This hotel is brand new, modern, and very stylish -- the pictures on the official site do it no justice. Check-in was a little slow, with one frazzled clerk attending to four guests simultaneously, but the room was great: spacious, big comfy beds, little sofa-and-table area, powerful shower, plasma TV, and all of it squeaky and new. Internet access is a rather steep 80 dirhams/day (~US$20), but at least it was fast.

The next morning, I hit the gym, which was quite spacious and well-equipped with a good selection of treadmills, stationery bikes, exercise machines, in fact pretty much everything except heavy free weights. There was even a European lady seemingly employed to run the center! The dressing rooms have a decent little sauna, and up the steps is a slick rooftop pool that would have been just amazing a little later in the year... but I was visiting in January and the 10 deg C water was, um, on the refreshing side.

My rate didn't include breakfast, but I did get three "treat" coupons, redeemable for various things like beer and pretzels, fruit platters, muffins etc at the restaurant and bar downstairs. The only catch was that they could only be used between 11 AM and 8 PM, and I'd checked in at 10 PM and was leaving at noon the next day... but I tried the "sandwich and drink" at the hip little cafe (complete with pop art comic panels on the walls), expecting a saran-wrapped white bread triangle, and was fairly shocked to get what amounted to a freshly made club sandwich (minus the bacon) with piping hot fries.

Overall, there are two negatives to the hotel, and one big positive. The negatives are that 1) the hotel isn't close to much of anything, although you can walk to the Creek in ~20 min if you've got time and the weather permits, and that 2) there really isn't the slightest hint of Arabia to the entire place: it's totally anonymous modern style. However, the big positive is the price: my stay, booked just a few days ahead, was Dhs 550 (before taxes), or around US$150, when most Dubai hotels I looked at were anywhere from 2-4x that much. Given that the hotel is just ~10 min from the airport by taxi, this was perfect for a one-day transit stop, and I'd definitely recommend it for people with a little sightseeing time on their hands.