Husin Al Khaleej Hotel Apartment — Hotel in Muscat Governorate

Its a building containing lots of apartments. I stayed in a 1-bedroom apartment, those are all on the front of the building which means there is quite some street noise (mostly from restaurants opposite) on certain nights, but earplugs can filter most of it out. The bigger apartments are on the side so i guess its better there.||||Its very clean. You have to leave your key at reception if you would like new towels or if the place should be cleaned because they dont have second keys it seems: so dont expect towels if you never leave your key. The whole building is sparkling clean. Every room has well working airco.||||Kitchen: has a gas stove, microwave and electric kettle. There were 2 pots, but they were past their prime. There was no table nor chairs. There were about 3-4 plates/glasses/cups/cutlery. The fridge gets electricity even if you are not in the room, i dont know what happened to the other reviewer whose had a problem with that.||||Livingroom: tv/dvd/sofa/2 big sofa chairs/small tables/phone||||Bedroom: super comfortable bed. A desk without a chair (that was a bit of an issue: there was in fact not a single table-chair in the apartment which made writing/working challenging)||||There were 2 bathrooms, both with a shower/sink/toilet. There is no shower curtain but i think that sort of makes sense in Oman and you get used to it very quickly. There is always enough hot water, provided you just leaves the "heating switch" on continuously.||||The location is smack in Al Khoudh: if that is where you want to be then its great: shops/resto/teahouses all around. Its about a 15min cabride to The As Seeb Mall (around 1 rial, which is probably still overpaid :-))||||The staff: the girl behind reception during the day (i forgot here name) is very professional, friendly and helpful, if you have any problems /questions I suggest you contact her.||||There was also a Filipino guy, who i am less enthusiastic about, mostly i did not appreciate this: one night during the last week i was there i developed a high fever/vomiting. I called down to reception to find out if it would be possible somebody (who i would of course pay for it) goes to the store to get me some stuff to drink and the answer was a flat out "no my friend". Really didn't appreciate that. Coincidentally: about tap water in Oman: some seem to be fine when they drink it, but some of my colleagues that tried got stomach issues so i would suggest sticking to bottles if you are there only for a short while.||||So in conclusion: Oman is not a cheap country so keep that in mind when i say that for the price you pay you get a nice apartment (don't expect a design award but its perfectly decent and functional) with a great bed, very clean place and depending on where your apartment is located its more/less noisy but that can probably be solved with earplugs. Compared with other hotels in this price range i think its fair to say this is a good choice. ||The one thing you should just remember is that Al Khoudh is not Muscat, I needed to be in Khoudh but if you are visiting Muscat than you should remember its about a 30 min drive to the nearest part of what most people see as "muscat centre". There is no breakfast possibility in the building , but there are well stocked supermarkets nearby where you can get...

It is an okay place.||||The rooms are generally clean, and the staff under the management are kind and accommodating. All smiles and quick service. ||||However, this place is not good if you are not Arab and need anything. I stayed in a room for 3 months and had bad experiences with the management.||||If you need anything it goes like this:||||You: "Hello I have X problem, can you help me?"||||Management: "Sure! I'll be right on it. We'll have it fixed tomorrow!"||||You: "Thanks!" ||||6 weeks later, you still have the problem. ||||Everything I have ever asked for help with, from getting a clean towel, to my internet not working (for 3 months), to getting more than one key card so that the electricity in my room would not go off and spoil my food, was never solved. Even after a confrontation or two 8 weeks into my stay nothing was resolved.||||This is a new hotel and it shows.||||I confronted the management once and he denied ever hearing about any problem, then promised to fix everything, but fixed nothing. He even flirted with accusing me of stealing 30 towels. Which I found quite odd. ||||The prices for this hotel are too high. 40-30 OMR a night? It's priced as a classier hotel, but the management is the equivalent of a 20-15 OMR one. What you're paying for here is location, which is okay, but not any sense of responsibility to its clientele. ||||The Hotel is located in Souk Al-Khoud. Souk Al-Khoud is not a fun place to be if your visting Muscat for its history and Arab flavor. It's 30 min from Souk Matrah (that's a 6-10 OMR taxi if you're white), 40 min from the Palace, 15 min from Souk al Seeb, and 30 min from the nearest usable beach. ||||If you're staying in Al-Khoud to learn Arabic, you'l have to look hard as Urdu, Bengali, and Hindi are the most common languages of this part of Muscat. There are many opportunities to speak Arabic, but you have to wander a bit from the souk.||||My suggestion is that if you want to stay in Muscat, do not stay in this hotel. It is technically not even in Muscat, but in Seeb, which is west of Muscat. ||||Stay in a hotel in the Matrah area. That area has more shops, more local flavor (behind the old souk), and it's closer to Ruwi and the Palace district and beaches.||||There is a picture of a gym on this website, but the gym is bunk. They just got broken and used gym equipment, put it in a room, and took a picture of it. The treadmill does not work half the time because the wires are taped together and when it does work it cannot exceed 3 MPH without skipping. The free weights are broken, and many of them have the weight itself welded onto the handle. Even then, the weld job was not very good and the weights fall off frequently. There is not a women's gym and there are not any "women only" hours, so ladies do not use this gym since they would just be glared at if any man walked in. This is mostly a room to sweat in than it is a gym. ||||TL;DR Don't stay here, stay in Matrah. The Hotel is poor and it's...

This is not a conventional hotel, but it might be a good choice for people on longer stays in Muscat (weeks or months) or who have business in the Sultan Qaboos University area. Al-Khoudh is a short distance to the university.||||Plusses:||- not a chain hotel, locally owned and managed||- very new---opened I think only a few months||- clean||- very nice, kindly staff||- walking distance to bank, grocery store and an abundance of Turkish, Omani and Pakistani restaurants||- kitchenette with fridge and stove||- most suites have a sitting room and a second bath||- not in a tourist part of town||- might be good choice for a group of, say, students or backpackers||- in room wi-fi albeit a little slow for big files ---free||- reasonable price||- Safe ---like most areas of Arab Middle East, except in periods of political turmoil||- a/c, flat screen, cable TV||||Minuses:||- downtown Muscat, Qurum beach area and most other likely destinations require a taxi, a 1/2 hr to 1 hr ride and 4 RO (the cheapest I was able to get||- no other hotels in immediate vicinity; because it is new and not in tourist area ---taxi drivers usually did not know this place at all; take business card of hotel||- staff has somewhat limited English language skills (most guests appear to be Omani or from other Gulf countries); there was a Morrocan staffer who spoke French...I don't know at what proficiency||very nice people||- cleaning, bell staff were a bit too eager for tips||- I'm not sure how to describe the features of the rooms except to say that they are modest and kind of like what you would expect of a lower middle class home anywhere in Middle East||- no shower curtains...water spills to floor and evaporates or waits for staff cleaning; must pre-heat bath water (profligate American that I am, I usually forgot this feature and ended up with cold showers!)||- entrance is in an alley behind the hotel (a little tricky for drivers to find)||- no restaurant, but numerous local restaurants will deliver to your room||- no other amenities like health club or pool||||I thoroughly enjoyed my stay, but please recognize that this is somewhat like the ME version of a Red Roof Inn..except rooms are larger. fyi - I stayed here with a student group and cots were brought in to accomodate extra...