I had read quite a few reviews about the holiday inn and I must admit it worried me. I can honestly say we were pleasently surprised, it did not smell of old smoke. The bedroom was clean and large and quite well equipped. The hotel is not posh like you would expect in dubai but the location was really good we could walk to most places from the hotel. The creek was well within walking distance. would recomend this hotel as fairly cheap and convenient. The travel /concierge girl was really good really helpfull, she gave us lots of ideas and nothing was too much trouble.

I stayed for two nights in Oct 07, overall an OK experience. Price was main factor, compared to hotels in Dubai that would have cost twice as much. I paid 500Dr / night, this is a high rate but was cancelable any time so I paid more for this convinence. The hotel is new so the property is quite clean and all systems in the hotel work fine. I did not have a chance to see the pool or try out the resteurant inside the hotel. It can easily be a 3 star property possibly 4. The rooms are neat and very clean, the A/C worked very well and was quiet. A 1 degree change to the thermostat setting was quickly and quietly implemented by the unit. The in house dining prices are outrageous, I did not try any of it, room service or resteruant. The staff are generally polite, helpful and professional, check in was done in a flash and we were wisked away to our rooms in minutes.

From a negative stand point I found a few. There is no alarm clock in the room so for a jet lagged traveller, I had to call operator many times at night for the local time. The TV programming and picture quality were poor, not a single english channel and the picture quality is probably 100 lines of resolution compared to a 500 line resolution on DVD, very poor. The TV set itself is a good Sony Wega Trinitron unit. I had put a do not disturb on the phone line but to my suprise it was broken by a call from the guest services while I was sleeping asking my opinion of my stay. There is a mosque close by and the prayers 5 times a day are quite audiable in the room. It was very difficult to get taxis especially at night. Our flight was departing at 8 am in the morning from Dubai and leaving the hotel at 5 am was problamatic as the taxi the hotel reserved showed up 45 min late. There was a bus available but to charter to airport it they wanted 120 dr even though THEY reserved the taxi for me and IT showed up 45 min late, just barely made my flight. The Coincerge and bell boys all pointed to each other when the taxi reserved did not show up, clearly passing the buck leaving a traveller like me to fend for myself and sweat it out or pay for the bus. The problem resolution and customer service simply broke down here. There is a constant traffic jam going towards Dubai from 5 am in the morning to 4 pm in the evening. The trip of 5 miles can take 1-2 hours!!. We left the hotel at 5.45 am and made it to the airport at 7 am. The road system in Dubai and Sharjah are way over loaded for the number of cars they have. It is an absolute nightmare going by road anywhere except between 10 pm and 4 am. I am a seasoned international traveller and have seen bad traffic situations in many third world countries but this was the worst of them all by far. Shopping is not a bargain any more compared to current US dollar exchange rates. Dubai airport is going thru an expansion, it is jam packed with people and getting very caotic. I have never seen so many people sleep on the floor or have to use a bus for 25 min to get to the plane for lack of jetway. It is unlikely I will spend my money visiting this part of the world again for vacation unless the infrastructure improves.

Although advertised as a 4-Star hotel, my guess that it is somewhere between a 2-3 star. I booked to stay for 2 nights but barely managed to stay for 14 hours. The hotel lobby was ridiculously small and smelled of tobacco. The property is understaffed and the staff at the Reception were ill-mannered. I went for an executive suite but it was a joke. Other than its large size, there is nothing to speak off. The property is tastelessly furnished and poorly equipped. Would never recommend this property to any one.

Not a bad hotel.
Front desk was very helpfull and concierge knowledgable of the area and within in 10min organised a chauffer on short notice.
During our stay we were not disturbed by any noise, maybe because we were on the business floor, however the our room lighting was poor, I had to open the drapes for more lighting. The room was very spacious and basic (nothing fancy) a bit dated maybe, but good enough for a short stay.
Even though they had designated smoking areas, the stale odour of cigarettes and cigars cannot be disguised....