The situation:
1. My girlfriend and I wanted a staycation after a hectic month of work – we booked ourselves in to the Conrad at AED 630/night (epic pricing for peak season!)
2. My card was not working online, so I drove over to the hotel two days prior to pay for the rooms so that we wouldn’t lose our booking.
3. Our one request was to have both rooms side by side. We had requested this 3 days upon making the booking, when I made the payment, and also via two telephone calls. At all points we were told they would try their best. I even stressed on the phone a number of times that I would be happy to have the one room first and the second room at their convenience, even if it was a later than late check in.
4. To stay true to our USP of being unbiased, there was no mention of blogging or reviews upon making our booking, checking in, or during our stay.
5. The criteria for a good staycation includes: Great customer service, spacious rooms with comfy beds, and a spectacular poolside view.
What impressed…
Needless to say, purobeach and the rooms just made the staycay worth it. The food was alright and the drinks were as good as you would expect them to be at a 5 star hotel.
What depressed…
The staff has been polite but more helpless than helpful – Unfortunately.
There was a serious lack of communication between them.
When I went to check in, I was told that we had a possibility of getting connecting rooms as long as we checked in together. So I called my friend up and requested her to leave her brunch to come check in.
After waiting for her to reach, we went back to the counter to check in and I was then told we wouldn’t get the rooms side by side. I essentially pulled her out of brunch, and wasted an hour of my relaxation time sitting around in the lobby based off the staff member’s recommendation of checking in together. This lack of communication between the front facing staff was not okay.
(Also, I’ve never had a hotel deny me rooms side-by-side, but s**t happens and I was okay with the fact that they were not available – so the issue is not the connecting rooms. The issue is the inconvenience.)
Additionally, while waiting in line, the front desk chose to break the line for a guest ‘who had been waiting in the seated area’ – he was indeed waiting. However, I was sitting right beside his table in the same lobby for the same amount of time. If I gave fresh guests the courtesy of going first while I waited at the back of the line, the gentleman should have given me the courtesy of checking me in first.
My girlfriend had a bag that we handed to the bellboy at the time of checking. While I was heading up to my room, the bellboy came to me with my bag asking me to identify it. I told him it was mine and he responded with “Oh it was on the floor and not on the trolley” as if I had kept it there! He indicated twice that he would not have known that was my bag. Funny, because I only came in with the one bag and I’m not sure why it hadn’t been placed on the designated trolley by the concierge.
Minutes later, a different bellboy showed up at my door with 5 bags – 2 that belonged to us, and 3 that didn’t. He insisted that they were my friends bags and I had to practically stop him from bringing them in to my room. He then asked me if I knew whose bags they were!
I’m not sure if the actual owners got their bags in the end…
Service in the restaurants and at Purobeach was absolutely amazing. But this was one of the more interesting check-ins I’ve had.
What finally killed the experience for my friend and myself is that we went down at midnight to grab her charger from her car at the valet. When we were walking back up, a member of staff at the elevator stopped us and wanted us to clarify our names and room numbers.
I have no problem with someone doing their job, but he was doubting us when we gave him our room numbers. We had walked past him 5-7 minutes before that to reach the lobby in the first place. In fact, it’s interesting that there were a number of noisy in-house hotel guests (who had walked in with questionable external guests) ahead of us and were neither stopped nor questioned.
Facts about the hotel:
Minutes away from a subway station which will take you straight to Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates.
That Girl Who Travels 