater or jacket might be helpful. I wished that I had one when I was there.

If you want to stay airside, there's always the airport hotel. I'm told that it's very nice, but fairly expensive.

By my calculations, you only have four hours at most to sleep. I'm not sure that getting a hotel room is worth it, certainly not worth leaving the airport to do so. I'd say that with that amount of time, your options are the two I outlined above. If you're not price-sensitive, then go for the Airport Hotel. Otherwise, the quiet rooms would continue to be my choice. I slept fine there.

I'd disagree with 'quiet' for the quiet zone: people arrive and leave at any time and as there are no full walls (just partial partitions) between the quiet zone booths, you hear alarm clocks ringing (lounge is 24 hours but so are departures), people coughing and snoring, luggage rolling, people enquiring about showers or going in and out of the shower rooms (shower reception is the same as quiet area one) etc. So I think it's great to relax, but sleep is often difficult and sometimes impossible for many. If you are the sort who can sleep anywhere when tired of course that's another story.

Hotel is much nicer but indeed very very expensive and quickly books up too.

Yeah, I pretty much agree with you. It wasn't as bad as you describe when I was there a few days ago, and doesn't bother me anyway, though. And, perhaps to set the tone, the QR staff person was whispering while I was there. I think that I'm going to do it again next week, 2350 arrival and 0740 departure. Doesn't seem worth it to leave the airport to go to a hotel.

And yes also agree with Orbitmic, it was incredibly noisy when we where there, in particular the snoring! We didn't stay but instead went upstairs to the restaurant which stops service for a couple of hours around 0200 so was very quiet. We had one of the booths which was very comfortable and I managed to sleep! Also just to say, that when we first went to the sleeping area it was completely full and we had to wait over an hour for a settee.

Quick naps in the lounge are IMO best in the back of the business centre. It is separated by a glass wall from the main sitting area and therefore a lot quieter. There's less traffic (outside of the really bad rush hour periods) and there are sort of sun lounger with partitions. Much quieter than the quiet zone where it's incredible noisy (people sleeping can be horribly noisy).

If you have at least 8 hours between flights and are traveling before Dec 31, you can qualify for a free hotel CLOSE TO AIRPORT through their visit Qatar program. But you would have to leave immigration. If paid Biz, you would have access to 4 and 5 star hotels.

Mrs PtF and I have stayed in the DOH airside Airport hotel multiple times; either together or separately.

The regular overnight room rate is indeed steep (circa QAR1,000 / GBP200+ / USD250+) however I believe they also offer reduced rates for four or five hour stays - contact the hotel directly (as opposed to via their website) to arrange a shorter stay.

The most annoying thing I find, particularly when attempting to check-in around midnight, is that occasionally you find yourself at the back of a long queue at the check-in desk behind passengers who have not pre-reserved a room and, when the hotel full, unlikely to get one.

+1 for the airport hotel. Sleeping in the lounge is not conducive for feeling great. Get a proper nights sleep.

Back in June, I asked and Airport hotel said they only offered the reduced rates for daytime stays (gone by 6pm?). OP is going to be arriving at midnight, so will have to pay full overnight rate even if checking out after 4hrs.

Provided ticket is issued by QA and there are no other QA flight options with a lesser transit time in Doha.

Where is this business centre? I could never find it.

In my post I wasn't referring specifically to the OP's situation; more a general comment. I have no knowledge of what time restrictions the Airport hotel might place on reduced rate stays, but suspect the management might take a more flexible approach on nights of anticipated otherwise low occupancy. It doesn't do any harm to ask.

For the general information of anyone reading this thread I provide the following information (taken from multiple e-mails received by me for previous Airport hotel reservations):

Hourly Packages Available - to book a package please send an e-mail to:

[email protected]

or call:

+ 974 4010 8100

I had the same response when I was inquiring a few months ago for a trip in November; quite disappointing, as I had taken advantage of the 4-8 hour booking option before and it was very welcome, but they know seem to have restricted this to local daytime layovers only.

From Al Mourjan entrance, cross the stage and you'll find a windowed areas with red seats. Business center is on the left from this area and rest pods are just after crossing this red seats area.