Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi Hotel

, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi Hotel

, Dubai
5 star

Rooms: 394

Abu Dhabi Cornieche - Dubai - United Arab Emirates Hotel Website | | 2-690-9000
640 Traveller

Reviews - Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi Hotel

Historical Traveller Reviews of Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi Hotel

We had a great time, but.....

from Dave044
Rarely can a hotel have attracted such divergent views. Given some of the criticisms recorded by other members we almost cancelled the week we had booked. In the end we went ahead with the holiday and had a thoroughly enjoyable time. But many of the complaints recorded by others were still in evidence-we were simply lucky that they did not seriously impact on our stay.

The EP has still not had its official opening-scheduled for May. During our stay the west wing rooms were barely occupied and the east wing rooms probably half full. As a result, the niggles we had could be dealt with easily. But once the hotel approaches full capacity I would have serious concerns about the level of service. Staff training seemed generally poor, except for the pool staff. Although others have commented that the staff cannot do enough for you, I would add "when asked". There was little anticipation of our needs.

The coral (standard) rooms are adequate. All the hi-tec equipment is a waste of time. Much better to have designed a room with decent access to the wardrobes and better sound-proofing. The complimentary soft drinks in the mini-bar is, however, a nice touch.

The grounds are vast and immaculately kept. The swimming pools and sun-bathing areas are some of the best we have experienced, and the pool staff first rate. We spent most of our time by the pool and with so few guests it felt like a private villa for most of the time. But judging by the number of sun-loungers and strategically placed car parks the plan must be to open the facilities to the public.

Other contributors have made comparisons with Dubai and with the Burj al Arab in particular. Having had a number of holidays in Dubai (including one at the Burj) we chose Abu Dhabi because Dubai was becoming too busy. Abu Dhabi is more relaxing tha Dubai, and seemed to have a slight air of superiority compared to its rather brash neighbour. In due course it might be expected that Abu Dhabi will have most of the good points of Dubai, but will also learn from the latter's mistakes. But as far as the head-to-head between the Burj and the Emirates Palace is concerned, the Burj has that 'wow' factor that is missing from the EP.

Wonderful Stay at the Emirates Palace

from LondonJim
Looking through the earlier reviews of the Emirates Palace, it's obvious they had some opening teething pains to sort through. When I stayed in mid-February, it's obvious that the hotel has worked through the problems. It was an exceptional experience.

Besides the pure opulence and magnificence of the building, the service was incredible. My butler was always available, but not obtrusive. The room was gorgeous, room service and the restaurants were exceptional (and my lunch in the Italian restaurant rivalled one of the best dining experiences I've ever had at about £22 a head).

This place isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but if you want to indulge, you can do a lot worse than Emirates Palace.

Best Ever

from IANALEX
Dont believe any negatives about this hotel. I have stayed in many excellant hotels and this is near the top of my list. From the initial check in to actual stay the service is immaculate. The hotel is pure luxury and the restaurants some of the best I have eaten in. You may be surprised by the price of drinks, but thats the price of luxury. I have visited and eaten in the Burj in Dubai and the Emirates Palace is head and shoulders above it. Well worth a visit.

