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Worst stay ever for a St. Regis, with major service lapses & terrible room service

1   Not Recommended
February 25, 2017 by EXPERT

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St. Regis Dubai
 Map | 2 Reviews | 50% Recommended

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Liked:
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Service
Food
Amenities
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My husband and I stayed 1 night at the St. Regis Dubai in transit on our way home from a 3 week holiday in India. For such a short stay, we had numerous service lapses and problems which shocked me, to be quite honest. We would not recommend this hotel until they get their act together...and with a second St. Regis soon to open and already numerous luxury competitors already available, that may be asking too much.

For comparison purposes, we stayed in India at The Lodhi (New Delhi), the Taj Umaid Bhawan Palace (Jodhpur), the Oberoi Udaivilas (Udaipur), the Taj Nadesar Palace (Varanasi), the Oberoi Amarvilas (Agra), and Amanbagh (outside Jaipur). We had amazing service at the hotels in India-- which made the St. Regis service lapses look only worse.

Check In

Check in was troubling enough. Before walking in, I checked on spg.com to see if any standard suites were available--and there were! Then at check in, I was told there were none. As an SPG Platinum Ambassador guest, I was pretty surprised and said so. I also showed the attendant checking me in that there was a suite availabe on spg.com. There also were grand deluxe rooms available which were not being offered.

She apologized and at first didn't seem to care. Only when I pressed did she call a manager. After waiting 5 minutes, she finally went to look for a manager. 

The manager then quickly appeared and told me that there were no suites available. He then indicated I should look again at spg.com...which was curious. I did, and suddenly there were no suites available. There were only smoking grand deluxes now available--strange.

We sucked it up and took the room originally booked: an entry level deluxe room with king bed. But we felt there had been some sleight of hand inventory by mangement.

 

Room

The  deluxe room actually was quite nice and spacious. 

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The bath was particularly spacious.

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The windows were filthy, but there apparently had been a sandstorm recently (and it was quite windy even on our arrival).

So we actually were quite pleased with the room--something quite unusual considering the upgrade availability issue we had just had. 

The air con worked great, and we really loved the room. Not bad, St. Regis!

Service

And then it all started to fall apart again.

The butler who showed us the room offered to take my pants and shirt for pressing, and also offered to take our room service order--since the lunch restaurant had just closed at 3 pm. (We had a 7:30 pm dinner at Zuma, and didn't want to eat too heavily.)

About 30 min later, the room service arrived...and my order was screwed up totally. I ordered a medium rare burger without foie gras...and I got a well done burger with foie gras! I called down and immediately complained and asked for the order to be properly done. After another 30 min, a second order arrived--just as well done. I was apoplectic, as it now was after 4:15 pm. I spoke with the Asst Manager on duty...and was assured I would get it right. After another 40 min, my burger arrived again--still well done. It was now 5 pm...and the concierge already had told us they couldn't move our 7:30 pm dinner to any later time.

After much fury, the Asst Manager agreed to comp our room service (duh) and offered us comp'd Bentley round-trip transport to our Zuma dinner. To me, that wasn't satisfactory, as I was now starving and would have to wait or ruin my dinner. But we accepted.

The Bentley drive to and from Zuma went off without a hitch.

The final screw-up was the next morning, after we had breakfast, when a butler knocked on our door--despite the Do Not Disturb on the door! I was stunned. He then asked to check the inventory of our refrigerator mini-bar--as if we were going to steal something before check-out? I can only assume he got the room number wrong...but come on?

In the end, the Director of Rooms came to meet us on check-out and apologize profusely for the series of screw-ups we had endured. He comp'd half our room rate again, and gave us comp'd Audi transport to the airport as way of apology. But I was frank--this property needed a service overhaul of epic proportions.

For a 1 night stay at a St. Regis, this was nothing short of a disaster. You go to a St. Regis to avoid these stupid mistakes and service failures. But apparently not the St. Regis Dubai. 

 

 

Dining

Breakfast was a lovely spread--that looked wonderful but didn't taste as good as it looked. But the breakfast room was wonderful.

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Room service obviously was not at the top of my list. 

Suffice to say that food and beverage is also not a highlight of this hotel.

Location

A convenient location for us to get to and from the airport for a 1 night stay. But not much else. 

Overall

Overall, the most pitiful stay I've ever had at a St. Regis. I would not return without serious assurance that the entire team has been changed out. Even with a half off comp, I still paid too much for ridiculously bad service. 

This hotel needs someone to come in and kick the team in the butt.

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