Beach Rotana — Hotel in Abu Dhabi

My experience with this hotel was horrible, I have done my wedding recently in this hotel and it was such a very bad experience, and this is due to the very unprofessional staff and very bad service provided by them.

The wedding planner was planning to come one day before the wedding in order to start installing the set up as it will take much time to be completed, after begging the hotel staff they have allowed the planner to come only for 7 hrs on that day (from 5 to 12), however the wedding planner informed me that they still need time till next day to ensure the setup is completed on the agreed time and before the arrival of the guests, however the hotel banquet team was so harsh and rude with them, they have asked them to leave the hotel immediately and continue working next day which is the wedding day, and this is very short time. After talking to the Banquet team manager at around 12:30 night he accepted the that the wedding planning staff continue with the work and they can stay in the hotel and resume later. However, at around 9 am on my wedding day I had a call from the wedding planner complaining about the banquet team manager asking them to hold their work for 2-3 hrs because there is a meeting in another hall, and he doesnt care if the setup has been completed within the deadline or not. They dont understand that this is a special day, they also don’t understand that I paid 50k to them for this day and definitely I want everything to be perfect and to be done within time. I’m sure that this is their first time having a wedding celebration in this hotel, they have 0 experience on that. I struggled alot with this hotel, and I dont believe anyone need thats. I don’t recommend at all to have your wedding in this hotel, I regret paying this big amount to them because its not worth it.

Moreover, I have reserved 2 rooms for my family in that day, once I went with my family (4 members and a kid) to check in the rooms the receptionist has asked for our ID’s , we have given her 3 ID’s, however one of the family forgot his ID, I have explained for the receptionist that this person is going only to the room to change his outfit to be prepared for the wedding, and will leave then, so please let it go. The receptionist didn’t at all allow to check in though i explained for her that the wedding is going to start soon and he only needs to change his outfit. But she is not considering that at all, she wasn’t cooperative. However I talked to the Reception Manager whose name is Usman, to ask for help, I was so stressed and telling him that the hotel is complicating alot of things with me and I’m having a bad experience with this hotel and i will really have a bad feedback (his answer was, it’s fine) simply he doesn’t care.

Next day after am done with my wedding, I have asked for a late checkout at 3 of my suite room. I was late for around 1 hour and 20 mins , at 4 the receptionist started to call like crazy asking us to leave the room, he has sent the cleaners to our room 2 times to ask us to leave or they will charge us for another day. They can’t tolerate 1 hour delay after paying them 50k, they are such impolite people and what they have done is so disrespectful and impolite. For a while I thought I’m dealing with gangsters, I still can’t believe that this is 5 stars hotel. The rating of Rotana beach hotel should be re-assessed again and their poor service and rude treatment should be taken to consideration.

I understand the hotel has policies to follow, but they are not reasonable at all and there is no flexibilities, if you want customers to pay this amount of money, you should provide an outstanding service against that.

Note: for the representative who is going to reply to my review, I suggest to check with the hotel team before that, to ensure accuracy of my review, I dont even mind to have a call and show evidences, because what I have mentioned is very accurate and it is what I encountered with the...

It started with trying to determine how to check-in. I drove up to the front of the hotel and there was nobody there. No valet parking attendant. No bellboy. Nothing. Also no signs indicating temporary parking, but really no room to park anywhere to check-in. Tried gaining access to the basement parking, but I had no key card and there was no speaker located at the entrance to communicate with. Ended up parking illegally down the road a bit and walking in the heat back to the lobby.

Front desk receptionist was kind of strange. I handed him my Emirates ID, girl’s passport and the printed out hotel confirmation, but he seemed to be delaying me with asking me repeated questions about confirming that I reserved a studio. It was quite clearly stated on my printed out hotel confirmation that I had reserved a sea view studio with a balcony and I pushed the ignored paper towards the guy. By that time 2 people were waiting behind me (Arab included) and I just wanted to get the room key and figure out the parking. Guy finally relinquished the room key and told me to use it to open the parking gate. I could park on any level that suited me.

Walked back to the car and moved it to basement level B1 and then tried to figure out where the elevator was located. Signage is so poor in these hotels. It’s discouraging staying at these places. Later, finding how to exit the basement parking would prove difficult, due to poor signage.

Got into the room and it looked nice. The room was advertised as having a Sea View, but it was just a canal view. That frustrated me more. Why did I need to pay extra for an industrial view of a canal, plus a construction site? It wasn’t an appealing view at all. The ‘beach’ is a fake beach on the dredged canal.

