I read some reports on the web-site which made me wonder what to expect staying here. The place is not all that well signposted but if you aim for the Corniche and drive along there, you will find it shortly before the large Kempinski hotel at the Northern end of it.
If you pay 200 AEDs for a night in a hotel with breakfast, you don’t expect much... but what I got was the following:
- Free parking in the quite limited and scabby parking area (not covered).
- Relatively easy check in by the polite but not very efficient Indian check in staff.
- Double room with small balcony (housing resident pigeons and the related bird poo!!!) looking over the beach and the pool and various outside bars and restos
- Slightly tired and quite small room but most stuff in working order.
- AC (in good working order) with wirefree remote controller (unit on balcony)
- Fridge – old but functional – temp control knob broken off and iced up at the top – but working
- Old TV with limited channels and poor picture – mostly sports but I didn’t bother to fiddle with it to find a news channel.
- Free WiFi throughout – not the fastest but fine for free
- Bathroom – very tired but functional although no plug for the bath. No hot water in room. Toilet flush was broken – I ended up fixing the cistern myself as it was so annoying.
The place was cleanish or as clean as it can be with the age of some things.
Bars and restaurants are reasonably priced. A Corona beer in bars and restos was 18 AED which is reasonable for UAE I guess. There is a bottle shop right next door to the hotel – adding somewhat to the seedy feel.
Plenty Westerners around – some families and some groups of ‘lads’.
Couple of night clubs (or maybe three?) right by the place – one for Indians and one called Asiania. Quite noisy later on and into the night. Heavy looking Jamaicans / Nigerian (I guess) provide security firm – quite a few of them by clubs and outside bar
Some people posted about the ladies of the night around the place. They were not wrong there were a lot of prostitutes around – mostly older and Chinese! They appeared to be getting a good trade from the many Dutch and Germans at the hotel and various locals. I actually wondered if the hookers operated by the hotel? They seemed to be coming from the staff quarters area!
Only main complaint would be that there was no safe in the room. There is no keycard system so it works by keys so I have some doubts about security. And breakfast was not up to much but fairly edible.
All in all, no massive complaints considering I paid a low price – I would be happy to stay here again! Seedy is a very accurate word for this place though. If you want a plusher place, the Kempinski hotel is only 2-300 metres further along the road.
Hope that helps