After spending a night at the W Dubai, I decided to check out the St. Regis Dubai next, which is just a short walk away. As I wrote about a bit over a year ago, the St. Regis Dubai is a Category 7 SPG property, which is Starwood's highest category. That means a free night…
Continue reading: Review: St. Regis Dubai
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
With no one there, this looks like the hotel in The Shining. Nice review though.
Hey Lucky - great review. I noticed on your Luxury Privileges page you had promos up (that are now expired). Any chance you can update with current promos?
Thanks <3
A palace in the middle of a construction zone and next to a highway...
https://www.google.com/maps/ @25.1835728,55.2527736,3a,75y,86.29h,99.41t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sctXrDIy3GOkP4p3Bg8kYlA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1
It looks so out of place and a little bit sad. The only public open space is the pool, surrounded by 5 meters tall walls.
@Lucky, i know usually you avoid taking pictures of other guests or staff out of respect for their privacy. in this case, was it really as empty as the photos appear?
I'm a bloody mary purist so the idea of plopping a glob of date paste into one just makes me cringe.
Beyond that, the hotel looks really lovely. The lobby is sort of tacky but the bars & lounges are gorgeous.
Two specific notes:
1) A great bar is the heart and soul of a great hotel. I am so glad that the St. Regis has a proper hotel bar and not some afterthought crammed into the corner of the lobby.
2) So many otherwise beautiful hotels have dreary, bland hallways. I've been in hotels where I've felt like I was heading to my hospital room. So kudos to the St Regis' designers for creating such gorgeous hallways.
I've only recently have had sufficient reason to stay in Dubai; and, I'm still in search of my "go-to" hotel. The St. Regis does look beautiful, but its location is such an isolated wasteland. I'll stick with the "too cool for school" Armani until I find something more to my liking.
The paper airplane is incredible. Do you think your identity is noted on your SPG profile, or is the hotel staff googling you?
@ Ben
It is Lucky telling the hotel upfront that he is a famous travel blogger 😉
Mr lucky,
We hope you had a nice stay with us. I told all the staff to go out of their way to accommodate your every need. I am very pleased to see that you enjoyed your stay and gave us a good review. Please ask your readers to stay with us next time they visit dubai.
His highness sultan urf durf hakam Salam Mohammed
General manager
Ps: please tell the poor schmucks reading this not to expect the same service. That was a one time thing.
While I appreciate the reviews I think we should take them with a grain of salt. Having worked in luxury hotels when a blogger/critic/VIP comes the difference of treatment is different. The airplane was cute but not doubt the welcome amenity/ room upgrade are probably not typical. And without a doubt its on his SPG profile with probably copious in house notes.
I know everyone is going to jump on this "special treatment" train.
I can confirm that over the years, no SPG hotel featured on Garys or Bens blogs have provided "special" room upgrades. The non-standard thing here was the amenity and welcome pack.
If they have Empire suites available and heavy "ordinary" Plats come in, they get the same room. Same for W Habtoor, same for pretty much every other SPG hotel he has reviewed in UAE.
Of course I expect these upgrades to be "locked" for them, however the room category being offered is always usually the best one also offered to other heavy plats if and when available (just that I'm sure its more subject to availability for the rest).
I'm sorry but Lucky needs to start reviewing under an alias. This just isn't representative of what me, as a SPG platinum, is going to receive.
Actually that can play in your favor. Once just for kicks I booked a St. Regis(i will not provide the location due to security concerns) in Benjamin Schlappig and called to add myself as a second guest. My colleague checked in the same hotel for the same duration(we were there during a work stint), and I received a much better treatment than he did. While I will not repeat this it was an interesting experience that proved to me that being a blogger will get you the special treatment.
Looks like a fabulous hotel, but I have to imagine it's a bit lonely not to have other people in the bar, restaurant, pool area, etc. I know for me, people watching is half the fun. I'd' feel really uncomfortable being in the hotel on my own, which is about what it seemed it was like.
@Ben. Great pictures of the hotel. However, as has been noted by many people, the service comes of as less than a genuine interpretation of what would be the reality of a normal visitor. I now kind of see your reviews as being in a similar vein to the 1980s tv show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. In a way, you have the over the top experiences that Robin Leach received because it was always great PR for the hotel. Nonetheless, I do like living vicariously through your travels and I do appreciate when you post travel tips. Thanks to you, I've got great biz class flights from Cairo as well as award bookings on AC FRA-YVR on the 787. Thanks 🙂
Hmm.. from this post/review, I do agree with the others that commented that because now hotels know who you are, the treatment you get will certainy be top notch vs just someone with status.
