I largely agree with most of the other reviews about the Pearl Marina. It's excellent value, clean and the standard of customer service was very good.
We’d initially booked to check in at 2pm on the morning we arrived in Dubai, but a couple of weeks before decided to book for the previous night to guarantee early check in. Unfortunately only a studio apartment (rather than the one bedroom booked for the rest of our stay) was available. I emailed the hotel (reservations@pearlmarinahotel.com) to let them know the situation, and they were very accommodating and allowed us to check into our correct room for the entire stay.
The one bedroom apartment had two bathrooms/toilets, which made getting ready in the morning much easier. Having a separate lounge area with its own TV was also useful, although some more English language satellite channels would have been nice. The wifi in the room was good, and streaming radio stations weren’t a problem.
The kitchen wasn’t particularly well equipped, with no tea towel or anything to wash the dishes. There was a microwave and toaster, but the microwave wasn’t usable as it had a European plug despite Dubai using British style plugs! Maybe I could have asked reception for an adapter.
It was easy enough to go to the Choithrams supermarket across the road to buy to buy kitchen essentials and snacks. It’s a well-equipped supermarket that stocks a good range of imported...I largely agree with most of the other reviews about the Pearl Marina. It's excellent value, clean and the standard of customer service was very good.
We’d initially booked to check in at 2pm on the morning we arrived in Dubai, but a couple of weeks before decided to book for the previous night to guarantee early check in. Unfortunately only a studio apartment (rather than the one bedroom booked for the rest of our stay) was available. I emailed the hotel (reservations@pearlmarinahotel.com) to let them know the situation, and they were very accommodating and allowed us to check into our correct room for the entire stay.
The one bedroom apartment had two bathrooms/toilets, which made getting ready in the morning much easier. Having a separate lounge area with its own TV was also useful, although some more English language satellite channels would have been nice. The wifi in the room was good, and streaming radio stations weren’t a problem.
The kitchen wasn’t particularly well equipped, with no tea towel or anything to wash the dishes. There was a microwave and toaster, but the microwave wasn’t usable as it had a European plug despite Dubai using British style plugs! Maybe I could have asked reception for an adapter.
It was easy enough to go to the Choithrams supermarket across the road to buy to buy kitchen essentials and snacks. It’s a well-equipped supermarket that stocks a good range of imported food, and also has a pork section. The big fridge in the kitchen was useful to keep drinks cold and much better than the usual hotel minibar fridges.
The housekeeping was as you’d expect in a hotel, with daily cleaning to a good standard, including fresh towels.
The downside to the Pearl Marina is that it’s on the far side of the marina, so about a 30 minute walk to “main” area where there’s more restaurants and easy access to the Marina Walk. The Pearl Marina side has a lot of construction going on, including a new hotel directly opposite the Peal so I expect it to be more built up in a year or so.
It’s also the wrong place to be if you’re looking for a beach break. The pool area is small, and on the couple of occasions we went there around mid-morning, every sun lounger was already taken.
As others have already said, most taxi drivers haven’t heard of the Pearl Marina, but we found it easiest to just tell them it’s next to the Lotus Hotel at the Marina. All taxi drivers knew the Lotus for some reason.
Despite that, I’d be happy to stay at the Pearl Marina again if I were in Dubai for a stay of a week or more, as it’s excellent value.More
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