Hilton Dubai Jumeirah

My husband and I just completed a week stay at the Hilton Dubai Jumeriah. As my headline states, this hotel is all over the place. Let's start with the things I noticed this hotel nailed: 1) We checked in right at 8pm and the lady informed us that the diamond member dinner was over at 8:00, but she called up and had them get us 2 glasses of wine and encouraged us to go up right away. I thought that was really nice. She didn't have to do that. It was a great first impression. 2) We stayed in an ocean front suite on the 6th floor and 2 out of the 4 sides of the room were complete floor to ceiling windows overlooking amazing scenery ranging from the beautiful water and sand, hotel grounds, city views to left and right, yachts and the pool. Our balcony was very spacious. 3) Abdual in housekeeping was assigned to our room for our stay and he is an outstanding employee. Normally we don't like room service and tried to tell him that, but he really wanted to service us so we let him and are glad we did. He was so friendly every time we saw him and constantly asked how things were and how he was doing. He needs to be in more of a customer service role and even made into a trainer. In fact, the entire housekeeping department is gold standard. None of the employees ever did not look up at say hi every time I walked past. There was another sweet lady that came when Abdual was off. The director of housekeeping is clearly a great leader who is setting clear and high expectations of his or her employees. They all seem to like working there. 4) The hotel's complimentary breakfast was pretty good. They had 3 service areas going: omelets, custom eggs and crepes. I tried them all and the lady at the omelet station and the gentleman at the custom egg station were very nice. I had an omlet 6 times and she did a great job every time and was very efficient and organized. 5) The beach furniture was the best I've ever seen. It was really comfortable. Also, I loved how the little white chairs were also available to set on the shore. I've never seen that before and enjoyed it several times. 6) The diamond member dinner had really good quality, quantity and variety of food. We were also able to sit out on a private balcony to enjoy it every night. I did have a problem with the lounge staff not filling up the soda refrigerator. The staff, in my opinion, did not handle it well at first, but by my final 3 days they were all over ensuring I had plenty of sodas, so that made up for it. 7) The hotel is in a great location. We loved how there were plenty of little pharmacy stores nearby to purchase little things needed and there were gorgeous walks of the city all around. 8) There was an elevator "lift" that made it really convenient for us to get up and down from our room to the pool. Now for the bad...1) service at breakfast was down right horrible. Out of 7 mornings, maybe 3 times the hostess took us to a table, leaving us confused on what we were supposed to do. Pick our own seat or be seated? Secondly, about half the time we had a server and half the time we didn't. When I would go to the coffee station, the employees were annoyed (assuming bc I was supposed to go through a server? But what do you do when you don't have a server?). When we did have a server, they barely talked and it was unclear what everyone's role was. I think it is unclear to them what their role is as well. Coffee didn't come most of the time and when it did, milk was missing and I had to constantly take sugar off of another table. Third, most of your breakfast service employees do not act like they want to be there. Very little eye contact. No smiles from anyone except the omelet and egg station. The Crepe lady and coffee station people are the worst. I got so tired of them seeming annoyed with both myself and other guests by just ordering. Next issue #4 was the BIRDS!! I love to sit outside, but clearly the birds are in charge. They are out of control and the employees just walk by like it's normal. Wednesday 5/15 between about 8am and 9am I was sitting at a table and someone had left a huge plate full of food right by my table. The birds went in for it and were going crazy. It was so bad I jerked several times avoiding them and almost flipped my own table over with my knee. The employee working the bar came out from the bar with a large pole like structure maybe 2 feet long and started playing "pow" with the pole, aiming it toward the birds. I thought he was coming out to help get rid of the birds. Never once made eye contact and played "pow" a total of 3 different times. I couldn't believe it. That has to be one of the most unprofessional things I've ever seen from a hotel employee. It's already a problem nobody is doing anything, but then to play, and to do it in front of guests? We quit sitting outside after that. The next issue #5 I had was that i was looking for more of a couples environment, not a hotel swarming with small children. I thought I was getting this when I was going to a hotel with a bar in the pool. There is only 1 pool, so you have children doing cannon balls and screaming, and adults trying to enjoy themselves at a bar, all in one pool. A pool with a bar in it is no place for a child. And vice versa, an adult trying to enjoy a cocktail at the pool bar on their vacation should not be in the presence of children. The hotel has plenty of grounds available for another pool, but it's completely filled up with additional seating areas. The amount of children we saw around the hotel throughout the day at breakfast, in the elevators, etc. did not align with the amount of children at the pool