Bab Al Qasr Hotel & Residences — Hotel in Abu Dhabi

I have stayed at the hotel from August 6th 2025 to September 16th 2025 as a part of my relocation to the United Arab Emirates. We have chosen this hotel specifically due to the alluring looks & the amenities, the price range also rather competitive compared to the other offerings on the market.

Unfortunately, whole experience was ruined due to the Millenium's & Bab Al Qasr's inability to align or complete absence of the SLA's between these two entities. During my last days of the stay I decided to use Millenium's loyalty program benefits - as I have had a prolonged stay I managed to gain the "Prestige" tier and accumulated over 116 thousand loyalty 'points' which enabled me to book a few nights and pay with these points.

I have booked 2 nights whilst selecting "pay with points" in the menu, however, regular booking was confirmed instead. There was no option to cancel or update the booking and I had to stay in the hotel for a few days at least whilst my property being prepared. I have reached the guest services desk and "they could not resolve this from their side" and advised me to contact Millennium customer support for the refund with manual point deduction from my account, which I did the same day - on 13.09. Please note, today is October 14th, more than a month have passed since then. Soon enough customer support came back to me and confirmed in writing that Millennium have issues with the loyalty program in the GGC/MENA region, please note - this was not officially mentioned anywhere- nor at the website or prior I proceeded with the booking.

Since September 13th I have contacted the customer support multiple times to finally resolve the issue, however, all am I getting is "we have notified hotel team once again" and "this issue is our top priority" - which, honestly, does not really seem the case.

In a nutshell, I feel scammed as I had no option to avoid paying for the nights I have "booked with the loyalty points", Millennium confirmed the issue is on their end and they have failed to inform the customer about the issue & continuously failing to resolve the case in general.

The operational issue should never fall on the customer shoulders.

Member number 2025080404198682

Update:

After a month and 10 days of back and forth 'breakfast feeding' Millennium finally responded that hotel refused to accommodate the inquiry.

For the future travelers- beware, in case of an issue most likely you will be let down. (hopefully, you wont encounter those...

Bab Al Qasr has always appealed to us. The building is undeniably striking, and the interiors are tastefully decorated, which sets a strong first impression.

However, that’s unfortunately where the positives ended for us. We arrived at around 2pm on a Friday and were told at reception that check-in wasn’t until 3pm. While that is perfectly reasonable, it’s quite uncommon in the UAE not to be offered a welcome drink or access to the beach or pool while waiting. When we returned at 3pm, there was a queue at reception, and several guests ahead of us were making complaints, some hadn’t received the rooms they’d booked, and others were unhappy with the facilities not matching their expectations.

We checked in and went to our room to get changed, as we had planned to spend the afternoon at the beach. However, when we got there, we were met with ongoing construction and absolutely no available space. At first, we assumed some guests had left and their towels hadn’t been cleared away, but it soon became apparent that sunbeds were being reserved with towels, something we associate more with budget resorts in places like Majorca, and something we’ve never encountered to this extent in the UAE.

With no space on the beach, we went to the pool bar instead and ordered a couple of drinks. The drinks were decent, but even by UAE standards, they felt very overpriced. We raised our concerns about the beach with staff and received a call from a team member who agreed it wasn’t up to the expected standard. He took our details, asked what time we’d like to use the beach the following day, and said they wanted to treat us like VIPs. Unfortunately, this promise wasn’t followed through, and nothing was arranged for us. To be clear, we weren’t looking for special treatment we just expected the beach to be somewhere close to what was described. The hotel promotes it as one of the largest in Abu Dhabi, but in reality, it felt overcrowded, poorly managed, and far from the relaxing experience we’d anticipated.

It became clear that the hotel was overbooked and simply didn’t have the facilities to cope with the number of guests. The final straw was at check-out, where several people were allowed to push ahead of us in the queue while staff looked on.

Considering the price point and how excited we’d been to stay here, this ended up being one of our most disappointing hotel...

We stayed at this hotel for four days, and while the overall experience was pleasant, our time at the pool was disappointing and not what we expected from a five-star establishment. As a family of four, we were surprised to find that all the sunbeds were "reserved" upon our arrival, despite the pool not being crowded. The pool staff was unable to assist us at first, and it took a considerable amount of time before we were eventually provided with a single sunbed. The situation with the towels was also less than ideal. Initially, we were told that towels were unavailable. After some discussion, we were provided with three towels, but they were quite old, and one had a noticeable cut, which I have uploaded in the photos. My husband and I ended up sharing one towel. When we requested an additional towel, we were informed that three was the maximum they could provide, which felt inadequate for our family. After further requests, a towel was eventually given, but the staff’s response was less than helpful, and it seemed as though we were being offered a favor rather than receiving the service we had already paid for. What was most disappointing was the lack of professionalism in the staff’s approach to guest service. Their attitude and handling of simple requests did not reflect the high standards typically associated with a five-star hotel. It is clear that the staff could benefit from additional training in guest relations to ensure a more positive and seamless experience for all visitors. Additionally, for a hotel of this caliber, running out of basic amenities like towels is concerning. It’s a simple expectation that should be met in any hotel, let alone one with such a high rating. In conclusion, while our overall stay was fine, I would not recommend this hotel if you're looking to enjoy a stress-free pool experience. The service and handling of basic requests fell short of our expectations, and it made our pool time less enjoyable than...