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Hi,
We’re looking at some Dubai hotels for Easter.
We’re looking at hotels outside the Palm/Jumeriah beach as we’ve done enough of these stays previously. I’m also getting very good rates for these particular two during the Easter break.Has anyone had any experience of staying at these properties – both have exec lounge which suits us with me being Diamond.
I read a few previous comments of the Conrad being a bit dated – but location wise, this is right across the metro, so getting out and back should be fairly easy?Any feedback would be appreciated.
Have stayed in both, the Conrad many times, Hilton AL Habtoor just the once, and for good reason.
The Conrad – breakfast, rooms, pool area, lounge, all are an oasis of calm. The Hilton Habtoor by comparison is a Zoo in all regards!
As Diamond, Conrad breakfast can be had in either the lounge or in the restaurant, either waiter served or self served – inside or out, Hilton breakfast is chaos, and if you are diamond they will show you to a little glass corner cubicle with about 4 table in it!
There is no comparison.Conrad pool is on the 6th floor in a lush tropical environment and waterfalls, Hilton Al Habtoor pool is on the roof of the building, adjoining the “V” hotel pool next door, think US Spring Break! By comparison – a Zoo!
Conrad lounge is a very relaxing place up on the 24th floor with comfortable lounge seating and uninterrupted views of the gulf (through the haze), free flowing drinks in the evening, and food is both delicious and plentiful, presented by a chef. Hilton Al Habtoor lounge isn’t even in the Hilton Hotel, It’s in “V”, you have to take two lifts and cross hotels, it’s open, noisy, and buffet style chicken nuggets etc – No comparison!
You say you have read that Conrad is dated, well I actually found the Hilton to be even more so.
The Conrad is a very comfortable hotel, and as a metro station outside the door. It’s 15 minutes from the airport, so quite a bit away from the Palm and JBR etc, but the Al Habtoor is only a mile or 2 up the road.If you are looking for hustle and bustle, music blaring in your ears, a poor lounge presentation, and noisy spring breakers falling down drunk everywhere then I can highly recommend the Hilton Al Habtoor!
* the one thing about the Habtoor is that the very good “La Perle” show is next door in the “V”. However it’ll cost you about a fiver to get there in a taxi from Conrad.
The choice is yours 🙂
Thanks – really appreciate the detailed response. Looks like I’ll be going for the Conrad, more so after reading your post. The reviews generally are also very good and location wise it will suit us for getting out and about with the metro link.
Just one more thing, Conrad always initially seem a bit “reluctant” with decent upgrades, happens to me all the time. They’ll maybe offer you an Exec room but that’s about it. However if you politely insist as a HH Diamond one of the suits will always appear and a decent room will then become available.
I should say I have never stayed in a suite there, I was given a corner room on my first ever stay and now always ask for that, it is HUGE, and lovely and bright with all the wrap around glass.
They’re never on the Exec floor sadly but a small price to pay.Oh, and it never hurts to check if there is a large convention on across the road in the WTC before you pick your dates, some of those events can be huge and the Conrad can get quite full – esp the lounge!
The room rate is always a good guide.
Enjoy…
I stayed in both hotels back in September on a work trip. I’ve stayed at the Conrad on two previous work trips too.
This time I used FH&R with my Amex platinum so got $100 to spend on a massage at the Conrad, and $100 to spend at Habtoor Palace. I also got $150 F&B credit and a 4th night free at Habtoor making it within my company budget for hotels. The $350 was great as a separate perk to make my business trip a lot better in my free time.
I like the Conrad, but not the breakfast. They have a huge selection, which I find off-putting, I prefer a smaller selection but done right. The pool is excellent and Spa is nice, as is the Rhain steak restaurant (get the Wagyu burger, you get Wagyu fillet slices in it). I do find the rooms a little dated. It’s a better location for the Metro (and my office) for sure, but Habtoor, whilst not close to much, it not far from everything, so it’s a good base for taxi travel.
The Conrad didn’t upgrade me, or I didn’t notice much of an upgrade (Hilton Gold with my Plat card). Habtoor gave me a huge suite and the service levels were very high. They remembered my choice of table at breakfast, my drinks and food orders, and were very attentive throughout. Fresh honeycomb with quality fruit/yogurt and eggs benedict is a better breakfast for me than a big buffet. They also do a free shuttle to the Waldorf Palm. I got a Lexus, but some people get a Bentley. The rooftop pool is not as good, but you can use two other rooftop Hilton pools adjoining the hotel. I was off season so didn’t get the Spring break vibes. They have a small but decent kids club too. The spa at Habtoor was a little better than Hilton, particularly the ‘experience shower’.
If I get sent back to Dubai I’ll be staying at Habtoor again, 100%.
I saw La Perla, which was alright. I booked online as it was cheaper than through the hotel.
Hope this was helpful.Are you saying that guests at the Hilton Al Habtoor get to use the pool and beach at the Waldorf Palm? And presumably guests of the LXR Habtoor and the V hotel there too? I find that a bit of a liberty. It’s one thing guests of Grosvenor House (Luxury Collection) getting beach and pool access at Le Royal Meridien (a lower tier brand). But to be able to book a Hilton and get a backdoor pass into a Waldorf…..
I last stayed at the Hilton Habtoor November 2022, the courtesy bus then took you to, and gave you assess to, the Habtoor Palace at JBR, not the Waldorf. So presumably that must have changed?
