Habtoor Grand Resort

Booked here after another hotel in JBR had closed their pool for refurbishment and this was a recommendation from a friend. On arrival I received a printed notification stating their second pool was closed until 16th August which was fine as I checked in the day before. On the first day, a pool day, noticed the pool was pretty busy even though it’s off season, but more noticeable was the massive building site and diggers next to the pool. A few days later I tried to access the 2nd pool and still closed and when addressed this I was informed it would be closed until further notice, but no communication, why this couldn’t be put on the main page when you log onto the tv or a notice under the door is poor. In terms of the building works, the reception manager, Randhi I believe advised this was mentioned on sites just a blatant lie. I checked this and there were no disclaimers across any sites, theirs and other 3rd parties. Later in the holiday building works cranked up at 3am on the other side of the hotel where they’re extending the highway and doing other building works. I understand this is normal in Dubai but not at other hotels I’ve stayed at in JBR. The location isn’t great, metro and tram are a good 20 minutes walk and in 45 degrees that isn’t ideal so taxis everywhere for reference. The saving grace of this hotel is the service of the staff, except Gemma on the front desk who was ignorant and rude and didn’t help junior staff such as Sultan. But, the diamond of the hotel is Raneem who was extremely apologetic and understanding and appeased me very well, she is a star as are Abhishek in the pool area who tirelessly runs around in the very hot weather and Sofi, Myat and Matti I believe in the Lounge area who are very personable and very attentive. The hotel half board option is good especially the steak restaurant and underground pubs, the Italian was empty all the time and the main breakfast in Al Dhifaya restaurant was average and the same every day, but you get this everywhere. The rooms were massive to be fair and had slept well until the last few days due to the building works, but they are dated as are other parts of the hotel like the lifts and tiles coming off in the pool although the grounds are well maintained. Despite the service the hotel are misselling the hotel and misinforming people. The building work by the pool has only just begun and the building a tower 40 plus storeys, so will be there for some time and only get worse. There’s also O Beach club being built by the beach as well, so the hotel is in amongst major building works. Dubai is constantly building so there is an expectation but not being informed is not 5 star standard, this hotel is simply not that. There’s many better hotels along JBR or the Palm. I would avoid if I were you and I’ve taken this hotel off our client list going forward for aforementioned reasons.

Amer is the best chef on the planet, the most luxurious cheesecakes and all the desserts are very tasty. very friendly staff. The cleaning is great, they leave cute elephants on a bed of towels. the beach is very clean and safe. I really like this place

Ate at Luciano’s restaurant for lunch. Mahmoud, Dwi and the rest of the servers were excellent! Customer service was great. The cocktails were lovely. Luciano’s was a very calm and relaxing place to escape the sun. Calamari and fries were delicious.