Rixos Premium Dubai JBR — Hotel in Dubai

I booked 3 rooms at this hotel for a nine-night stay with my family: a two-bedroom suite, a junior suite, and a premium deluxe room. Unfortunately, I didn’t check many of the hotel’s reviews before booking —this turned out to be a big mistake. We are seasoned travellers and understand that even in 5* hotels occasional issues arise. However, what sets top hotels apart is how they handle problems. At the Rixos Premium JBR, instead of resolving issues, the hotel’s approach seemed focused on denying, dismissing, doing the bare minimum, and ultimately not making things right. I share this review to help others avoid a similarly disappointing experience that significantly affected our family’s holiday.

Upon check-in, which took 2 hours, we found that one of our rooms, which had been booked for 4 guests, could in fact only accommodate 2. Despite us having confirmed all of the rooms and occupancy details via email several times before arriving. The next day, we were moved to a lower-standard room that could house all 4guests, though this wasn’t what we’d booked or expected, and no refund was given for the lower quality room.

Another major issue is the swimming pool, which isn’t actually managed by the hotel—a fact not disclosed when booking. This lack of control has a major impact. The pool area resembles a club scene rather than a family-friendly setting. Loud music plays at a volume that makes it impossible to hold a conversation, enjoy music on headphones, or even read a book. On two separate occasions, we witnessed a couple engaging in inappropriate behaviour by the pool. When notified, the pool staff were too uncomfortable to address it directly, eventually calling security to intervene.

The pool officially opens at 7am, yet by then nearly all loungers are taken, supposedly by early risers. In reality, we observed pool staff accepting money from guests to secure loungers for them. Despite waking at 6am to try to claim loungers ourselves, we found none available. If you want loungers around the pool—necessary for supervising children—you’ll have to pay a steep fee of 2,000 AED per lounger.

Our nights were also disturbed by noise from drunk guests in the room above us, typically from 3:15 a.m. to 5:45 a.m. While guest behaviour isn’t entirely the hotel’s fault, the delayed response to handle the situation did affect our rest.

In response to our delayed and frustrating check-in, the hotel offered us meal vouchers. However, after dining at one of the hotel’s restaurants, we were informed the vouchers only applied to the buffet, leaving us to pay the full bill. This “compensation” felt like a further insult.

Near the end of our stay, the assistant guest relations manager approached us—not to make amends, but rather to safeguard the hotel’s reputation. She offered a discount on minibar items (merely a few sodas, as we don’t drink alcohol) if I agreed not to leave a review! This felt inadequate given the £20,000 we paid for our accommodation and the additional £2,000 we spent poolside.

As we checked out, our private taxi was physically blocked from leaving by the hotel’s staff, and I was escorted back to the desk, where the deputy manager shouted at me. I requested to speak to the hotel manager and was denied. Despite having my credit card on file, they insisted on immediate payment, and I asked that my disagreement with some charges be noted on the bill. They refused, tearing up the bill twice as I attempted to write this. They then threatened to detain me and make me miss my flight, and call the police unless I signed the bill without comment.

I requested their business cards and names to follow up with the hotel manager, but they refused to provide them. This experience was both hostile and unprofessional and left us in disbelief.

In summary, I wouldn’t recommend this hotel to anyone. Not even my worst enemy. The lack of transparency, poor service, and disrespectful treatment made this stay anything but enjoyable. I hope this review helps others avoid a...

unfortunately, my experience was far from what I had anticipated. From the day I checked in, I encountered several issues that detracted from the comfort and enjoyment of my stay. Despite the hotel’s promising appearance, generally great reviews and favorable location, a combination of poor/rude service, and overall structure of hotel amenities made this stay disappointing.

One of the most frustrating aspects of my stay was the interaction with the front desk staff. One of the staff members we encountered when asking about a potential room upgrade was I incredibly unhelpful and dismissive. They barely acknowledged me, avoiding eye contact the entire time, and seemed more interested in rushing through the process than addressing my concerns. Their responses were curt, and I felt as though I was being an inconvenience rather than a valued guest. This lack of basic hospitality was unacceptable and set a negative tone for the rest of my stay.

To add to my dissatisfaction, I was unpleasantly surprised to find that immediately upon check in, the hotel charged nearly £500 to my room as a deposit hold for the entirety of my stay. Not only was this amount excessive, but it was also done without prior notice. There was no mention of the charge being optional, nor did anyone inform me of the exact amount before the transaction went through. The lack of transparency around this practice was frustrating, especially since I had no idea they would take such a large sum of money without warning. This left me feeling misled and unfairly treated.

