Anantara The Palm Dubai Resort — Hotel in Dubai

I measure the luck i have in sharing my life in loads of the 5 stars in the world including Dubai where we live.

But if Anantara Dubai used to be good this is OVER.

I recently got invited by my fiancee there, for my birthday in one of their villa, just for the day not even the night (we could not stay the night, so full fair without the night, no complain). She spent hours of preparation the day before our arrival with the staff who was, at that time so kind & helpful (prior to get paid). I was fine to be surprised at one condition, i should be in a quiet place at 9h30 for an important business call... She had the deal and made clear to the staff at that time that we would need the villa at 8h30am(all agreed).

We reached a bit late at 9h10am, and guess what, the villa was not ready and we got given 10 to 15 mins to wait to finish the room preparation. Still ok After 10 mins, of course nothing was coming, i decided to push the business call 15mins away, my fiancee always kind was asking me to be patient...

Until i saw no activity after 20mins and would look weird to move away AGAIN my call. i went back to the reception to complain. Nobody was there to support until i did blast at the reception, and things started to move. Answer "sorry we had to move you to another villa for a better confort and experience" Just FYI it was the villa 63. Dont go for better confort in Anantara ever !!! For my birthday they put us in front of a building construction with permanent noise! But if u think it was finished.Nope !! I'll skip the breakfast place where the food experience was not good and that our hot drinks came very late (short parentheses)

My Fiancee had booked at 12h45 a slot given by the hotel a couple massage in the villa. 1pm nobody.So she called, and the experience got even better."oh sorry the massage ladies went to the wrong villa and since there was no one they left, they did not pay attention that we moved u to another villa!" And then, after, because they tried to argue, "but no Madam you booked the massage in the SPA". So can you please explain to me, if we did the SPA booking why they told us that they sent the massage ladies to a wrong villa to massage us? They were completely lost and what piss me off the most is that they had NO intellectual honesty. So they tried to ask us to stay for a complimentary Dinner, since in the package we had 300dhs voucher that we could spend in the hotel. We could not careless aout these 300Dhs, we were "just" looking for a great experience for my birthday(they missed that part), so of course we rejected it and had an amazing dinner away from ANANTARA at the Moonrise, i encourage everyone to go to the Moonrise, so amazing..

I'll skip some other more small hick ups in the hotel that they did, to come to the grand finale... I was so bored by them, that we decided to leave them earlier than planned since we live on the palm in Dubai anyway and that we would feel better at home before we go for dinner.

Then we called the reception to get some support for the 3 luggages we had with us, as usual someone kind answered & we got told, "immediately ", cause in fact we were a little far from the reception walking in the heat with the bags.

After a bit more than 20mins, we decided that this will be as the rest & i carried the bags towards the reception. We crossed the way of 3 to 5 staffs (not sure exactly how many now, but i want to be fair), despite the fact that i was loaded with the 3 bags, no one proposed any support !! i reached the lobby, crossed it, went to the valet to get my car back, with out any help.The lobby was full of staff. Im not made of sugar, and in normal time in a 2 stars hotel i would not be shocked, but when you decide to call yourself a 5 stars or a palace & you ask for a lot of money, you try a little to act this way. To be transparent, the villa was nice if it would not have been facing the construction.

So to conclude this long review, if you are looking for a 2 Stars hotel, the service is amazing, if u look for a 5 stars run away from...

Disappointing Experience at the Kids Club – A Stark Contrast to 5-Star Standards

As returning guests to Anantara The Palm, our family has always appreciated the warm hospitality and high standards. However, during our recent April stay, we had a deeply disappointing experience with the Kids Club that fell far short of expectations.

To start on a positive note: the gym staff—especially Asif and Steve—continue to provide exceptional service. They are professional, attentive, and true assets to the resort.

Sadly, the Kids Club was the opposite. On March 30th, my children were shouted at by Ms. Udeshi for playing with water outside—despite no signs against it and the resort’s strong focus on water activities. Instead of kindly redirecting them, she reacted with hostility. When I raised this, she denied raising her voice and said the area was “hard to clean.”

Another day, I found a violent movie playing on the Kids Club TV. My daughters were disturbed and asked to leave. I politely asked Ms. Aye to change it. She turned off the TV silently and walked away, clearly annoyed—a passive-aggressive reaction to a reasonable request.

During a hair-braiding activity, I requested our personal brush be used for hygiene. Ms. Aye curtly responded they use the same brush for all children and only clean it at the end of the day. When my daughter asked her to brush gently due to scalp sensitivity, Ms. Aye snapped sarcastically: “Do you think I don’t know how to comb children’s hair? I’ve worked here 8 years!”

Even more concerning: my 7-year-old was hit in the chest by another child and went to Ms. Aye in tears. She ignored them, focused on her computer, and told them to find another staff member. That level of indifference is deeply troubling.

