I stayed in Emirates Tower as part of a business trip recently adn upon arrival was greeted by very courteous staff. I was immediately whisked up to my room for an in house check in. I was upgraded to an Apex Suite, which was very stylish and comfrtable. With lots of mod-cons, CD player, DVD player, complimentary movies. The room was filled with fresh flowers, bottle of wine and many other complimentary things.
The main bathroom was nice with a lovely sunken bath overlooking the DIFC. Shower was ulta powerful, which was great, given the humidity.

A few highlights for me:
1. Guest Relations Team
ALl were outstanding. Before I had even stepped into the hotel, I felt that my needs were taken care of. I wanted a reservation at Paithai on the Friday evening, but it was fully booked unfortunately. One of the guest relations staff went over and above the call of duty to get me a table. I had a reservation and the restaurant was delightful.

2. Mosaic Restaurant
Although a little expensive for what we had, the service was fantastic. We were served by Allan who made it his job to give us a good dining experience. Our table overlooked the pool and the ambiance was simply great. The food was delicious and the wine I had was beautiful. Allan was clearly very well primed on his customer service ability.

4. Executive Lounge
Fantastic relaxation and fantastic views. The service in the Club Executive was great. I was overwhelmed by the offerings and the courteousness of the staff. A big winner in my eyes.


Overall, I had a fantastic experience and its all down to the staff. A fantastic hotel in teh DIFC suitable for business travellers mainly but only about 35Dhs to the beach!!!

No question it is the best hotel on the Sheikh Zayed strip but as the price of crude rises by $10, the room rate moves $20. It is now extremely expensive and $700 seems to be the average rate that one can get.

Still, it has a great buzz packed with prospectors, hopefuls, deal doers and those that hanker after them.

Rooms are "colourful" rather than tasteful but the Apex suites have a suitable touch of early James Bond about them. As commented elsewhere, the tellies could do with an update and a few films wouldn't go amiss as the DVD collection is mainly in the luggage of other guests.

Service in the club lounge is very good and welcoming, although tangy camel milk is only available in the Mosaic restaurant.

Pool is bigger than it looks but can get horribly crowded at weekends and very hot given all the glass reflecting onto the searing flesh below.

Restaurants: Rib Room, Japapanes and Lebanese all very good. Vu, not particularly noteworthy and the view is of other construction sites and scrub.

H20 spa, only for men and with male therapists. Treatments are good and they are skilled, if you like a massage that is of bone crushing severity and expunges all the air from your cavities, this is the place.

It is very convenient for the DIFC, at least in theory. They need to employ some boy scouts to help you cross the roads as pedestrians are considered fair game for the high speed drivers. However, only the poor walk in the UAE so it is assumed you drive everywhere.

Tip: if you are doing a number of countries in the Region in a short space of time, don't choose Dubai as the hub. Traffic terrible and the airport is slow and looks like a casualty clearing station with bodies strewn everywhere wiating for connections to disparate locations. Much better bet is Bahrain which is quick, efficient and blessed by the fabulous Ritz Carlton.

My husband and I stayed here for four nights earlier this month, partly for business, partly for pleasure. We had a wonderful room, with huge bathroom and plenty of storage space, on the 19th floor.

The business centre provided excellent overnight service on a print job, which though expensive was 100% correct, a small miracle when my husband wasn't around to check they were on the right track.

We asked the hotel to provide a car one afternoon which was a great service at a fairly reasonable price, but with hindsight could have been achieved at a fraction of that price with an ordinary taxi. Something to bear in mind if budget is an issue.

Only one small complaint about this lovely place. One morning we went down around 11.45 to the cafe/brasserie for an early lunch. They had finished serving breakfast but not yet started the lunch service, which was fair enough, but they then had trouble providing anything from the simple 24 hour menu. This was a minor issue as we were having a great time, but they really shouldn't say a place is open 24 hours if it isn't - and a meal in the late morning isn't that outlandish.

Great location in Dubai's business district. Great in-house food outlets... TV's are too small... too far away from the bed... Internet access very very slow.... Must see is VU's bar on 51st floor.