Using a QR code, managed to order a light dinner of salmon, fries, mashed potatoes, vegetables and a chocolate shake using the app. An hour later (15 minutes later than advertised), the order showed up at the door, but it was missing the mashed potatoes and the chocolate shake resembled sewage water. Seems the chocolate shake was prepared an hour earlier and then allowed to ‘mature’ while the rest of the meal was prepared. That was 240 AED / $66 down the drain, though the salmon and vegetables were good. Could have bought a flank of salmon at a nearby grocery store (with the clothing rack) for about $20 and cooked it myself easily enough. No idea if I was charged for the missing items or not.

Saturday morning woke up prepared to enjoy the breakfast I’d purchased with the room. Of course I had no instructions from the front desk on where to go for this ‘free breakfast’, so called the front desk again to be instructed to go to PL level. I assumed it meant something like Promenade Level, as there was no Mezzanine Level in the elevator. Get into the elevator and there’s a P1 floor, but no PL floor. I guess the girl didn’t know the difference between 1 and L. Such is life.

Wanted to go swimming, but hadn’t a clue where the swimming pool was located. Walked to the lobby and asked the front desk. Was told to go outside and walk in the oppressive heat towards Abu Dhabi mall. Turned out the swimming pool was shared with the sister hotel, Beach Rotana. It didn't have even a smidgen of shade. Looked like the full brunt of the sun would hit anyone at the pool for the entire extent of the day with temperatures hovering around 110 degrees. With no options, went back to the room and changed, then went for a bit of a swim and got sunburnt.

The ’beach’ turned out to be a distasteful man-made area on the canal. Advertising as having 120 meters of beach access on a dredged canal is certainly some bit of marketing, but back home they call that...

From arrival and checking in with May everything was first class as May really goes above and beyond to make sure you feel welcome and special. This is probably around our 10th visit to this hotel and we class it as our holiday home as I guess many guests do as seems that everyone keeps returning. Charles who is the guest services manager is really passionate in taking time to speak and listen to guests and this makes a big difference as if any of the guests have a problem or an issue he usually resolves it before it's a problem if that males sense. Charles makes you feel like family and it's these little touches that make this hotel better than the rest and he took care of a little issue we had and really made a difference as Charles says we are family and we are here for you, plus he's always smiling which makes everyone feel better. I don't want to waffle on too much but if your considering this hotel don't hesitate as it won't let you down. I really should stop giving such good reviews as I want to keep this place to myself but over the years have recommended this hotel to well over 50 friends and colleagues who like me keep returning. The restaurants are all first class and I'd say better than any other all inclusive hotel I have stayed in even in the middle east where standards are usually high.I have listed a few of the staff who made our stay special. Michael in Finz was amazing, kimi in Rodeo was top and always looks after us and makes us feel special. Michael in the German bar is great and we have been friends with Michael for many years even when he used to clean your sun glasses around the pool. Navin, Joseph and Krishna along with all at the Bay-view really looked after us and these boys are one of the most important teams in the hotel and their service as always was faultless. Ra-sheen in Prego's was first class and in the past Prego's have been our least favorite restaurant as the service didn't seem to be there for guests on the dine around but this time it was fantastic and mainly down to the great service and we'll certainly return. The manager in Indigo was great and he's always smiling and making you feel very welcome, sorry for the name but he's been in there for many years and always great service. trader vic's was great as always and the staff really took care of us. Breakfast in essence was fantastic and chef Chris was really passionate with his food and team which made it a pleasure to dine in there. My one and only gripe which was resolved by my good friend Charles was the food and service in my eyes is above 5* but the drinks on the AI are not and this needs to be addressed as I explained when I first started staying here you could get a bottle of corona and there was a draught beer along with tanqueray gin and now it's beer out of cans and Gordon's gin and too me this is an epic failing which needs urgent attention as I have stayed in several hotels in the UAE which I class no where near as good as Beach Rotana but somehow you can get better drinks which isn't right in my opinion. The cocktails available on the AI package needs addressing too as these are the most basic standard of cocktails so where people are on the AI or even just the AI+ Please change it so there are some more options.|I don't want to put the hotel down as this year the service was higher and better than all previous visits and seems like Craig Bruce GM has really stepped up the service as it was fantastic. Please sort out the AI drinks to match the rest of the hotel and staff as we are already looking to book next years return...