On top top of this, the security at the hotel felt excessive and inconvenient, particularly in the pool and beach areas. These outdoor areas are operated completely separately from the hotel, so every time we wanted access, we had to show our room key and quote our room number, which felt unnecessary and impersonal. It gave the impression that guests were constantly being monitored and restricted, rather than being welcomed to relax and enjoy the facilities.

What made matters worse was that since the pool and beach areas are run as a separate business, they sell sun loungers to the public, and all of the best loungers, especially those closest to the pool, were reserved for paying customers with a minimum spend. (Being January, these beds were never reserved and therefore left unused for days on end). As hotel guests, we were left with whatever beds were available, which were often far from the pool, making us feel undervalued and like second-class customers. This arrangement was disappointing and really detracted from the overall enjoyment of the outdoor space, especially given how much we were paying to stay at the hotel.

Throughout our stay, we also encountered several other smaller issues, including unhelpful door staff who try to persuade you to use the hotel car, with higher charges, rather than helping to hail a local taxi and once again front desk staff refusing to help us settle the bill the night before we checked out, to save us time before leaving for the airport in the morning. While these problems were not as significant as the ones mentioned earlier, they added to the overall frustration.

Overall, this stay was very disappointing compared to the high level of service I’ve experienced at other hotels in Dubai and around the world. For the price point, I expected to feel valued and to have a guest experience that reflected the cost of the stay, but unfortunately, this was far from the case. There are many other places to stay where the hospitality is exceptional, the amenities are well-managed, and you genuinely feel like a priority as a guest. I would recommend looking elsewhere for a hotel that offers a far better experience...

This is what I sent the manager of the hotel. They offered two nights refund then said no they would give us two nights free. WE WILL NEVER GO BACK so no thank you. First when we indicated on check out some of our issues.. they offered us each a coffee. This place DO NOT STAY AT. Here is the point form issues with our stay. Look around...

1. Upon check in.... there was human waste still in our toilet not flushed. Really? At a hotel this nice?

2. New Years treatment of us. They could not tell us where to go for the Fireworks as we did not want to do the loud party thing. THE STAFF told us that day we could go to the beach. THEN we were blocked when we tried to. Banned from the beach at the hotel we were staying at. NOT right at all. We went to the front desk and were treated horribly by your person. Said we could go "with the rest of the people that didn't want to pay the money or didn't have money" and said to walk to the end. It was 11:45pm. He was flat out rude. I told him never mind and walked away. To not be able to see the fireworks in Dubai killed us. We came there for them. YOU GUYS TOOK THAT AWAY FROM US for the sake of greed. Then they blasted the music till 3:30am and would not turn it down. AND NO WARNING to anyone that was staying there that this would all take place. They ruined New Years AND DO NOT CARE.

3. I go to the gym. I went and only had sandals. I was 75% done with my work out and was kicked out. The guy could not allow me to finish my sets for 10 mins? Nope embarrassed me and my wife and asked us to leave.

4. AC. The AC in the room does not work. I stopped by the desk the second day to tell the person there. We went out for the day and got back at about 11pm. Exhausted went to bed and the temp would not go lower than 21c. That is too warm for us to sleep. We crashed and I told them the next day. STILL nothing fixed. I just gave up. This entire time was horrible and we wanted to leave by this time.

5. We had two days we wanted to do at our pool. BUT because they took all the seating away? BOTH DAYS we tried? NOT A CHANCE... not a seat to be had anywhere. Does that sound fair to you after spending all this money? We ended up spending 1200AED min spend to get a seat at Zero Gravity down the way. Totally again... NOT FAIR.

6. The traffic is horrendous. No its not the hotels fault but consider another place to stay... it can take hours to get back to the hotel if you go out.

I get that things happen and they snowball OR slip through the cracks... but we were so happy to come to this hotel and we feel robbed and cheated after spending four nights there. I'm sure nothing will come of this but you ALL need to know. I want to speak with someone higher up cause we stayed at three hotels during our Dubai 2.5 week stay... AND this was the worst... but they didn't care. If this review saves someone going there then its done its job. Thanks you

UPDATE: When someone leaves a bad review.. these guys leave the message below BUT its not even real. NO one answers the phone, there is NO one returning emails. Its just to make it 'look good'. TRUST...