Anwar Al Madinah Mövenpick — Hotel in Medina Province

I stayed here in April 2025 and I am beyond shocked at how this hotel is advertised as 5*.

Details of my stay:

Pros: Location to mosque (if you exit through level 0 gate 10 it will take you straight in front of the mosque. I do wish the hotel staff mentioned the shortcuts to guests as it saves a lot of time walking if you were to exit through the main mezzanine level) Decent shopping mall (although restaurants close around 11pm). Convenient to have Bin Dawood in the building. Maintenance and housekeeping staff were very friendly and helpful. Good selection of food at breakfast (although there definitely needs to be more staff for the morning rush, most days I had to ask for cultery/my table to be set up)

Cons: The rooms are filthy, old and grimey - I could not believe my eyes!! The wardrobe and bathroom doors were covered in a layer of grime, clearly not cleaned well. The carpets were stained and dirty The kitchen area was very old and again grimey. The sink faucet was loose and the kettle could be cleaner. The fridge was old and disgusting! I used it but only because I really needed it. I had 4 single beds in my room for 3 people which were placed quite close together so I separated the beds from each other slightly for comfort. In doing so, I found a baby’s towel and lighter from previous guests. Are rooms not deep cleaned??! The bathrooms are in serious need of renovations - the tiles are discoloured, the toilet seat was broken, the seals along the shower/sink etc were in atrocious condition. The bathroom door kept locking. I asked housekeeping to fix it for me twice, but on the third occasion I had enough and called reception who then sent a maintenance person to have a look. In the end the whole door handle/lock mechanism had to be replaced! The bathroom sink got blocked on my first night and I had to call for maintenance. On my second day (less than 12hrs from checking in) one of my room keys stopped working. When I called reception they said I had to come down to get my keys ‘charged’, despite only having checked in less than 12hrs ago. There was no apology for the inconvenience either on the call or in person when I went downstairs to get it ‘charged’. The key issue persisted our whole 5-day stay, and we had to replace our keys multiple times. In hindsight I wish I had requested another room because it was unacceptable to not even be able to get into my room! The staff are not friendly. The reception staff are so blunt and unfriendly, definitely not 5* service. When I would call them on the phone and they could not hear me they would respond with ‘what?’ - again, this is not 5* service. When I was checking in the receptionist just passed me my room keys, told me my room number and which lift to take. I had to enquire about breakfast time/location myself, this was very poor service. Reception often would not pick up calls, or they would take a long time to pick up calls. Poor communication from staff, eg I had called for water bottles to the room and was told this was on its way. 30 mins had passed so I called reception again to ask when this would arrive and the second person who picked up the call was confused as they could not find the order I was referring to, but then immediately said the bottles had been delivered, and then immediately followed by the bottles will be delivered shortly. Which one is it?? Theres clearly miscommunication with the staff. This could be a personal issue, but I found the AC system to be very temperamental and hard to use/find the right temperature - it was either too cold or too stuffy in the room. The system itself looked quite old and outdated so maybe thats why. We were only given 2 large towels in the bathroom, surely if the room accommodates 4 people then you would give more towels?

I feel my list could go on, but overall I would not recommend this hotel if you’re looking for a 5* experience. For a 3* it is perfectly adequate and the location is great, but do not come here looking for amazing quality...

We came as a family of 10 (split into 3 different groups and rooms) and we all had bad experiences with this hotel. First issue - a family with older guests who required special assistance access were placed on the 12th floor even after requested - my mother struggled to walk the long distances and constantly waiting for access to the lifts as they were extremely slow.

Second issue - the room had a strong sewage and damp smell when we arrived and the bathroom had not been sufficiently cleaned (i.e marks in the bathroom, hair found and only 2 towels provided). We requested from reception that the smell could be looked into as it was extremely unpleasant. They said that they will send someone up as soon as possible. No one arrived.

Third issue - with the bathroom still not being cleaned there was water on the floor and I slipped in the bathroom, fell and hurt my wrist and hip. I was in agony and my wrist had swollen up. I went down to speak to reception once again and this time the receptionist was texting on her phone and made me repeat my request several times as if I was not being listened to. When I asked for a time frame as this had now gone on past 8-9pm and we had initially checked in at 6am, she said “someone will be with you inshallah.” and started smirking at me. When I questioned what time does that mean she said “soon inshallah” and started smirking again. A cleaner did not come to our room until after 11pm and my complaint about falling in the bathroom was completely dismissed.

