Traveled to Dubai on business - my first trip there. Raffles was recommended by my client so we booked through our travel agent. The location was very convenient - a 5 minute ride from the airport and 15 minutes to the city. Upon arrival I warmly greeted by the staff, and recognized by name thoughout my three day-two night stay. Guest services and Concierge staff were helpful and accomodating. And my room - a suite on the 13th floor with all of Dubai city outside my balcony - was amazing. My room also came with butler service whose staff was knowledgeable and enthusiastic. Fitness/spa was inviting as well. Five stars to this facility and staff!

Myself, my other half and my parents stayed in Raffles for 5 nights (my parents 7 nights) in jan/feb 2012.

First for the negative - The trip was for my 30th birthday, and my dad emailed 3weeks prior to stay asking that we had rooms next to eachother, or at least on the same floor, with city views of the Burj Khalifa. When we arrived at the hotel at 1am after travelling from the UK we found that our rooms were not ready, and that the rooms were on the 5th and 8th floors. Neither with views. I understand that this is subject to availability but getting in touch 3 weeks before you'd expect this to be arranged in a 5 star hotel. We also had considerable delays getting in to the rooms, then receiving luggage. It was after 3am before we got to bed. The room itself was huge for a standard room, with a seperate living room, desk, dressing room, massive bathroom, coffee machine in every room, and a vast amount of toilettries. Despite the lovely room, I couldn't sleep and emailed the hotel manager complaining about the arrival/check in process. Upon getting back to the room after breakfast in the morning, I had a message to contact the front desk manager. He met with me in the lobby and apologised for the issues and we were upgraded to a suite, and my parents to the adjacent suite. He came along with the concierge to collect our luggage and walked us to our new room. WOW - massive room! Corner suite with floor to ceiling windows with views over the Burj Khalifa and swimming pool. They'd also set up a personal cake, card, cheese board, fruit for our arrival. From here on in we couldn't fault much with Raffles Dubai.

Breakfast - a huge selection. Never ate anything bad there. Slightly short staffed some mornings though.

The pool - great service, complimentary iced tea and water, fruit skewers and cold towels brought regularly. Pool nice temperature, comfy beds, various jacuzzis.

Concierge were very helpful with advice on where to go. Staff were in general very friendly, some addressing you by first name when you had no idea who they were!

Location is connected to wafi, which is handy. Otherwise, location could be better, however the price would go through the roof if on jumeriah beach! Taxis are cheap and there are always ones available outside the hotel.

Hotel restaurants were very good. Noble House on the top floor - delicious. Red lounge - great cocktails. We also ventured in to the club on a Thursday night...unexpectedly busy and lively! Reasonably priced drinks (for Dubai).

All in all raffles was great, the best hotel we've ever stayed in. I'd recommend to anyone. Hopefully we'll be back.

We just returned from 3 night stay at Raffles Dubai which we enjoyed very much.
We had booked a Raffles club room for our family (2+2). On the check in we were upgraded to a absolutely fantastic suite with 200 m2 including huge living room, bar, huge terrace etc. We also got two extra beds and have probably never stayed as much in the room to enjoy room service dinners etc as during our great stay! The room is by far the best room i have ever stayed - even the standard club room would have been 70 m2 !!

What we found great in Raffles:
a) overall and everywhere excellent service by all the people - attention to details, trying to call us eveywhere by name. This goes from hotel management greetings to cleaning people, bellmen, pool staff etc. Not one bad experience which is a big compliment to Raffles for the consistency!
b) sizes of the rooms are huge by any standard quality including amenities etc are all great
c) wifi was included in price and was fast
d) raffles club was great and the staff there made extra effort to make it a memorable stay
e) location close to airport (10 minutes taxi drive)
f) both the pool and the gym where in good condition and well taken care of

improvement points especially since the hotel management is actively following up on feedback - which i find great:
a) in some areas the hotel is not taken care as you would expect Raffles to take care of : e.g. the garden was in poor condition, broken tiles by walkways, half of the flowers missing etc. no big deal for us but in 5 star it is about attention to details..
b) as mentioned by people before the breakfast can indeed be a bit slow experience if the restaurant is full. even in almost empty times waiting for the Cafe Latte takes time, they insist bringing omelettes to table and they get lost. Food assortment for the size of the restaurant is good and also quality as well but the breakfast operation could be improved. either more self service which is also ok or then more people to provide the fantastic service that the people are trying to give
c) location is close to motorway but honestly most of Dubai hotels have similar unattractive location unless you stay by the beach

Since my first trip which was on business with group of executive colleagues of the company we work for , we unanimously fell in love with Raffles Dubai hotel& chose it as our for First prefered hotel in Dubai. We were highly taken by the impeccable service, friendliness of the staff, nice cuisines & ofcourse the beauty of the executive rooms & suites.I have taken my whole family with my grand children, though I was not so sure of how they will feel about it , yet they all shared with me the unforgettable experience & became as well their prefered hotel in Dubai & came again & again.If whenver we faced a problem, it was not any solved but turned into positive points.We became part of the the family for the staff members of the hotel & turned to be our home in Dubai.Raffles Dubai has set the typical model of "cutomer for life".