One&Only Royal Mirage - Residence

AT the end of a 3 months stay in Dubai I thought I treat myself to a nice hotel for 3 nights. One hour before leaving my apartment, I booked this hotel which from memory I remembered it to be lovely. Arrived at the hotel at 1pm and to my astonishment I was told that I have no booking which I had made and had fully paid for through booking.com. I showed the manager my booking confirmation email and even logged into my credit card statement which showed the payment made to booking.com. After many arguments finally the desk manager (a gentleman from Mauritius) and I, rang booking.com together who confirmed that yes I had made the booking. What I didn't know that the offer I had bought was advertised by another company on the booking.com site. Well, one learns a new thing every day. So when you buy a holiday from booking.com, it is not necessarily booking.com who has sold you the holiday. At this time it was about 3pm and I was so tired so the manager allowed me to go for lunch while they sorted out the booking. While I was having may lunch I was called by the waiter to answer the manager's call urgently. The manager told me that "you booking is fishy' and you better come back to reception immediately. I was so humiliated by then that I said, I am having my lunch and will come once I have finished my lunch. After lunch they told me that they need an email from booking.com which hasn't been sent. Here we go again, this time a lady took over from the manager and together we were off to call booking.com which again confirmed my booking is genuine. To cut the story short, at 6 pm I was so tired of being passed between the management and the booking.com and finally gave in and paid for the hotel and my half board again before I was given a room. 5 hours of waiting and humiliation. I have no idea what sort of guests the One & Only Royal Mirage are used to, to even imagine that someone would fake a booking? Outrageous! They wasted almost a day of my stay at the hotel for what was obviously a mistake from booking.com The booking.com immediately returned my first payment with nothing more than a simple apology. Apart from that, the hotel is beautiful, the decoration is lovely and rooms are extremely clean and extremely tasteful. Food is good but the staff could improve their English. I have to admit, shame about the management. No wonder such a beautiful hotel hasn't got a better rating!

I contacted one&only directly to book a surprise stay for my husbands 40th birthday. I can honestly say this was the best hotel we have stayed in - not just in Dubai but globally. Hard to pinpoint one area because everything was superb. The greeting, the staff, the kind room upgrade, the facilities, the food, the vast choice of dining/drinks. It was exceptional and it felt very special. We can???t wait to return and cannot recommend the One&Only Royal Mirage enough for a peaceful, magical, special time.