and on the beach, therefor, we discovered a lot of them must have been staying at the Hilton walk right behind the Hilton Jumeriah. Our beach access was shared with theirs because that hotel is not beach front. Obviously families are not going to walk their children back and forth from the beach to their own pool, especially since it’s not as nice. We went over there one time and there were only 3 people there. It’s a much larger hotel. I even checked their trip advisor page and most of “their” pool photos are of the Hilton Jumeriah!! One reason we picked this hotel is because it was smaller so that the pool and beach wouldn’t be crowded. The next problem #6 is the partially naked 2-8 year old girls and fully naked ~2 year old little boys on the beach. First of all, I don't want to hang out and swim around anyone in not in proper beach attire, but more concerning is the sanitation issue this presents. At any moment, the child could go to the bathroom all of themselves and on the sand where a lot of people are walking, sitting and laying out. The beach staff did nothing about it because I continued to see it daily. I've never seen this practice before in all the beaches I have been to in North America and Africa. Issue #7, Speaking of the beach staff, the people at the towel station are horrible. Another example of people that don't want to be there or "deal" with guests. The one guy motioned for my husband to throw his towel in the bin, when my husband didn't understand his gesture, he did it again but this time with a sense of annoyance. The next issue #8 is that aside from our first greeting by the lady that checked us in, hardly anyone ever made eye contact with guests passing through the lobby. There were multiple “stations” for different things on the way to the elevator and almost every time, all of them were looking down or talking to one another, as if they were almost trying to look busy to avoid saying hi. 9) The bathroom in our room was the strangest thing I've ever seen. Something else had to have been planned, but didn't work out. There were 9 things wrong with this bathroom. First of all, the presence of a urinal next to me in the bathroom made me feel very uncomfortable. Second, the only way to flush the toilet was a 2 inch by 2 inch square button on the side of the toilet that required decent strength to push. So I'm supposed to put my fingers on that button where the rest of the thousands of guests put their fingers after going to the bathoom? Because that is not sanitary, see picture of what I had to do with my foot to avoid touching that button. 3) There is a metal flap over the toilet paper that, once again, you have to touch it in order to lift it up to get the toilet paper. All I could think about was all the other guests who touched that flap while going to the bathroom. 4) The spare toilet paper was kept close to underneath the urinal, which I was also concerned about sanitation. 5) The sink drain was rusted and did not drain properly, 6) The granite was too small around the shower, so there was over an inch of caulking to correct that (see picture), 7) The shower did not have a door. In a suite in a Hilton Hotel, you should have a grand walk in shower, not a tub shower that doesn’t have a door. 8) You have to fully get into the tub shower before turning on the water because you can’t reach the knobs, so you can’t let the water run until you get a temperature to your liking before stepping in. 9) There is a large walk way with a make up station on the left and 2 closets on the right leading to the crammed sink, toilet, urinal and tub shower. Waste of space that should have been used for an up to date grand suite bathroom. I enjoyed my stay overall because of the things I mentioned in the positive comments. If I came back, it would be 50/50 on whether I would stay again, and if I did, it would probably only be because of my husband’s diamond member status, therefor we are limited to Hiltons. I would read reviews to see if the service had improved since my visit. Besides 2 people in the lounge (a gentleman that his name started with an S and a lady with short dark hair), the entire housekeeping department, the lady that checked us in, and the egg and omlet station employees, the rest were terrible. I would suggest Hilton corporate go to this hotel under cover and see what I am talking about. The food and beverage director and whatever department the beach staff falls into, really needs to increase expectations. If an employee doesn’t love customer service, they need to be helped out the door. You have people like me that traveled across the world and spent thousands of dollars. Every detail and every encounter matters, and that will never change in this type of business. Read less

Me and my family visited Dubai last April 2019 we stayed in Hilton Dubai hotel . I met there very beautiful personality person his name is Ramzis and also I would love to mention about his professional skills as a photographer!! He really have captured so much detail and atmosphere of the day & some really lovely & special moments. It looks like we were having the time of our lives, & we really were! We can't thank you enough! I will never tire of looking back at them & being transported back to the one of best days of our vacation.You're a superstar Ramzis such a lovely person! I would recommend you to anyone without a doubt, as you made us feel not only at ease but that we were in jolly good hands!” And most important I loved the way Ramzis can be and work during photo shoot can dial with a kids , adorable!!!!!With much respect Lenara from Kazan , Russia🇷🇺. Read less