Later, during a biscuit-decorating activity, our younger daughter—who didn’t want to eat the cream—was pressured to finish it. Soon after, both children became ill. When I raised concerns, Ms. Aye and Mr. Vault (facilities manager) quickly blamed allergies (which my children don’t have) and implied it was our fault. Mr. Vault said the chef found no issue but refused to share the report, calling it “internal.” He even laughed during our conversation and said he didn’t believe me—a disrespectful reaction when I was visibly upset.

At one point, Ms. Aye asked which school my children attend. Later that day, she made a sarcastic comment implying our schooling choice was poor and that the children lacked manners for saying “Okay” instead of “Yes, please.” She added she would teach them better behavior. My children were embarrassed—completely unacceptable in a nurturing space.

I shared all of this with Mr. Roman (Duty Manager) and Mr. Vault. I was told, “We’ve never had complaints before,” despite other poor reviews online. No follow-up ever came.

Mr. Vault proudly said the Kids Club “auto-manages” itself. That seems to be the issue. Staff—especially Ms. Aye and Ms. Udeshi—appear to act without oversight, are defensive when questioned, and quick to deny wrongdoing.

Even outside the Club, we saw unprofessionalism. At the pool towel counter, a Kids Club staff member was rude when we asked about a missing inflatable. She showed a photo on her phone, ignored a question about pool hours, and said she wouldn’t be around much longer to help.

Small details revealed a poor culture. My daughter saw Ms. Aye filling bottles with tap water and sarcastically saying, “Yes, we serve tap water to the guests.” My husband and I were also served water that clearly tasted like tap—a surprising lapse for a five-star resort.

What’s most concerning isn’t just the incidents—it’s the overall tone: sarcastic, defensive, and indifferent to children’s wellbeing. This doesn’t reflect Anantara’s values or its family-friendly image.

We’ve made wonderful memories here before, but this visit left us unsettled. We’re now seriously reconsidering future stays. The Kids Club urgently needs better supervision, training, and a renewed focus on accountability. Children’s safety and dignity should never be an...

My wife and I spent 11 nights at the Anantara the Palm Resort in one of their Signature One Bedroom Villas and I have to say we were massively impressed by the Service, the friendliness, the beautiful rooms and facilities on offer.

The villas are designed in the traditional Thai style, with a high arching roof, a massive King size bed with your choice of pillow style and firmness (something I personally value very highly within 5 star hotels), double his/her sinks, huge amount of wardrobe space.

There is also a lovely living room area with a large couch like area, beside a large coffee table that can be used for eating room service, as well as an office desk, so the room is complete with pretty much everything one could need.

The outdoor pool and terrace area was fantastic! One of the biggest pools we’ve had at a villa and you can actually do small lengths in for exercise. There is direct beach access, but also wooden shutters for the pool if you want to have privacy. The amount of sunlight the villas get varies on location, but at no. 37 we enjoyed sun from around 11:00 - 14:30, then again from about 16:30 onwards to watch the sunset, so almost perfect!

We were looked after by a whole host of wonderful people during our time, especially our two wonderful hosts Geoffrey and Nadi, who really couldn’t do enough for us! They were fantastic and so helpful. My wife sadly fell ill on the last day and she wasn’t fit to fly, but Geoffrey and the team were very helpful in both extending our stay and helping us go get medicine delivered from a nearby Pharmacy. They also came back to check on her through the day, which was a nice touch.

The cleaning staff, in room dining staff and everyone we encountered in the providing of food and drinks were excellent; very polite, very smiley and we found more or less all of the food we ate to be very good.

The restaurant has 3 restaurants the Beach House, Mekong (Pan Asian) & Bushman’s (steak and grill). Over the course of our stay, we are at all three and found the food to be lovely.

The Beach House is very nice due to its location on the Beach, so the lighting was lovely. We sort of felt however in Mekong and Bushman’s that the lighting could’ve been better and a bit better suited to the ‘Mood’. They have a lot of very bright, piercing lights, which doesn’t really fit with the vibe and decor of the restaurant. I think this might be due to the fact all are family friendly - which is understandable, but I think it is something that can be improved.

There is also one of the best gyms I’ve seen at a hotel in my life, with literally everything one would need.

Room for Improvement :

Whilst we thought the hotel was excellent and we had a great stay, there are a couple of areas where I think work can be done.

Breakfast: this takes place in the Crescendo restaurant, that I believe people can use for half-board / all inclusive. The food standards were all excellent and there is a huge amount of choice, but quite frankly the layout of everything leads to utter chaos with people everywhere, not queueing properly, children screaming and running around. I think they would do well to have an adults only area or a family area. This was the only place in the hotel that I thought that sadly the staff needed more training as well. Tea and coffee orders were often wrong, although I respect when we were there the hotel was particularly busy.

Update: while the resort is beautiful, the beach is clean and maintained well, I feel the general state of the facilities is a bit tired and old-fashioned looking. Could maybe do with a refurb and modernized to take away the terra-cotta colours. This is especially evident in and around the main pool and kids pool. Looks like it could be from the 80s.

All-in-all though, an excellent stay and would like to specifically praise Geoffrey, Nadi, Anson, Jose, Narendra for...