Fourth issue - Cleanliness of the bathroom, the towels provided and the facilities were extremely shocking. Everyday when the towels were changed there was hair found on towels. Out of the 4 days there we had hair found on the towels on 3 different occasions. The shower had an old used soap from previous guests in it and the shower and toilet seat had a lot of marks and stains. I’ve been to cleaner service stations than this 5* hotel.

Fifth issue - hotel staff were extremely unprofessional. One receptionist did not correctly check in a group and on check out they were forced to pay an extra amount because of the hotels mistake. When questioned on this the receptionist manager said it’s a mistake, this happens but you need to pay. So we were inconvenienced with a further bill due to a hotel error. When it came to payment the amount on the card was actually 4x the amount we were due to pay and they said this was also an error. If we had not checked this beforehand, we would have paid double the price of our stay. Incompetent staff who don’t know what they’re doing and brush off your complaint to say we are not expected to be angry. A 5 month pregnant woman was made to carry her bags downstairs after requesting an hour beforehand for a porter to take the bags downstairs. The receptionists and concierge did not pick up any calls for over 30 mins and this meant that she had to take her bags down, risking herself and her child. Our onward travel to Makkah was severely impacted and we had to pay extra for taxi services, etc. We also had receptionists laugh, smirk and belittle our requests. It was completely unacceptable. There is no sense of customer service in this hotel - they do what they feel like and it looks like a lot of them don’t enjoy their job as they are interacting with people in an unfriendly manner.

If you’re looking for a 5* hotel in Madinah, I would not recommend this hotel at all. There are a lot nicer hotels in this area which are also close to the Haram. This hotel does not deserve a 5* rating at all, they need to massively improve their facilities and their customer service skills. I’ve had better stays at 3* hotels and even in cabin lodges in the middle of nowhere. When speaking to the hotel about our stay and contacting someone to raise a complaint, we were guided to make a Google review and no apology was given. Absolutely appalling behaviour.

P.S please be aware of the misogyny of being a female guest here, everything you will say will be overlooked unless you have a...

If the definition of a hotel in Madinah is that the hotel is near the Masjid-al Nabawi then yes this is a 5 star hotel. Otherwise this is 2 star hotel pretending to be a 5 star hotel. The rooms were old with 1970s decor, the bathroom was old, moldy and very basic. The shower cubicle must have been at least 30 years old in design, no hand held shower head as you would expect with a so called 5 start hotel. The toilet was weird with the water level at least half-way up the bowl. The towels room service provided were old and grey, they were so old they had cotton threads hanging out of them and they never smelt fresh. There were stains on the walls both in the room and bathroom. Again not 5 star standard. The air-conditioning in our room was set very high and we just couldn't lower the temperature. When I was younger I stayed in 2 star hotels in Europe cleaner than this hotel. The so called 5 star restaurant charged 5 star prices but the food was not that good. I expect metal cutlery and plates at a 5 star restaurant, not food in plastic takeaway boxes with plastic cutlery. Oh yes and don't buy any pastries from the coffee counter in the lobby, you don't know how long its been left out. On our last day we missed breakfast as we were checking out early so I bought a croissant, I had to spit it out on the first bite as it was so obviously stale. We stayed at this hotel for 4 nights and during the last two days the metal railings and lift buttons were giving small static shocks. ||This hotel was literally held together by glue and tape, you could see wiring with electrical tape around it and in the bathroom whoever did the sealant did a very bad job, you could see it had been done again and again. If this hotel was in Europe it would have been closed down by Health and Safety. ||Also don't be fooled by the pictures of the rooms that this hotel presents on its website, they are either all fake (I saw other rooms as I walked past with the same old decor as ours) or perhaps they have a handful of modern rooms. ||Finally let me tell you how I felt during my stay. When I was in Masjid-al Nabawi praying I felt grateful and happy to be in Madinah, I felt calm. When I was in my hotel room I would count the days until we would be leaving. ||Even though this hotel as so many bad reviews, don't expect anything to change, these hotels know that because they are so close to the Masjid-al Nabawi, customers will still come. There is no incentive for them to upgrade or improve...