Emitares Prison

from A TripAdvisor Member
Well where do I start? At the beginning I suppose....
Day One:We arrived at the airport and was met with a uniformed driver and the sparkling white BMW. Once inside the car we were greeted with cold towels, chilled water and red roses all displayed on a lovely silver tray....picture this as from here you are being taken to a gold leafed prison...Escape while you still can... We arrived at the hotel and was ushered to our pearl room even though we had booked a diamond room; they were fully booked-Yeah Right!!!
We waited for over an hour for our luggage to arrive in our room and whilst waiting we were harressed for our Travel Voucher!!!!
Day Two: Got up and went down to La Vendome's for breakfat, we were greeted and supposedly seated, well we followed the hostess around from table to table looking for somewhere to sit, eventually we were sat at a table for two even though there were 3 of us. The waiter came along and asked if he could get us some juice, tea or coffee, I told him a chair and place setting for our son would be far more preferrable.
We placed our orders for some eggs and toast, but after waiting 1 hour and 10 mins they never arrived, I called the restaurant manager over to tell him how shambolick the operation was and then miraculously the eggs appeared but guess what no toast at this point we gave up.
Day Three: We have ANT'S in the room, they were crawling all over our sons toys, the room had to be fumigated.
We asked concierge to book us a table at the Rodeo Grill (One of the best Steakhouse's we have ever been to)but we were told it was fully booked, when asked to suggest somewhere else they had no idea where to send us, it took me to do my own research to find somewhere else.
Went to shower; No hot water, we called maintenance and they turned up and proceeded to soak the whole bathroom including our clothes, they then tried to teach my husband how to use a tap and suggested the best way to get a hot shower is to turn the hot water tap on in the bath and let it run for ten minutes and then jump in the shower and it should work!!! Great hey!!!!
Day Four:
We have really had enough and want to move hotels, we tried to book into the Beach Rotana but it was fully booked-No wonder as it is an excellent hotel. So we are left to rot in our gold-leafed cell.
We called the front office and asked to speak to a manager and was told that she would visit us in our room in 10 minutes, 45 minutes later and three phone calls we eventually to speak to her, she would visit us later that day.
By the time she came to our room we had 2 A4 sheets of paper full of complaints, she offered us a complimentary meal in their Italian restaurant for New years Day dinner, and also sent some wine to our room on new years eve.
Day Five: New Years Eve,well as another reveiwer stated we were all subjected to the most expensive so called majic disaster ever... They opened the buffet after 20 minutes and she promptly disappeared off stage - Well she was escorted off by security (Only joking).
Day 6: We had a lovely day by the pool, which I must add the pool staff were amazing, really friendly and attentive, but beware the drinks are really expensive £8 for a milkshake and over £4 for a coke.
We tried to shower and guess what no hot water,got ready after a chilly shower and proceeded to Mezzula the Italian restaurant for our complimentary meal; We got there and was told we did not have a reservation- they tried to turn us away but I was having none of it, they even offered to set us up a table on the outside terrace-they must be joking it was freezing, in the end they bumped somone else out on the terrace -Sorry if it is you and you are reading this.
Day 7: We are going home, we have served our sentence and are free to go - We rode back to the airport in the Maebach Limo the car was beautiful but it would of been much more enjoyable had the driver had a personality.

If you like your freedom and some luxury go to the Burj or The Breakers in West Palm Beach, Miami - Just don't go to the Emirates Palace.

PS- If travelling with children ensure you get a roll away bed, as it took 4 days before our son got his....

Same about the aervice

from A TripAdvisor Member
We were at the Palace at the same time as the previous reviewer and concur with much of what he said. I would only differ in saying the basic staff were very pleasant; However they were untrained and there was a complete lack of management apparent. The F & B operation was in chaos.

There were "highlights" such as the 1 hour 40 minutes for a sandwich at the pool bar. The similar wait for food in the flagship restaurant only to be brought the wrong (cold and inedible) order.

A written complaint after two days brought a meeting with a divisional manager but he could not address the fundemantal failures of this hotel.

Many of the promised facilities are not open - the spa will not be ready until the summer at least - and the hotel could not cope with a busy new year crowd.

The New Years Gala dinner was an insult to the target audience. By far the worst of any ever offered at any 5 star hotel I have stayed in and at £300 a ticket each.

In two or three years this may well be a great hotel. Until then it is a poor reflection on Kempinski and an embarrassment to Abu Dhabi. Don't let this review put you off Abu Dhabi - go there but not to this hotel.

