The Al Waleed Hotel...
I spent 6 days with my mother at one of the deluxe bedroom apartments at the Al waleed hotel during the the new year and first days of January and booked it following the convenient price offer (at the time of booking), location as well as reasonably positive reviews.
The hotel is in the Barsha area about 12-15 min walk from the Mall of Emirates. Barsha is an area still being developed,so expect a lot of building work being carried out. The Hotel (once you learn how to get there and where to go) is easy to get to, but the first time was slightly hard to find.
On our arrival what struck me the most was the very warm welcoming. Everyone from the management,reception,guard to cleaning staff was extremely attentive and smily during our stay.
On the other hand I'd like to point out a few areas that could improve immensely the quality of the service the Hotel provides.
The apartments all and all are decently presented, but in the the kitchen area (like some previous reviews had mentioned) there were only 2 of each of the utensils. Not the end of the world,but 4 would have been much better.
The kitchen hob would snap the fuse if too many appliances were turned on at the same time. Management: it must be checked ASAP!
In the bedroom, there were only 3 clothes hangers in total in the huge wardrobes.
One bedroom light was not working.
We had booked the deluxe bedroom,consequently one expects everything to be working just fine.
There is a small size hotel gym on the roof top. Plenty of light through the windows and the equipment is ok to have a decent good workout. Having said that it'd be nice to have also some bottles of water,or a fountain and hand towels or tissues already provided in the gym. Common sense one sweats,so...
The swimming pool on the roof top is a huge plus and makes the Al Waleed Hotel a winner,but here too there also were a few things that could be improved. For instance, I asked to open the only parasol they have as the sun was burning and I was told that it doesn't work and what I should do was to fill in a feedback card that would be brought to the management's attention.
From the look of it,it seemed that it had been there for quite sometime and if it doesn't work,why would you keep it there anyhow?!? Also I didn't see any shower facilities there. It made me think twice before entering in the water. Actually I didn't due to that.
Over all my experience was positive and I would certainly choose the hotel again for its strong key points. Politeness,and attention of the staff. In my opinion, you can have everything working, but if you have rude or careless staff your holiday is ruined. My feedback is not criticism,but simple observations to make an already decently good hotel even better and more competitive.