DoubleTree by Hilton at Business Bay raises the bar on value for money

Only opened last July, the DoubleTree by Hilton at Business Bay is already regularly in the top 25 Dubai hotels on tripadvisor.com, and has reached as high as number 10 – quite an achievement for such a new property. 

Its location within walking distance of the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall is a major advantage, although there is a complementary shuttle if you don’t want to walk. 

This is a rather charming, boutique-style hotel with a stylish, plush interior clad in wood, good restaurants and attentive staff. You are also getting a standard of room that in any other country would be rated five- and not four-star.

Spotting the value proposition? Clearly, many guests have as the hotel was running at close to full occupancy during my stay in the first week of January, and was full the next night with the Russian Orthodox holiday and a day off in Saudi Arabia, ramping up the numbers.

This is both a leisure and business hotel, and it performs both roles rather admirably, though it will be even better when the roads are sorted out. A new bridge over the Dubai Canal inaugurated last month improves access but it is easy to miss the slip-road as I did twice.

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For a very competitive Dh1,850 per night, try a 106-square metre King One-bedroom suite with a floor-to-ceiling view of the iconic Burj Khalifa, the best this hotel can offer.

Its 4 square metre shower is the biggest I've ever seen in Dubai with a 50cm rainfall showerhead, and the whole, rather cool, bathroom similarly over-sized. The Hilton king-size bed was as comfortable as they claimed.

You have 49-inch smart TVs in the bedroom and lounge, and a made-for-Hilton couch in the lounge transforms into another double bed if required. A separate desk area and 11.6 Mbps Wi-Fi are ideal for getting business done. 

Or for the best deal check-in to a Dh850 per night twin-bedded room with the same high standard of interior design. 

Room service will russle up a club sandwich for Dh65 or a Margherita pizza for Dh60 and you also have your own microwave to warm them up. 

The hotel has a policy of highly competitive food and beverage pricing, perhaps a reaction to some complaints about over-charging in Dubai hotels. There's a business lunch in The Square, an all-day dining restaurant, for Dh85, and options of discounted beverages are available  at Bay Club that extends around the swimming pool with a series of cabanas and comfortable patio furniture. In the evenings The Square becomes a rather classy restaurant serving an eclectic mixture of Japanese, Arabic and Indian food. Again, there is value-for-money here but without any compromise on quality. 

For company events, the meeting room floor is an incredibly flexible facility with six rooms, all with natural light, available separately or in various combinations to accommodate from 10 to 150 people.  The hotel has a complementary printing service and video-conferencing is also available. It is also fully accessible for disabled people. 

Like the rest of the hotel the colour pallet is muted and harmonious with plush carpets and designs taken from the Arabic musical instrument the oud which also plays softly in the elevators. 

Strictly speaking, the DoubleTree at Business Bay does not have a spa. But it does have sauna and steam rooms and a series of treatment rooms with therapists on call. 

The Technogym is decently equipped with four running machines, three skiing machines and two bicycles, enough perhaps for a hotel property with 238 rooms and suites.

This is hospitality among the very best in Dubai, and many executives from the Hilton chain come to visit it, perhaps  for that reason.

I thought having a cheerful a lady floating about the breakfast room, speaking to guests from the other GCC states, was a nice homely touch, and you could see the guests appreciated it.

Often, the little things are forgotten in Dubai’s big hotels, but not in the Hilton DoubleTree at Business Bay.

The writer was a guest of the hotel