Not The Burj

from serendipit4
Kempinski are just not in the Premiership league. Yes, this is the most expensive hotel ever built, yes the atrium is impressive in a gaudy Disney kind of way, yes the perfect curved beach does indeed spread for miles and yes this has all the potential of a truly luxury hotel but, bottom line, The Emirates Palace does not deliver. A previous reviewer headlined with ' A Great White Elephant.'So true. This vast mausoleum of an hotel has wild ambition but like a Soviet styled official building would be better suited to a 1930's Hollywood film set or any wannabe proposed showy airport lounge. Why so harsh, indeed ungrateful, when paying £500 a night? Where do we start?
1. The hotel is vast, the rooms are small. Absolutely no comparison with the sweeping individual staircases and automatic suites of the Burj Al Arab.
2. The much vaunted high tech rooms are completely user unfriendly. Don't even try to access the room internet, it is slow beyond belief and beyond the wit of one of our 'dedicated' butlers.
3. Make sure you bring plenty of small notes as the concierge can not be relied upon.
4. Shop for food at either Carrefours in the Marina mall or the central Abu Dhabi mall. We were turned away twice from both breakfast and the (by all accounts) dreadful fish restaurant. How can such an empty souless hotel fill its restaurants? A bizarre contradiction.
5. Don't believe the website. Despite being officially open in March last year, there are still teams of workers attempting to complete operations. As for the picture of the belly dancer in the Lebanese restaurant, forget it, the venue is nowhere near ready yet.
6.Don't believe the butler who introduces himself for the week. Despite a reasonable tip, we never saw our man again after the first night.
7. In true hotel fashion, the management will try to extract as much money as possible from you without warning. Beware, only the first pressing of your clothes is complementary and woe betide if you want complementary tonic. It rarely appears.
8. Stay away if you are American. We were in a constant war of attrition in our attempt to receive a twice daily supply of ice.Room service was generally slow and the promise of a twice daily supply had to be repeatedly re-enforced with calls to room service.
Kempinski have never heard of ice buckets with lids.
9.Enjoy the company of your neighbours! You will certainly hear them in the bathroom. Indeed all previous reports of paper thin walls are entirely true,
although the bedroom seems suitably soundproofed.
10. Develop your athletic prowess whilst negotiating the closure of the curtains. All that useless technology and no remote curtain control. OK, it's not the end of the world but Hi Tech not!
11. Celebrate our media age with very loud tannoy announcements univitedly broadcast into your room.
12. Return to a bygone era of one music track at a time as the horrendous 'personalised' sound system only allows single selections before cutting out.
13. Go to the business centre for internet access, although, the centre was devoid of staff for the first 10 minutes I arrived there and the initial laptop was typically unable to create access. Only upon asking for a hotel in Abu Dhabi that did provide decent internet access was the Emirates prompted into action.
14.Enjoy the simplicity of the bathroom as you vie for space with your partner over the single wash basin. Sooooo not 5 star.
15.Avoid at all costs the New Year's Eve ball. Unless you want to spend £320 for a 90 minute sub ITV magic act that would have insulted the intelligence of a Butlins Holiday camp audience. As for trying to get waiter service for a drink, self service was the only option. Dreadful.
16. Bring tight fitting clothes pegs to combat the body odour of some of the room service staff.
17.Bring a stout pair of walking shoes as you navigate the considerable marble floors of this spaceous palace. Seriously, this place is not for the infirm or elderly.
18.Ensure you practice the lighting system before early morning. The full on remote dazzle is not always appreciated by your sleeeping partner. Oh for a simple light switch.
19. Eat at Trader Vics at the Rotana Beach. Glorious food, wild Cuban band and packed to the rafters with happy punters. One of the highlights of our stay. We ate 3 times there after giving up on the hotel's unwillingness to feed us! Bice Italian restaurant at the Hilton around the corner is also very good. Book early for both.
20. If you must go, then book the Roller for airport collection. It was a magical, state of the art, 2005 luxury drive, complete with roses on a silver tray. Shame that the entire holiday took a Trebant downhilll turn from then on.

All show and no substance. Customer service at the Emirates is a million miles away from any Ritz Carlton and if you want the best hotel in all the world then stay in the Burj in Dubai. The Emirates Palace is one big white elephant and is never going to make the grade.
Yes, we were given a fabulous anniversary cake, flowers and wine and yes all this seems desperately spoilt and ungrateful but if you have stayed in a Ritz Carlton or the Burj you will know where this is coming from. A bureaucratic oil funded piece of UAE vanity, the Emirates palace is not the Burj.

A true palace hotel but with a cool atmosphere

from mundus
We stayed one week in the Palace hotel.
I try to make a balanced comment. The building is impressive. The location is very quiet (no construction noice as in the hotels on Jumeirah beach in Dubai). It is on walking distance to the Marina Mall with Carrefour. The beach is not a fine sandy beach. There are two very large pool areas.
The food in the restaurants is excellent but the organisation of the staff was not highly professional, sometimes, they forgot our orders or kept us waiting a long time before taking our order. These are details but it may not happen in a 5*+ hotel.
A similar Palace hotel is planned in Dubai on the Palm, a hotel to look out for!

Our Very Own Palace

from J2MH
My husband and I stayed at the Emirates for a week in October, travelling with Ethiad (which compared very, very favourably with Emirates).

Having read varying reviews on the Emirates Palace, we were slightly apprehensive. We found the Palace, however, to be truly magnificent. From the moment we arrived and experienced the breathtaking efficiency of the staff, any doubts and concerns we may have had were put to rest. Throughout our stay that the staff treated us with the greatest courtesy and nothing was too much trouble - just what you would expect from a world class hotel.

We, like a previous reviewer, do enjoy staying at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel but found the Emirates Palace compared very favourably (and in some cases outdid) the JBH. The rooms are smaller than expected (and smaller than the JBH) but are beautifully decorated with high-tech installations which, once fathomed out, added to the comfort. The complimentary mini bar was a nice touch, and we found our butler to be helpful yet unintrusive.

