Novotel Bahrain Al Dana Resort — Hotel in Bahrain Island

Now i know why its always empty and why people dont come.

I used to go their and eat and drink. The food was amazing and staff was always courteous and nice especially at fish bowl but the place was always empty. I didnt understand why till i stayed there.

The place is run by poor management and despite the fact that they have good staff, their policies are extremely bad and extremely weak control over customer experience.

A few examples. I ordered room service daily and the oddest thing was they dont give plates with food to eat. I ordered 3 dishes the first day and when i asked how do i eat they said from the bowls. 2 of us were shocked that as an elite hotel they dont have plates. Not sure how to share food between us or even have a little bit of every thing. When asked they said as a hotel we dont give plates thats the policy. When i pushed he brought us two plates from the kitchen.

Secondly every time with the room service there was no tray. The guy who came to service every time said pls return the tray right away as i onky have 1. Again i have never experienced it before. Normally they pick up the tray the next day or when asked.

Thirdly i came to the room after working all day and my wife had left over lunch. I wanted to have the same so requested them for a spoon and folk. They sent a wooden spoon which was flat and nothijg could be done with it other than perhaps play drums on a desk. When asked why they said they dont serve silver cutlery. When again pressed and asked how to eat they sent proper cutlery. Again served in hand by a guy without any tray service.

After all of this when i had enough i called the duty manager and firstly he never replied to my call and after me calling two times he called back. I started the conversation by telling him what happened and i said this sort of servive doesnt suit a 5 star hotel. I was amazed at his response. Rather then apologizing he said we are a 4 star hotel and not a 5 star hotel. Then again when i said i must be complaining due to a reason he said he will look into it but never called back.

Last but not the least the pool timings are till 8 pm and the poor management allows the staff to start closing from 7 pm. Infront of all the guests the staff starts to put the pool barrier then they start to close up. However this is not a big one as normally only a few customers are there by that time and i am sure after a long hot day staff is in a hurry to go home. Just that again as a management control this shows weakness.

There are alot more small things but i mentioned a few which every day caused me to think whats wrong with this place and realize that despite having the most gorgeous hotel, awesome location, best food and good smiling staff. Still every restaurant is empty every night and day and i am not sure of room occupancy.

Hotels like radisson blue, westin, le-meredian, sofitel, ritz, etc. All are completely full and u need a booking while all restaurants here are always empty drspite a great view as well. Better then others actually.

This is purely a management failure with poor policies. Its not even a 4 star then. And while writing this review i am sure they will write back with excuses or some odd story rather then fixing...

Dear Accor team,

I would like to share my disaster experience during my recent stay in Novotel Al Dana Resort in Bahrain.

This was my second stay in this resort and my experience was disaster and unbearable. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PROPERTY IF YOU ARE TRAVELLING WITH SMALL KIDS.

I’m not sure why they show such unprofessional attitude, right from the entrance gate, through to check-in and till you exit the property.

The moment I entered the property, the security guard asked me “YES, WHATTTTT DO YOU WANTT???”. I told him I have a reservation and then he said, YALLA GO AND PARK (IN THE PARKING NEAR GATE) AND PROCEED TO RESERVATION. There were plenty of parking spaces vacant near the reception area itself which he refused to allow.

On Day 2, I requested for plates and small quantity of salt to feed homemade food for my infant and the response was, I need to order food from the property to get plate and salt. I requested repeatedly, but they refused to provide. I had a lengthy argument both with reception and hotel team as my infant started crying due to hunger. As a father, I was unable to control my emotions too, but no one was kind enough to help me out. In the end, restaurant attender manipulated my aggressive request to the hotel manager, who said I can check out if I’m not comfortable with the stay!!!!!!!!!.

How comes a restaurant manager can force me to vacate the property if I’m not comfortable with the stay??

In the end, I was blamed for being aggressive rather then understanding the guest's urgency while staying with small infants.

The restaurant team should accept the fact that Half-boarding packages comes with a price not as a complementary (we pay money and you provide food). They were not cooperative at all during my breakfast and dinner time which was another story. Most of the warm food trays were open all the time, and there were no cutleries on the table . The staffs were very tired and exhausted due to long working hours (I feel sorry for them).

I have stayed in many Accor properties worldwide and I never experienced such worst behaviors (not in even in the hotels which has star rating of 3 and below).

Also, you cannot request water bottles directly from the house keeping team even if you see them near to your room. You need to call reception to place official request for water bottles.

All I can hear from them was “AS PER HOTEL POLCIY…..”. I do respect the policy, but there should be a kind gesture to some urgent requests, especially for the guests coming with infants and kids.

There were other problems too, like poor wifi connection, card deactivation before the first day, the pool was not temperature controlled (not as advertised in the website), they refused to provide bottled drinking water in the restaurant (even for half-board package) which I can tolerate to an extent but not their bad behaviors. Regarding pool water temperate, they said this will be activated only during peak winter. You can see every one trying to fit in the jacuzzi (as a pool) which was the only temperature...

Read reviews before booking, an advice that I did not do carefully when I booked my room.

The clear scam of writing sea view at the title of the room, is really annoying. My wife and I booked a sea view roam and it was not cheap. We actually chose the highest price in that category to get a room with a good view. However, we got a room that has road view with a tiny sea view. ( which by the way happened to a customer who wrote a review here, only one month ago ) this room should be titled :

PARTIAL SEA VIEW