I wrote an earlier - since removed - scathing review based on first impressions, but subsequently warmed a little to the place. it does have a very forbidding eastern-europe-in-the-1950s aspect to it. But given it's in Saudi Arabia, what more can we expect? They don't do seaside in the middle east, so i suppose this is as good as it gets (cripes i'd rather spend a week here than at one of those daily-mail-reader bling palaces in Dubai).
Plus the food was excellent, and available 24 hours a day - important when you're working and can't rely on when the next meal's coming. Free wiFi in the lobby was handy too.
Also it was nice to see young Saudi couples able to relax and wander round in each other's company (blimey, hand in hand even) in casual western dress without fear of being banged up or sentenced to 100 lashes. More of this please in the Kingdom of Humanity.

I've been in two minds on what to post on this hotel. As the Otterman says, the architecture around the hotel comes direct from the Ceausescu school of design. Your approach is through security gates, over numerous lethal speed bumps and along roads lined by what look like concrete tank traps. But the hotel itself is a modest, two story affair with two wings off an airy, central atrium with a fairly attractive pool complex outside.

My ground floor room was perfectly adequate for my needs. A big (for this 6 footer) bed with clean sheets and duvet, plenty of hanging space, safe, a mini fridge and large new colour widescreen tv with satellite feeds. No real desk space which would have made working from it difficult. The curtains are paper thin though. The bathroom was fairly well equipped too with a bidet and wall mounted hairdryer, large mirror, free toiletries, clean towels and - amazingly - toilet roll but no plug in the sink.

Free wi-fi as mentioned but only in the foyer. Breakfast doesn't add up to much but the evening food has been pretty good. There are a lot of staff drifting around, probably wondering what they're doing in the middle of nowhere. English levels are poor to moderate but they're very pleasant all the same.

To surmise, I've stayed in far better but far worse too - and some of the latter were in the UK or the USA, not in Saudi Arabia.

We are currently based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which is a very cosmopolitan city in the Kingdom. By word of mouth we heard about Durrah Beach Resort and thought it would be a nice short getaway with the children, who are aged 2 and 3. Being Ramadan, we got a very good rate so we decided on the diplomatic suite. We figured this would give us lots of space and would be comfortable when we wanted to be indoors out of the heat.

Our check-in went smoothly, and we were taken to room 604. It was huge - two bedrooms, a huge lounge/dining, and two bathrooms, one being an ensuite. We were disappointed that there was no carpet in any of the rooms in the suite, but didn't think too much of it. We found that the air conditioning in the main bedroom was not working, nor was the doorbell.

It was disappointing that even being a suite there were no tea/coffee facilities, no juice or water in the bar fridge, and one roll of toilet paper between the two bathrooms. Towels were minimal too. There was no information about the hotel, nothing about facilities or opening hours. The main bedroom had no TV or alarm clock.

Even being Ramadan, we were able to order room service and the prices were reasonable. The food came in a reasonable time too.

The beach was nice and close, and the pool was fine for us and the kids, not a deep one though. This is a resort where women can wear normal beachwear, and an abaya is not required.

Our not-so-pleasant experience began with dinner, when my husband was waiting for the one remaining table, and a group of outside guests entered, went straight past my husband who was waiting with two children, and the manager seated them at that table. When my husband told the manager that we were guests at the hotel and waiting for that table, he simply walked away and ignored him. After quite a wait we were eventually given a table out in the corridor.

Going back to our room there were no lights in the foyer on the floor level of our room, and no lights outside our room.

When we got back to the room we found that all the floors were damp. The air conditioning appeared to be working, but all the floors had become very slippery and damp, and our children kept slipping over.

We had paid for 2 nights, but that evening we decided to leave the next morning, it was all becoming very uncomfortable. The floors remained damp no matter how much air conditioning we turned on. The dining table chair seats were also damp.

We checked out the next morning, and luckily they refunded us the remaining night - we had paid cash ahead of time. It was very disappinting - what was promoted as an upscale resort outside of Jeddah was very uncomfortable, badly maintained, and the staff had a poor attitude towards guests.