In my opinion, the St Regis deco is just not my cup of tea - it's just way too old world. I would happily take the W or Westin anyday over the St Regis. The same goes for those older Ritz-Carltons which to me looks so tacky and stuck in the Roman times, the newer Ritz Carltons are much better especially the one @ Kyoto - nice modern but yet at the same time traditional deco.
Loved the Namu restaurant back in your W Dubai review. Would not mind trying it as the presentation looks so much better than that of Nobu.
Great review. Hotel looks amazing. After seeing this review and the lovely photos this is the hotel I will stay at next time when in Dubai. Thanks again Lucky.
I think the hotel is stunning, anyways Im a hugh fan of the St. Régis brand. My favourite of them is in Singapore where you also stayed once.
Anyhow this one I wouldn`t book ever! It is located terribly between a highway and the metro of Dubai! The hotel itself is beautiful but the location is rather bad.
This 'Ben is getting special treatment' insinuation has gotten tiresome.
There are very many hotels which deliver exemplary service to everyone, even to social media nobodies like myself. I remember so well the first time I walked into the Connaught. I was a geeky twenty-something graduate student. I loved (and still love) those great, classic hotels like the Connaught and I had saved for over a year just to spend two nights in an entry level room. I felt so intimidated walking into that lobby but within minutes the Connaught's staff made me feel so very welcome and comfortable.
That is what makes a luxury hotel.
What a lot of you are calling "special treatment" is what I would call loyalty recognition. Of course Starwood has a file on Ben. Just like Mandarin Oriental has on a file on me. As a good customer of MO, I'm showered with a bunch of little extra niceties whenever I visit one of the company's properties; not at all unlike how the St Regis Dubai made a concerted effort to personalize the stay of a loyal Starwood customer like Ben.
A cute little paper airplane does not constitute "special treatment." The St. Regis staff treated Ben really well. I suspect that I would get similar, though less personalized, treatment should I ever check-in.
As for Ben traveling under an alias: how would he do this? I'm sure Ben has to present his passport and/or other form of government issued identification when checking into an overseas hotel. That would sort of blow his cover rather quickly.
Yes, the back and forth over special treatment; alas, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
While I suspect it is quite likely that this property would have otherwise provided good-to-exceptional service, it's clear that management knew who he was, knew what he does for a living, and played up on that. It's cute. It's making things personal. And all of the extra little attention to detail is probably a heightened version of what they already do. It would be completely naive to think that they didn't go just a LITTLE bit over the top for a travel blogger in the hopes of getting a better review. I mean, what harm did it do for the hotel considering the place was seemingly empty?
That said, as an average customer — platinum or not — I wouldn't walk into the place thinking I was going to get *that* experience. Pretty sure I'd leave a tad disappointed in that case. lol
Is it possible if Ben writes negatively about SPG properties, they would permit his extensive photography? Think he would continue to get upgrades?
@Lucky, here's an idea; why don't you have quarterly contests on your blog, to get more "unbiased" reviews of flights/hotels.
- Readers provide sample writeups of trips they have already taken
- You choose those with writing styles/content that appeal to you (including type of traveller, destination, type of trip, etc)
- Reader takes their "dream trip." You help them with their booking; they initially pay for the trip
- Updates are provided throughout the trip, with last report due within 10 days of the trip
- Finally, you reimburse them for the trip. The cost of the trip becomes a business expense to you
You continue to travel/write as usual, but this gives an opportunity for "normal" trips to get documented (including economy fares, etc) as well; introduce the readership to a greater group of travellers/travel style
You've done a great job of building the blog; this will only increase your content. In addition, judging by the comments, there's a significant portion of your readership that cares most about the trip reports, and this would cater exclusively to their needs
@RS -- I really like that idea. Maybe not so extreme as to reimburse the trip but perhaps give out a travel voucher like TPG does. Although, the overabundance of really shitty writers drove me away from TPG, so it might become annoying to change away from Lucky's writing style that we all enjoy.
Hi Ben,
Next time in Dubai, forget your usual point-givers and those who give you the
best upgrade, and try the 4 Seasons Jumeriah or even the Polozzo Versace.
Mark
Ben,
I have said it before - The reviews are getting increasing pointless as they are aware who you are and that you are staying. You are not being treating as an average member with status. They clearly know you have a blog and you will write a review so the whole thing is pointless as a representation of what the experience would look like for the average business or leisure travel.
Come on Ben, you are much better than SFO777 who uses his blog/FT threads to get huge discounts or free service as confirmed by one of the GM of a hotel he reviewed.
How does Ben's special treatment change what matters? The food is the food. The gym is the gym. The (empty) pool, bar, and champagne lounge are the same with or without blogger status.
So you don't get a paper airplane. Get over it.
The hotel is still the hotel otherwise, and if you can't extract useful information from the review, then you need to quit the internet.