VOGO GRAND HOTEL DUBAI — Hotel in Dubai

My 1.5 month long stay at this hotel was not pleasant. Right from when I arrived after a 15 hour flight, check-in took over an hour with no apology from the unfriendly front desk staff. I had a family member travelling with me and they initially tried to overcharge me for having my family member stay. They are nothing but a money grab company and they try to maximize on using your vulnerability as a tourist to extort money. After going back and forth with them for over 5 hours to match the rate posted on their official website, which they would not agree on, I finally ended up paying over 1000Aed on top of the 5300 AED already paid by my company. This entire process took 5 hours of back-and-forth.

The room was extremely small, like a jail cell, with barely any space for two people and their luggage. Plumbing is totally hopeless, the bathroom floods after a shower. Room walls are paper thin, so there's no privacy because everyone can hear everyone. After a 15-hour flight, instead of getting rest, I had to deal with this issue for 6 hours in total.

The service throughout my stay was abysmal. If you ask for anything, it feels like they’re doing you a favor. When I reported that the TV in my room wasn’t working, the person at the reception spoke to me with such attitude, as if I was bothering her by bringing it up. When the locker in my room wasnt working, the security staff who came to my room to inspect it kept giving me such a suspicious look and asked me questions as if I am responsible for their equipment not functioning. If you ever end up forgetting your room card , the process for them to just get you access to your own room is a one hell of a mission. They will keep you waiting for 1/2 an hour or 45 mins.

The location is also inconvenient, with no easy access to public transport. To reach nearby stores, you have to walk through a desert patch for 10 minutes. The room lacked basics, like an alarm clock, and during my month and half-long stay, none of the reception staff showed any friendliness or hospitality. You would never see a smile on teir face. No matter how basic a question was, they would keep you hanging and promise you they will call back, but they never did. Unless it was them asking you to pay their dues, there was a severe lack of customer service. The only one person who was hospitable at the front desk was Maybel. The rest of the staff - KHALED, ARUJ, ABDUL HANAN, OM PRAKASH, JEFFERY, RANIA - all were exceptionally rude and no one had the basic courtesy expected from a hotel front desk staff - each person had their own set of attitude and rudeness and miscommunication.

The only bright spot was the restaurant and housekeeping staff, who were polite. IFTEKHAR and TRITI from the restaurant were very courteous and they always made sure guests felt warm and went above and beyond to make me feel welcome. The housekeeping staff - DILRAJ was always deligent , courteous and always had a smile on his face - always made us feel at home. The 2 shuttle bus drivers at the hotel - SULTAN and AHMED - always had a bright smile on their face and gave so much useful information about how to get around the city. Overall, this hotel has terrible customer service, unhelpful management, and a generally unwelcoming atmosphere. The only people who will make you feel good are the staff outside the front desk. I would not recommend...

Location: I hadn't done enough research to know what to expect from the location. Unfortunately it was in the middle of Academic City surrounded by universities and colleges. This would have been good if I was studying or visiting these educational institutions, however that wasn't the case and it ended up taking time to visit areas of interest for me.

INTERNET: This has to be the worst internet experience I have ever had at a hotel. If you need to be at the hotel for extended periods and require an internet connection, look elsewhere. This place has the worst internet I have ever experienced, worse than third world countries.

Room: This is one area I have to say let my visit down. I'm not usually claustrophobic, however after a few days of climatising to the weather and the air conditioning the room began to feel extremely small. The room had just enough space for a double bed but barely enough room for manoeuvring around that bed. Emptying out my suitcase and putting things away felt like a bit of a hack. Overall I guess you get what you pay for. I stayed in a standard double room, which I'd suggest people stay away from. Especially if you are sharing with someone, thankfully I didn't and despite this it felt cramped.

Ambience: The hotel had a spacious feeling. Although with that came a great deal of emptiness where a bit more furniture would breath some life into the hotel. The hotel itself didn't feel as though it was a well operated hotel, in the sense that some things like random chairs and sofas dotted around without proper setting made it feel like not much effort was put into making full functional use of the space the hotel has. A missed opportunity for sure. The games room also felt like it was just put there half heartedly. If there were more games that would have been great, they definitely had the space for it. Even some retro arcades would have been awesome.

The store downstairs was great and reasonably priced.

Service: I have to highlight two incredible members of staff. Ahsan Habib from house keeping. Always smiling and always ready to give his best. I'd meet him daily and we'd talk like friends. Anything I need he'd always endeavour to accommodate me.

Another stand out member of the team was Iftikhar, the cafe/ restaurant supervisor. He made me feel like a true guest, in fact even like a friend. Whatever I needed, I was given without any hesitation. This is what service is. When you feel like you are being honoured by humble members of the hotel and you feel that you are truly welcome.

Breakfast: The breakfast was fantastic. As mentioned the restaurant supervisor Iftikhar made it all the more pleasant. The variety of food was decent and all fresh. Maybe the croissants weren't always fresh but overall the value for money, spacious decent decor of the restaurant made it worth it. Definitely worth paying the extra for breakfast.

Prayer Room: Contrary to what another reviewer mentioned, there is a prayer room, with wudhu facilities. I have added a video to show this. There is one relatively large one for both men and...

Here is an honest review at 3 a.m., right after our check-in.

(Apparently) Google Maps directed us to the entrance of their basement parking. We didn’t see any proper entrance, so we went into the basement.

There were no signs in the basement indicating “reception” or a hotel entrance. The basement felt like a blank box. While it was labeled B1, B2, and B3, we had no idea which building we were supposed to stay in. All we needed was a clear sign that said “hotel entrance”!

After parking (quite far from the entrance), we had to walk outside to reach the main entrance. The entire process took about 25 minutes and it was almost 2 a.m. by the time we made it to the receptionist.

By the way, I did all of this while carrying my 6-year-old son, who was asleep the entire time! I was holding him the whole way.

I was extremely angry and frustrated. My arms were also aching from carrying my child. However, the receptionist, Maybelle, was incredibly kind and tried her best to calm me down.

When we finally got to our room, I put my son to bed. The room felt very clean, which honestly helped calm me down a lot. At least the effort and frustration seemed worth it.

Anyway, I was utterly EXHAUSTED and didn’t want to walk back down to my car to bring the luggages to our room. All I wanted was to pray, read some Quran, and go to sleep.

However, there was neither a prayer mat nor a Quran in the room. By this point, I was drained from the long trip and frustrated —it was 2 a.m.—and I just didn’t have the energy to walk back to my car to grab my Quran. So I called the front desk.

Once again, sweet Maybelle came to assist me immediately. She understood that I don’t know Arabic and can only read an English translation of the Quran. She tried her best to help, but apparently, they didn’t have any translations of the Quran available. They brought an Arabic Quran instead, but unfortunately, I can’t read Arabic.

So I had to get dressed, walk to my car, grab my English Quran, then stop by the reception to donate an extra English Quran I had to the hotel. I then came back to my room and finally sat down to write this review.

Thank you Maybelle, also the housekeepers for keeping the rooms this clean and smelling good.

I hope the management considers putting a sign up for the basement which points out the “entrance”. Also hoping that they keep a prayer mat and an English Quran in each room like every other hotel does in the UAE.

Overall, thank you for cleanliness and your...