Also N16K, I’m at a loss that you found the the Conrad breakfast off-putting due to the huge selection, because the Hilton Habtoor breakfast restaurant/buffet must be AT LEAST 3 times the size of Conrad! The length of the place, the huge selection, and the way it was spread out over such a large area, turns the whole experience into absolute chaos and makes it almost impossible to find what you want!
I last stayed at the Hilton Habtoor November 2022, the courtesy bus then took you to, and gave you assess to, the Habtoor Palace at JBR, not the Waldorf. So presumably that must have changed?
Also N16K, I’m at a loss that you found the the Conrad breakfast off-putting due to the huge selection, because the Hilton Habtoor breakfast restaurant/buffet must be AT LEAST 3 times the size of Conrad! The length of the place, the huge selection, and the way it was spread out over such a large area, turns the whole experience into absolute chaos and makes it almost impossible to find what you want!
* Oh, and the shuttle to the Habtoor Palace wasn’t a Lexus or a Bentley, it was a 24 seater bus…
Do you mean Habtoor Grand? That’s on JBR Walk and is an Autograph in Marriott, whereas Habtoor Palace is co-located with the Hilton under discussion. That feels like a more like-for-like beach option. I’m sorry to be spitting my dummy out but considering the price of the Waldorf Palm I’d be pretty put out if guests of Hilton’s lower brands were freeriding.
Sorry yes, my mistake, Habtoor Grand, down at JBR next door to Le Royal Meridian
When I stayed at Habtoor there were other transfers for free for sure. I think one other hotel, the Waldorf Palm (I still get emails after signing up for free WiFi whilst there) and the mall. You can search Tripadvisor reviews for mentions, that’s how I heard about the Bentley. Was disappointed to get the Lexus but glad it wasn’t a 24 seater bus!!
I’m not sure the other Hilton’s are on the same deal, likely just Habtoor.
The breakfast experience I had couldn’t be more different to what someone else said. Maybe because I was off season. The Habtoor looked to me like higher quality and less quantity and the Conrad was a myriad of options, all done to a lower standard. They did have pork though, which was nice for a pork eater like me. I loved the a la carte style breakfast at Habtoor and in my opinion everything was just better. Maybe I had too many nights at Conrad and got sick of it quicker. I’m not a huge fan of big buffet breakfasts personally.
Searching Tripadvisor reviews for specific quotes is a really good way to get info ahead of a trip, I do this regularly.Looking at either of these two for a stay over Christmas/NY this year, so confused by the mixed reviews.
I’m 3 days out from a 3 night cash stay at the Conrad, just received an upgrade via the app from a base king skyline to a King deluxe suite
Feels fairly generous, a good 2-3 level upgrade on what was a fairly cheap cash booking – around £120 per night to a suite going for £250ish per night
Platinum member, no previous stays
Diamond*
Hard to fault the Conrad, big triple upgrade to a suite, early check in and late check out and waived a few items of laundry from the bill
Location is great, connected to the red metro line for a lot of the big attractions, pool area was quiet each day (albeit was Ramadan) and Kimpo in the lobby was a nice place to grab a cocktail
That’s good to hear. We’ll be checking in tomorrow so hopeful of a similar Diamond upgrade.
Due to the dreadful Dubai arrival and departure times of our Emirates flight from NCL the early check in/late check out unfortunately won’t be applicable to us.
We do need to make a trip to Festival City, looking at the metro map, we’re thinking of taking the metro to Creek, then the water taxi across.That’s good to hear. We’ll be checking in tomorrow so hopeful of a similar Diamond upgrade.
Due to the dreadful Dubai arrival and departure times of our Emirates flight from NCL the early check in/late check out unfortunately won’t be applicable to us.
We do need to make a trip to Festival City, looking at the metro map, we’re thinking of taking the metro to Creek, then the water taxi across.If they don’t offer you a decent upgrade at the desk “due to unavailability”, be bold and politely insist. Someone will then be fetched from out back and a nice upgrade will suddenly appear – from experience.
On Festival City. You are only giving yourself a lot of faffing about getting there by metro and boat. Get a taxi, it’ll be far quicker (15 mins or less) and probably just as cheap – 10 quid tops!
* Oh, and if you check the Uber prices beforehand, the hotel cars will usually match the price, (Conrad Concierge can be VERY flexible), don’t use them off hand as they’ll rip you off. Uber, negotiate, or ask the Concierge to hail you a local.
Thanks for the info. I’ve also just discovered that particular water taxi only runs on weekends so taxi will be the best option I reckon.
Just to update, I managed to get the suite upgrade but unfortunately only for the last half of our trip.
On check in, I was told there was no suites available due to an upcoming conference and the hotel would be very busy over the next couple of days – to be fair it was. Loads of delegates about the place.
Due our dreadful arrival time of our Newcastle flight (and with two young kids with us), it was nearly 3am when we checked in so we just wanted to get to bed.
But kept checking back with them and on day 3 was told a suite had become available and we were kindly moved. Suite is fabulous.
The hotel in general is very good. Can’t fault it. The service is brilliant.
Executive lounge is very good and they had no quibbles in inviting my mum in who was visiting from an outside hotel (Intercontinental Festival City).
Location is good for getting out and about – well connected with metro stop over road and we’ve never been waiting more than 2 mins for an Uber.
There’s also a variety of restaurants over the road near the WTC and Muesum of Future is just a 5 min walk.
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