The pools are delightful and are siutated at the end of the East and West Wings - the East Wing pool is particularly ideal for children with a lazy river and slide. In practice this leaves the other West Wing pool primarily for adults. We personally preferred to spend our time on the sandy beach dipping our toes in the sea. The staff on duty at the beach were just as attentive as those in the hotel, and the only slightly comical thing in this part of paradise is the Ikea sign in the distance!

The food was of the highest quality and plentiful, necessitating strict diets on our return home! We would certainly recommend visitors to consider a half-board option if travelling with a holiday company. This covers breakfast and lunch or dinner in the Vendrome, but also entitles guests to a very generous allowance against meals in other restaurants.

The building is certainly magnificent and, although cabinets were empty and restaurants still needed to be completed, it must be remembered that this is pre-opening. When the hotel is fully operational it promises to be a treasure, although we would expect prices to rise considerably.

I would perhaps not take children to this hotel - I think the Jumeirah Beach Hotel probably has more to offer the younger visitor - but two older children we spoke to preferred the Emirates Palace.

Our only concern is the proposed watersports soon to be a feature of the beach. At the moment the Palace transports you to a tranquil haven - it would be a great pity if this were destroyed by jetskis and the like.

We shall certainly return to Abu Dhabi (not to see Abu Dhabi which was very uninspiring) but to stay at the Emirates Palace. This hotel makes for a wonderfully luxurious winter escape and, with it being only a 7 hour flight away from London, we count the months until we can return.

Excellent

from A TripAdvisor Member
We stayed 3 nights in Emirates Palace - and what can I say? This place is one of the best places I have stayed in within the past years. (For those who know Dubai: among all the great hotels I have seen in Dubai, the "Jumeirah Beach Hotel" is my absolute favourite one, and Emirates Palaces matches it in terms of style and quality).
The size and luxury of the building is overwhelming. (For those who criticise the building activities still going on: don't forget that they are still in pre-opening and therefore not everything is at perection yet...)
The rooms are truly nice, extremely well furnished, stylish, although I expected them a bit bigger. One extra bed fits in the room but not more.
The quality of service is the best I have ever seen. The staff is extremely freindly, helpful and efficient. We had breakfast included and the quality of the food was great (freshly sqeezed juices all over, great milk shakes, great espresso coffee, superb bakeries, grilled tenderloin, what can I say...).
Beach an pools are simply marvelous
Go there while the price is still affordable, because next year it will become outreageous.

Dull and soulless

from A TripAdvisor Member
What a disappointment this hotel is! The structure itself is reminiscent of a prison or fort. The entire hotel is VAST. I admit that with a building of such immense size it would be difficult to create an ambience, but this place just looks, feels and is forlorn! It actually looks like they ran out of money and opened without finishing! The decor is dull and uninspiring. Some beautiful large terracotta planters with pretty trees and WEEDS running wild are not what I expect from a 7*? Hotel. Dozens of display cabinets dot the miles of corridor, all empty! Does gold leaf maketh the hotel? I think not! The staff are friendly, their designation seems to be indicated by the uncountable variations of uniform, but who wants to have hierarchy pushed in their faces? Preparations for Ramadan facilities outdoors were underway, just a pity we had to step over builder's rubble too often. Windows, which have not been cleaned properly, do give a misty feel to the view of the nearby shopping mall, but I don't think this was the intention? Marble-mania, Marbles, Marble-city...such Las Vegas-esque names would probably be more appropriate if they decide to 're-open'/'open' under a new name!

Top Local Tips for Dubai

Dhow Dinner Cruise Unless we got it wrong- avoid at all cost. Poor services, unedible food, no chance of buying additional drinks on board. You will get just a good a view of Abu Dhabi by night from the Cornice in a taxi going out for decent and simiarily priced meal

Long distances When scheduling meetings in/outside of hotel, you must be sure to allocate extra time - huge distance from lobby to rooms. This can be especially difficult when traveling with colleagues - we had a tight schedule of meetings and people were constantly late, and rarely had a chance to go all the way back to the rooms which were too far from the lobby.

be prepared to pay you get what you pay for in Abu Dhabi. We have stayed at the Sheraton last year (Corniche) which was also supposedly 5 star but the difference is staggering. It was worth paying extra for the Emirates Palace.

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  • Address: Abu Dhabi Cornieche - Dubai - United Arab Emirates
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