Review - Ramada Hotel Deira

Ramada Hotel in Deira, a 4-star property in the heart of Deira with a173 rooms. It belongs to the Wyndham chain of hotels. I am not sure if I have stayed in any of the Ramada properties before but I am a little impressed with this one.

My husband got a great "secret deal" from Booking.com. As you can see from the photo below,  the rack rate starts from 1000 dhs for a single room, 1400 dhs for a double bedroom and 2000 for a suite, excluding the municipality tax of 10%. We got the Standard Double bedroom for only 260 dhs (219 plus taxes) including breakfast and taxes. Now, that is what I call a really good bargain.

We stayed at Room 404 from 2 to 3 August, 2013.

What I like:

The hotel is centrally located and is right in-front of Reef Mall and Ansar Gallery. On the same side of the hotel and within stone's throw away is the Salahudin Metro Station. It is also near other hotels like Asiana Hotel, Crowne Plaza, Movenpick and Traders Hotel.

It is very accessible using public transportation.

It has free basement parking for guests.

The wi-fi connection is free. You just have to ask for the password from the Concierge.

The room is so spacious. This is, by far, the biggest room I have ever been booked on. It is even bigger than the exclusive room we had in Marriott Hotel in Orchard Road, Singapore. I can practically do a cartwheel from the  door all the way to the window without hitting any furniture.

The a/c is cold and I like cold rooms considering the extreme heat outside.

Kids until the age of 17 is allowed to stay for free with their parents.

The bathroom and the whole room is really clean.

Free access to the outdoor pool and use of gym.

Extra pillow and blanket

Free shuttle to Mamzar beach

The Concierge staff allowed us to go for early check in. Normal check-in time is at 14:00 and we checked in at 11:30 a.m.

The breakfast buffet selection if okay. Not as great as the one in Yas Rotana but the variety here is acceptable.

Other amenities:

Gym and outdoor pool
Business center
Coffee shop and restaurants
Safe deposit box
Mini-bar
Hair-dryer
Complimentary bottles of water and coffee and tea
Meeting and event facilities
Access for handicap


What I don't like:

The Concierge area is not as wide as I expected it to be. There was only 1 agent attending to so many guests at the time we checked in. And because of that, we waited for around 15 minutes before we were attended to. The actual check in time was less than 5 minutes.

The cracked border frame of the bathroom mirror. It's just a minor thing but it would have been nice for a 4-star property to not overlook this kind of flaw.

The basement parking is not well-lit and the huge laundry baskets are just scattered near the lift. They were not neatly arranged in order nor kept in a  conspicuous place.

The Iftar buffet selection was not so great in terms of food choices. I noticed that their grand Iftar buffet was geared towards Arabs and Indian nationals. The choice of food selection was Middle Eastern and Indian. The only food I know was Beef Stroganoff.


My recommendation:

Given the space of the room, location and accessibility, I will give it my thumbs up. However, if you don't strike a good deal from Booking.com or have no discount tie-up with this property, I say, for a single bedroom to cost AED 1000 (approx US$ 350++) per night on rack rate without taxes is a bit steep for a 4-star property.  I can add few hundreds more and I will be enjoying a nice creek-side view in Intercontinental Hotel which is a 5-star property. All in all, I recommend it only if you get a good or even better rate from internet booking sites. If not, I will pass on this property and book somewhere else. Price is still important to me even if the whole property is clean with plenty of amenities. If we had not gotten a very good deal from Booking.com, I don't think my husband would even consider booking here.