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V Hotel Dubai, Curio Collection by Hilton

Florian Buechting Hotels & Accommodation No Comments

V Hotel Dubai (Curio Collection by Hilton)

694 AED
V Hotel Dubai (Curio Collection by Hilton)
2.7

Rating

 2.7/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Amazing posh place
  • Breathtaking design of the large round bed suite room
  • Lovely pool area

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Terrible Covid-19 handling
  • Multiple technical / housekeeping issues in the room
  • Staff issues at reception and other places

At the end of my December 2020 trip to Dubai, I indulged myself with a very special overnight: for two nights, I stayed in the V Hotel Dubai. The hotel, which is part of the Curio Collection by Hilton, is a posh boutique style hotel close to Sheikh Zayed Road. Overall, I had amazing as well as frustrating memories. Enjoy my review.

 

V Hotel Dubai – Location

V Hotel Dubai, Curio Collection by Hilton, is located in Al Habtoor City. The location is really beautiful, right at the Dubai Canal. Safa Park is just right behind Sheikh Zayed Road, which gives a good traffic connection to all Dubai destinations. There are scattered water bus connections, but there is practically no Metro connection to the hotel: the next station is Business Bay, but it is still some walk away and you have to cross the canal. The same complex hosts two additional Hilton Group hotels: right at the waterfront, there is the Hilton Dubai Al Habtoor City, South to the V Hotel, there is the Habtoor Palace Dubai.

The waterfront offers some additional services, like a few restaurants. If you are in need of a posh car, there is even a McLaren showroom around the corner. I did like visiting the (artificial) Dubai Waterfall underneath Sheikh Zayed Road.

 

V Hotel Dubai – Atmosphere

The V Hotel is a posh hotel with a boutique style touch. As I have been in the hotel right after Christmas, there was quite some holiday kitsch around. The style of the public areas was a beautiful. There is a concierge desk at the ground floor, but the reception is done on the 30th floor, which is above the guest rooms. This means that for check-in and check-out you first go up to the reception before you go down to your room / outside. I felt this is a bit of bothering, especially with lowered capacities of the elevators during the pandemic.

 

V Hotel Dubai – The Suite

I originally booked a King Room, flexible rate, for roughly 1400 AED (310 Euro) for two nights. Breakfast is automatically included in my rates as I am a Hilton Honors Diamond Member. I have been upgraded to a Round Bed V Suite on the 18th floor, which is having a breathtaking size of 71 square meters, according to a staff member.

The Living Area / Lounge

The living area with separate TV, bar, coffee machine and fridge was a real beauty. The place was amazingly spacious. It also connected to the separate toilet. I felt that it is likely the most beautiful hotel room design I have ever had. Unfortunately, there were some functional issues (see below). Living and sleeping section were divided by a large sliding door. As the carpet was very soft and flushy, it was quite hard to move the door.

 

The Sleeping Area

A huge round bed – is there anything else I need to say? The design felt somewhere in between a huge private jet and a space station. I felt that the optics of the bed and surrounding was amazing. The working desk was definitely too small though (see below). At least, it featured an universal power plug. Even if you are travelling with multiple suitcases and stay at the V Hotel for several days, it will be tough to get close to the capacity of the wardrobe area.

 

The Bathroom

The bathroom with two sinks and the separate, free-standing bathtub was definitely a treat as well. All necessary amenities have been provided. A real beauty as well.

 

The Downside

The room is a beauty at first sight, indeed – and I cannot say that I did not enjoy my stay there. However, there were so many points about the room I disliked that I really struggle with the hotel as well as Hilton at this stay, who should in my view control certain points and standards in their premises (depending on the level of the hotel of course):

  • Power plugs was definitely the worst thing: there was just one at the work desk (plus one underneath, which was practically unusable). The living area around the huge lounge sofa did not feature a power plug at all. I would have preferred to use the table / desk there to work, as I would have had TV view then – but without a plug that was impossible. There were also just limited power plugs in the bathroom.
  • The shower in the bathroom was strange, as water was stuck right behind the living room TV set when you had a shower. The soap dish was not appropriate, as water could not run out of it again.
  • I did not find a way to switch off the light behind the lounge seating – even the master switches did not work there. This was very bothering during sleep – so I had to close the sliding door, which was quite heavy to move. In case of an emergency, this would have been quite a barrier, so that I did not like that at all.
  • The housekeeping and room maintenance was not precise the plug in one sink could not be moved so it held the water all the time, there was no soap in the toilet (and no soap somewhere but a single one in the bathroom I could have transferred) and the round bed was missing a linen (see picture). Overall, black plushy carpet and white leather give the housekeeping a tough time of course: you spot any tiny piece of dust on the carpet on the one hand, while marks on the leather just make it look ugly.
  • There were some other design features I did not understand. The worst one was definitely the drawer centrally located underneath the work desk – which made it impossible to properly sit at the work desk without hitting it with one knee all the time.

 

V Hotel Dubai – Breakfast

As during my other December 2020 stays in Dubai, breakfast was served as a serviced buffet, i.e. staff helped you everywhere to grab your food. On my first day breakfast, this worked out quite reasonable – unfortunately some of the stuff was not ready yet. Thus I came a bit later the second morning and finally ended up not even having a hot drink. The staff was simply not well organized enough to handle it. The quality of food, however, was really good.

The hotel of course offers other restaurants as well – but some of them were closed or had reduced service due to the limitation.

 

V Hotel Dubai – Pool & Gym

The pool area of the V Hotel Dubai was really a beauty. Not that surprisingly, it has been very popular among the hotel guests, so that the area felt quite crowded around noon. There were several pools and different kinds of sun loungers. The is also a beauty at late evening hours, when the pools are illuminated.

The gym area was also very nice as well and featured modern gym equipment. I wondered a bit whether the capacity is sufficient for full occupancy days, though.

 

V Hotel Dubai – Services

WiFi in the hotel was good, but not as good as in other Dubai places. The hotel offers several restaurants and a fancy club for a nightly dance. There is also a theater, which you access through the V Hotel ground floor lobby. In general, the staff was really nice – checking in, however, took ages. I had to wait for over 15 minutes at the reception, also as they have not been too organized and did not care about me and instead went for guests who arrived later but were more pushy.

The hotel followed a signposted Covid-19 concept, including social distancing and wearing a mask indoor. I felt that the way they interpreted it was a laugh. Especially if you spread some touch of having money or if you are a high heeled lady in party dresses, hygienic measure did not count. There is enough staff in the lobby – but I felt that you rather take the profit than stay healthy. That was extremely bothering as clubbing guests share the elevators and as there have been temperature checks anyway – why don’t you ask people to cover then? But I also had multiple experiences where staff was entering an elevator which was already full according to the Covid-19 capacity. Due to that experience, I cannot recommend the V Hotel Dubai until we survived the pandemic somehow.

 

V Hotel Dubai – My View

Rating the V Hotel is a tough task for me, indeed. On the one hand, there is that amazing experience of the huge suite room, the breaktaking round bed area, the lovely lounge and – last, but not least – the beautiful pool. If you just look at most pictures, you expect a really high rating. But then there is the list of negatives. Most significant, there is a hotel Covid-19 policy and staff behavior which is nothing but a risk on the health of the hotel guests, Then I don’t understand, who cross-checked the design of the room and its facilities. Two, three more power plugs and a better setup of the technological items would have lead to an outstanding experience. It feels hard to believe, but finally, it is the fantastic potential this place has which finally prevents it from a below-average rating.

 

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