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.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
9 February 2012
Thank you for taking the time to share your remarks on TripAdvisor.
I read your review with a delighted smile as this is what we are continuously striving to achieve. Obviously, not the fact that you had a poor experience upon your arrival - for which I offer my sincere apologies as this should not have happened - but the fact that we managed to turnaround what could have been an overall disappointing stay.
I am extremely pleased that the team responded quickly to your comments and that they had the opportunity to upgrade you and your parents to suites as a way of an apology. Furthermore, I was happy to note that you found the rest of the hotel amazing and that you would highly recommend us.
Thank you for choosing to stay at Raffles Dubai, we look forward to welcoming you back on a future occasion.
Sincerely yours,
Peter French
General Manager
Report response as inappropriate
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC