Dubai’s Dusit Thani has two legs that form a waist belted at the top by a swimming pool.
In the winter months, the hotel is a short walk from the Dubai International Financial Centre and close to both The Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa.
The lobby is bright and attracts plenty of daylight, as the walls between the hotel’s legs are made of glass. The concierge was knowledgeable, and check-in was quick and friendly. It appears that every member of staff says “Sawasdee”, a traditional Thai greeting, to welcome you.
Dusit Thani’s newly refurbished one-bedroom suites cost Dh795-plus per night and are excellent spaces for travelling business people. A small but functional kitchenette is connected to a large lounge with a decent amount of workspace. The lounge area is spacious and could be used for post-conference entertaining. The room had a surfeit of sockets for the charging of phones or the plugging-in of karaoke sets and dehumidifiers.
The Wi-Fi was free. This is very important – I despise the hospitality sector’s habit of charging ludicrous fees for internet.
Laundry service offered same-day dry cleaning, which is useful if, like me, you invariably forget to bring enough clean shirts and underwear.
The decor is smart, and the Thai theme – Dusit Thani is part of the Thai brand Dusit International – elegantly executed. Attractive focal panels, one circular and one rectangular, add detail to each room. Large windows provide good amounts of natural light. A floor-to-ceiling mirror on one wall adds to the room’s apparent size. The high room is directly above Sheikh Zayed Road, but cars cannot be heard.
The hotel has three restaurants – the Benjarong Thai restaurant; Pax, which serves Italian dishes; and The Californian, a buffet restaurant. The buffet breakfast did not have salmon, which I regard as morally obligatory for a five-star hotel. The cooked food was not of very high quality and the cold meat selection consisted of two highly processed cold cuts.
Back to business, the Dusit Club Lounge has a private boardroom area for business meetings, which comfortably accommodates eight and has a projector, audio system and flat-screen TV. The meeting rooms can be converted to boardrooms for larger parties.
A 548-square metre ballroom can host about 600 people and is decked out well enough for a wedding, should you wish. There is a stage with a large projector screen and sound system – corporate movie nights are an option.
The rooftop pool can be rented out for a party of about 70 – if your company can justify a pool party as “conducive to morale”.
abouyamourn@thenational.ae
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