the hotel is located across from the red sea. The front desk Ethiopian man and a local young man very helpful and polite..........welcoming. The brunch is so-so, the food service is bad. They pick and choose who to serve. The oj juice dispencer was not woking.They did not have back food for brunch. The drive way needs improvment. About 15 minutes out of city center. The rooms are very nice, view is fantastic.

Having stayed there four nights during a business trip and concluding my visit with two further nights at the Hilton, just down the street, I wish I had stayed at the Hilton throughout. If you want 5-star service and accomodation and pay for it, the Westin is not your choice.

I realized that I have been giving excellent reviews previously. I thought I was overly generous when I gave a 5* hotel in Milan a top review despite the fact that I found a strand of hair in the bathroom wall soon after I checked in. At the end of the day, I left the hotel feeling great, so a minor glitch on the first hour in the hotel was soon forgotten.

This Westin is another story. It started ok, but gets worse by the day, with the last day being the worst. Really.

Ok the hotel was relatively cheap, great value for money. The basic room I had was spacious with wonderful high ceiling. The room has an in-room fax. The old and tired working desk and few other old furniture but its fine. Best bit of the room was its size, quite big for a standard room in my opinion. The hotel is also going through renovations, that's good as they really needed one.

The TV is a big and bulky one small screened, and the remote did not work half of the time. It was not even a Philips remote, it was a universal remote. For a Westin I'd expect a slightly better TV. But not a big deal.

Here are the reasons why this hotel gets, at best, a poor rating from me:

The sink in the bathroom did not function properly. It takes a while just for the water to sink after washing your hands.

I had a problem with my laptop, the hotel did not have an I.T expert. I would expect all 5 * hotels around the world to have at least one person whose great in I.T.

The cleaning dept is inconsistent. There was a day where they took my towels and did not replace it. Then basic things were also not replenished like bath salts. There was even a day where they did not even clean my room, even though the no disturb sign was not hung. I returned late one night to find that my room was still a mess, and I wanted to have a late shower but they did not replace my towels. I called for it, and the smart guys there forgot to send one up, so I just slept and waited till the next morning.

The room service was very inconsistent too! I had the same banana pancake for breakfast every single day. Once it was ok, the next day would come with honey instead of maple syrup, another day would come with fruits, some days there were no fruits on the side. Once the middle of the pancake was still raw! It was a medium rare pancake!!!
HERE IS THE BEST PART, I was charged 3 different prices for the same plate of banana pancake. Several days 25 Riyals, others were 30 Riyals, and then 40 Riyals!!!

The newspaper delivery was inconsistent too. Of my 9 days stay, 4 days I got the English newspaper, one day I did not even get one, and the rest I got it in Arabic! I think after several days stay they thought I had picked up Arabic!

Laundry service was so-so. Once they sent up only half of the laundry, forgot to send the rest. Another time, they failed to see the no disturb sign on the door and woke me up with the loud room bell.

I wanted to apply a Starwood Preferred Loyalty card, I had asked them 3 times! Even when I checked out I still did not get the temporary card number. Unlike Accor, my stay at Ibis was immediately accredited and I got the temporary number in my email by the time I got home! Its been almost 2 full days and I still have not heard from Starwood, mind you the first time I asked them for registration was a week ago. Do they even want a loyal guest??!!

I better stop here. None was the above was even remotely made up, its all true story.

Stay at your own risk.

I have previously enjoyed staying in Sheraton Hotels in different countries such as Egypt which were a far higher standard of customer service, facilities and food.
On the morning after our arrival there was no water to shower until after midday, and we were not offered to move to another room where water was available.
We were given room number 1904, although there was a sea view, overall, we did not feel that the room was up to the standard expected – the TV was in the dressing table, and the room was not set up properly in order to use the TV in comfort.
The location of breakfast was not explained to guests, which meant that we ate in an area that was reserved and consequently had to pay an additional charge of SR126.50 for an expensive meal in Le Japonais instead of the meal that we had paid for in advance.
When we eventually found the breakfast, (which was in an inconvenient location in a different building) it was of a very poor standard – there were only pastries, which were apparently not fresh, guests were not free to select their own food, tea and coffee were also not readily offered except when guests requested from staff. This did not represent good value for money.
I am feeling very unhappy that having chosen to spend my break in Westin with the expectation of nothing less than excellent food and service, facilities and standard of care for guests, my experience did not live up to the good reputation of Westin hotels.
I would not recommend Westin Hotels again to friends or colleagues. I feel I should bring this to your attention in order to encourage an improvement of quality in future, I hope to receive a prompt and positive response from you.