We travelled to this hotel for both my birthday and our wedding anniversary. We quite regularly stay at the DoubleTree Hilton on Marjan Island, however thought we would try the Hilton as it was a special occasion and we had a bit of a bad experience at the DT on our last stay.
We invited some friends to come and join us celebrate.
My wife wrote to the front office manager ahead of time, Milagros, to see if there was anything that could be done for our special occasion and if it would be possible to have an upgrade of our room. We were told she would see what would be possible and it would be subject to availability. At check in, I checked availability and noticed there were still plenty of rooms available. However was informed that I could only pay to have an upgrade.
My friends, who we had invited, also emailed Milagros and informed her that they have a large number of followers on social media and they would make some posts. Amazingly for them, they were upgraded to a lovely room, 3 times the size of our room, with amazing views.
Our room was small and standard nothing special.
Lunch and dinner buffet were pretty poor, very similar dishes and obviously they went for the cheap option to maximise their profits.
We ate at Pura Vida for my birthday. They informed us they were fully booked until 9pm. We booked for this time however when we arrived they did not have our booking. The churrascaria was expensive, not great and quite slow, when we mentioned they said "you should have booked an earlier time". You couldn't make it up, we didnt want to eat so late in the first place. The drink that I had been drinking on the all inclusive menu throughout the hotel was also not available at this restaurant. Even though it was a Brazilian cocktail and we were in a Brazilian restaurant, it was 55aed on their menu. Also, lots of flies in the toilets in the restaurant.
All in all, the food was not great throughout the hotel, not really value for money. The pools areas and outside of the hotel look nice. However my birthday and anniversary was not made to feel special. Maybe if I had more followers on social media it would have been different. However I do run a company in the UAE with over 1500 staff and I will be sure to make anyone who asks aware of my experience.