The Park Hyatt Dubai has not changed at all since my last visit in 2011. While the hotel is well-maintained with an extremely convenient location near the airport, I will be trying a different Hyatt property next time I return to Dubai. Then again, I’m particular about weird stuff…
After arriving from Dushanbe at 8:15p, Ben and I took a short cab ride over to the Park Hyatt, where we’d spend the next two nights. We paid only $120/night for the hotel, a benefit of visiting Dubai in the heat of summer. Upon reaching the hotel at about 9pm, neither of us were assigned a suite. We were told all suites were occupied and the hotel’s website did confirm this.
I mentioned that if a suite opened the following day, I would be willing to move rooms. The agent checking me in said that she would call in the morning if a room opened. I have pictures of my standard room the first night, but will include just a few — you can read my full review from 2011 which is still very accurate.
Park Hyatt Dubai Guest Room
The standard room is starting to show its age, but still very roomy.
The following afternoon I did receive a call from the front desk asking if I wanted to move to a suite. While the regular room was actually just fine, I figured I would move rooms so that I could offer a suite review for the blog. My new room was just a few doors down: a bellhop brought the new key.
Park Hyatt Dubai Suite
My suite included a large living room, work area, guest bathroom, bedroom, master bath, and two balconies.
The living room had seats for four with two additional seats that could be brought in from the balcony.
The bedroom featured accordion doors behind the bed that opened to a spacious bathroom.
The bathroom contained two sinks, a beautiful stand-alone bathtub, shower room, water closet, and two large closets. Toiletries were also provided.
The guest bathroom was accessible from the living room and contained a toilet, bidet, and sink:
Mini-bar and coffee pot:
Park Hyatt Dubai Breakfast
I mentioned in my opening paragraph above that I would stay in a different hotel next time I visited Dubai. The reason: breakfast.
If you look at the pictures below, you can see what appears to be a beautiful buffet in Cafe Arabesque with a wide variety of food. But there were two problems: no fresh orange juice and extremely oily eggs and omelets. I am perfectly happy to stipulate that this is inconsequential for many. Furthermore, I give the hotel high marks for coffee and for breads/pastries. But I prefer not to drink sugary orange juice from a carton or eat eggs drowning in oil. OJ and eggs are two of my favorite parts of breakfast.
In addition, our service in the restaurant was very disappointing. Waiters and waitresses roam the room and the lady assigned to our table on the first day never managed a smile and did not proactively offer refills on coffee or clear away cups/dishes.
This is a Park Hyatt hotel…the flagship of the Hyatt chain. Unfortunately, the breakfast simply did not cut it.
Park Hyatt Dubai Pool + Fitness
The hotel has a beautiful pool area and a comprehensive fitness center with cardiovascular and strength training equipment. You reach the gym by entering the hotel’s beauty salon then walking one level down.
Interested in a steam room or sauna? Inside the locker rooms in the Amara Spa guests can use gender-segregated facilities even if they are not getting a spa treatment.
The pool area also has a bar with a wide variety of drinks available. The ironic thing about Dubai is that while the nation has no bars and restaurants cannot serve alcohol, hotels are exempted. Unlike in the Maldives, locals are permitted to dine in local hotels.
Park Hyatt Dubai Service
The hotel was extremely crowded (not surprising at $120/night), but every service encounter (outside the restaurant for breakfast) was excellent. Particularly in the lobby, every hotel associate was quite friendly and eager to assist.
CONCLUSION
I want to underscore that this is a very solid property with spacious rooms and nice amenities. At the same time, the breakfast was sufficiently disappointing to me that I will try either the Grand Hyatt or one of the Hyatt Regency properties next time I am in Dubai. Check out my previous review for details on the hotel’s other restaurants.
Stunning Matthew. We need to add this to our to-do list.
Beautiful property.
I realize (especially) in a Park Hyatt that they should get it right the first time, but I wonder if you would have asked for freshly squeezed orange juice they would have brought you some? I’m sure they’ve got oranges….
And if you sent the oily eggs back/asked for them not oily?
But I do agree if two of your main criteria for breakfast are not met your reluctance to return for “more of the same.” I just wonder, especially with the eggs, if it was a one-time cook thing. It’s certainly a lovely property off-season for a great rate. A bit of “throwing the baby out with the bathwater?”