Visiting Dubai for a birthday and quite seduced bythe review that Olivier had posted of the W Dubai, I let myself be tempted.
The occasion being festive I decided to treat myself and use one of my Suite Night Awards which allows me to guarantee an upgrade to a suite even before check-in and to choose the suite in question. Olivier having had a “Fantastic Suite” during his stay and in order to have something to write about on a different product, I choose the “Fabulous Suite”. I was very unfortunate even if I am the only one responsible for my misfortune.
Check-in at the W Dubai: not for people in a hurry.
My flight arrives late in the evening and I jump in an Uber to get to the hotel. In front of the door, a crowd of people dressed up to go to one of the property’s renowned bars.
As always with W we are on the edge between good and bad taste in the quest for “too much”. At first glance I think that this time the coin has fallen on the wrong side.
I make my way through the crowd and take the elevator because the check-in is on the 30th floor. Even in the elevator I feel more like I’m waiting in line to get into a trendy club than checking into a hotel.
It is almost midnight and there is a queue at the desk.
Or to be more precise: people are waiting (you don’t see the ones sitting in a sofa waiting for their turn), only one counter is open out of four (a second one will eventually open 10 min after my arrival), the counter dedicated to the elite customers of the loyalty program is not open and the staff is slow, very slow.
My turn has finally come. Paperwork, re-paperwork, blah blah blah. At some point the staff must understand that a customer who arrives at midnight may be eager to get to his room. Now I have the impression that everything is done to make us waste time. There is a difference between botching the protocol and overdoing it. In short, it is almost one o’clock in the morning when I take possession of my “Fabulous Suite”.
Star Trek atmosphere at W the Dubai.
I push the door and enter a huge room that is a bedroom, bathroom and with a small lounge area.
Whether you like the decor or not, I think it could be worse and the “Star Trek” aspect makes me smile.
Bathroom:
A nice office area, a mini lounge, lot of room. For the moment I am very happy. Let’s go see the main room.
I push open a door and find myself in a huge reception room (more than a lounge), blind, and reeking of cold tobacco.
There is even a bar.
The perfect room if you decide to invite a DJ, the local drug dealer, 3 buddies and 5 prostitutes. But not a living room if you plan a “normal” stay. Add to that the smell of tobacco, I won’t put a foot in it.
I actually understood the trick. There are fabulous rooms (the 1st room I showed you). Besides a big loss of space because because of what seems to me to be a technical duct it is only possible to put a blind room. So we designed this “thing” and when they sell a fabulous suite they just open the door that exists between the bedroom and the lounge!
Let’s do the visit in video anyway.
As much as the suite presented in the previous article of Olivier was appealing, with a real living room, I had the impression to find myself in a clubber thing with the Kardashian family who was going to arrive. Spangles and total lack of taste. Thank you.
I will not test the bars and restaurants of the hotel, having already planned everything outside.
Swimming pool and Fitness.
The hotel has of course a swimming pool.
At this time of the year it was still usable before the arrival of the hot weather.
The fitness room also looks good with a beautiful view of the city.
And when you admire the view you realize that even if it opened several months ago the hotel is not really finished. Or rather that as long as there is glitter it will always manage to hide the rest.
I won’t dwell on this palace of bad taste.
As I often say, the W’s are “borderline” all the time and that is their positioning. But as far as I am concerned here the border has been crossed.
As I said, I chose this room and I can only blame myself. But that doesn’t take anything away from the overall atmosphere, which is rather heavy, not to say stinking, with a relatively unhealthy show-off side, with the smells of tobacco in the room, and with the sloppy finish.
I should have gone with Olivier to the Westin next door. And you will see in his upcoming review that this hotel is a real success.
Note: As of summer 2018 the hotel is operated by Hilton under the V Dubai brand.
