Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental, Abu Dhabi

Beautiful property and incredible service. We loved the personalized experience (thank you to Olga for making us feel home)

One tiny thing, but it’s more of a question: one camel outside had his paws tied and it looked very uncomfortable as he couldn’t stand up. Maybe there’s a reason but it was a bit sad to see.

The room was very neat and beautiful

Nothing at all

They are heavily understaffed. That too in September. Guess how they manage during peak season. It took three calls to get to their luggage service. ANd then they made us wait a further one hour after checkout before we could get the luggage.

Our stay at Emirates Palace was a good experience. The room was absolutely huge, very clean, and had a beautiful balcony with a pleasant view. Everything about the hotel feels truly palatial you really feel like you are staying in a palace. One of the perfect things was the Nespresso coffee in the room. The coffee was genuinely good and enjoyable, unlike the coffee you often find in other hotels. The breakfast was also excellent, with a very good selection of food, and even champagne included. If you wish, you can also order food or other drinks "to go". The quality of the food throughout the hotel was very high. The swimming pool area was fantastic, especially the lazy river and water slides. Another great detail was the complimentary bottled water available everywhere around the hotel. Even at the beach, staff regularly offer you cold water. Sun protective creme is also provided, which is a very nice and thoughtful touch. There are plenty of activities available within the hotel grounds. In addition to bicycles, you can enjoy camel rides and kayaking, which makes the resort much more than just a place to stay. The only downside for us was that the restaurants at the hotel are quite expensive. We preferred to go shopping at the mall and have lunch or dinner there instead. Overall, Emirates Palace is a beautiful and very comfortable hotel with excellent service, high-quality food, and an incredible atmosphere. You truly feel like you are staying in a palace.

Unfortunately, our experience after checking out was very disappointing and significantly changed my overall impression of the hotel. After we left, our daughter realized that she had forgotten her earrings in the room. We immediately contacted the hotel and asked for help in returning them. What followed was a surprisingly complicated and frustrating process, involving a long exchange of messages, unnecessary requests for confirmations, and detailed descriptions of the lost item. As the owner of the belongings, I simply asked the hotel to send the earrings to me with a taxi driver. However, the hotel refused, referring to some internal hotel policy. I found this extremely unprofessional for a hotel of this size, reputation, and price level. Even more disappointing was the proposed delivery cost. They were asked to pay AED 250 to deliver a small pair of earrings to a location I specified, while the taxi ride I personally took to the hotel cost only AED 45. The difference was difficult to understand and, in my opinion, completely disproportionate. For a truly prestigious luxury hotel, I would expect the management to take responsibility for such a small matter and simply cover the reasonable cost of returning a guest's forgotten belongings. This would have been a small gesture for the hotel but would have demonstrated a great deal of professionalism and care for the guest. Interestingly, Ritz-Carlton handled a very similar situation completely differently. They went out of their way to help and eventually delivered the lost item to me free of charge, even after I had already decided to give up on getting it back. Unfortunately, only one of the two earrings was returned, but I was still very impressed by their attitude and willingness to help. This experience made me realize that, despite the impressive facilities and luxury appearance of Emirates Palace, the level of service and professionalism does not always match the hotel's reputation and price level.