Abridged version: Don't bother if you are paying out of your own pocket.
Do not arrange airport transfers with the hotel, as they charge 110AED per room, even if you share. So if there are 4 of you sharing a ride, each with your own room it will cost 440AED. Stupidity redefiend. 110AED is OTT anyway, as the journey takes no more than 10 minutes and our transfer from Dubai to Abu Dhabi Airport over 150km away was only 150AED.
Internet Access - so the room rates are hardly peanuts, and then they insist on charging ~8/hour or ~18/day to use the slow internet. Decker clocked it at 256Kb down one day!
Spa treatments were not too badly priced, there is a discount of 15% for hotel guests; for a couples 50 min Swedish massage it worked out about 60.
We tried the hotels Indian (Ashiana) and Italian (Vivaldis) - both were good food but you need to watch for some of the alcohol prices.
There is a quaint English pub in the hotel that is very authentic, and seemed to be popualr at times.
Service left a lot to be desired at times; management didn't seem to respond well to complaints about their maintenance workers working on the club floor before 9am for 2 days running.
All in all, a very business hotel, and there are far better hotels in DXB for around the same kind of money.
Do not arrange airport transfers with the hotel, as they charge 110AED per room, even if you share. So if there are 4 of you sharing a ride, each with your own room it will cost 440AED. Stupidity redefiend. 110AED is OTT anyway, as the journey takes no more than 10 minutes and our transfer from Dubai to Abu Dhabi Airport over 150km away was only 150AED.
Internet Access - so the room rates are hardly peanuts, and then they insist on charging ~8/hour or ~18/day to use the slow internet. Decker clocked it at 256Kb down one day!
Spa treatments were not too badly priced, there is a discount of 15% for hotel guests; for a couples 50 min Swedish massage it worked out about 60.
We tried the hotels Indian (Ashiana) and Italian (Vivaldis) - both were good food but you need to watch for some of the alcohol prices.
There is a quaint English pub in the hotel that is very authentic, and seemed to be popualr at times.
Service left a lot to be desired at times; management didn't seem to respond well to complaints about their maintenance workers working on the club floor before 9am for 2 days running.
All in all, a very business hotel, and there are far better hotels in DXB for around the same kind of money.
