Best way to book Dubai hotels

Hi all, we're looking at a six night break in Dubai next April. No problem securing UC reward flights but I'm not being as lucky when it comes to hotel accomm. We want to stay at Madinat Jumeirah, preferably at Dar Al Masyaf but also happy with Mina A'Salam or Al Qasr. Using the Madinat's own site it shows nothing being available in all three for the whole of April. Expedia and others I've tried don't even offer up these hotels as an option.

Just wondered if anyone has tips on securing these places at decent rates? In the past we've always done Dubai through Kuoni but this time we want to cash in miles for UC rewards!

Hi James

I had exactly the same problem. I've got return UC reward tickets out on the 1 April back on the 12th. I wanted to stay at the the Palace at the One & Only Royal Mirage but the hotel wouldn't take a direct booking as they had sold all their allocations. Most travel companies weren't interested in accommodation only bookings. I did manage in the end to book through a company which are part of the Best at Travel group, http://www.bestatdubaiholidays.co.uk but they aren't showing availability for the Madinat on the website - may be worth a call to them. I don't know whether more rooms will open up in a while, most of the hotels own sites only appear to give rates up to December 2006.

Happy hunting!

Regards

Pat

You could also try http://www.airline-network.co.uk which is where I booked the Al Qasr for my stay in July and is showing availability for April 2007.

Many thanks Pat & Newby for the replies. I'll certainly look at Airline Network, have used them loads before but only for USA car rental! A friend of mine has also recommended http://www.hotelrentalgroup.com/ so I'll check them out as well.

Thanks again [y]

Interesting that Airline Network are now showing availability which they weren't when I made my booking just 5 weeks ago. They are coming out at more than £500 more expensive though for the same 10 day stay (than the price I got from BestatDubai). Airline Network are one of my favourites and always very competitive on car hire but I suppose this proves you need to shop around.

Regards

Pat

Pat, re your Bestatdubai recommendation, I tapped this into my browser and it connected me to http://www.theholidayplace.co.uk

Are these the people you used?

Cheers, James

Originally posted by Vegascrazy
Pat, re your Bestatdubai recommendation, I tapped this into my browser and it connected me to http://www.theholidayplace.co.uk

Are these the people you used?

Cheers, James

Nope, but I've noticed that the comma had been included in the link above and therefore wasn't working. I get the same result as you if I type in .com rather than .co.uk though.

Regards

Pat