Stay Report: Hilton Madinah (Saudi Arabia - March 2014)

Stay Report: Hilton Madinah
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photo courtesy of Hilton.com

In my previous trip to Madinah, I stayed at a different but spent a lot of time in the Hilton’s restaurant as the hotel is very close to the Mosque.  For this reason, when I was returning to Madinah I decided to book my stay at the Hilton Madinah.  As I said, the hotel is located very close to the Mosque - you walk out of the hotel, turn right, and walk for 30 secs and you are at the mosque. That was about the only good thing about the hotel.

We pulled up to the hotel entrance on the first floor and then took the escalators up to the second floor to the lobby to check in.  The first floor contained the entrance to the street while the second floor contained the check-in desks, the business center, and the restaurant.  The lobby was not very big but looked updated enough; unfortunately this is where the updates ended.  Check-in was extremely slow and inefficient, and the staff were not courteous at all.  I finally was able to check-in, received my key, and proceeded to my room. 

photo courtesy of TripAdvisor.com

The room looked outdated and needed to be overhauled as the rooms looked very good for the late 90's but seemed not to have updated since then.  As you enter the door, on the left hand side was the entrance to the bathroom.  The bathroom contained a sink, toilet, and bathtub which were nice but the bathroom also needed to be updated.  Across from the bathroom was the closet, the fridge, and other such items.  In the main area were 2 double beds with a night stand in between – the beds seemed to be the only thing that had been updated in the room as they were very comfortable and in comparison to the new Hilton standard beds.  Across from the beds was a chest with drawers on the bottom and a TV on top, and next to that was a desk.  In between the bed and the window were some tables but there was also room to put in a roll-away bed.  Instead of a sofa-bed, this Hilton had upgraded to the new Hilton rollaway which are way more comfortable than the sofa-beds; at least you can get a decent nights rest on the roll-away.

photo courtesy of TripAdvisor.com

The hotel had a couple of facilities available for guests.  Breakfast was complimentary and while the selection was good, the seating area was very small and could not accommodate the crowds.  When we went early in the morning, we could easily find a seat but as we left -- and the crowds getting bigger – the seating became limited and it was more of a 'fight for your chair and your life' type of situation!  Another facility in the hotel is the lounge on the second floor.  The best part of the lounge are the windows alongside one part which faces the Mosque and provides nice views of the crowds and of the Mosque itself.  The lounge itself contains comfortable and relaxing chairs, and the lounge serves food but the food is bad, expensive, and the service is EXTREMELY slow.  The last facility is the business center, which is located in the lobby level and contains two computers with fast internet access and a printer.  At the time I went, wifi was not available neither in the hotel nor in the rooms so the only way to access the internet was through the business center.

Overall, the location of the hotel along with the beds and the business center are the positives.  Everything else, from the outdated look, the lack of customer service, and the slow service in the restaurant, are all things that need improvements!  An example regarding the lack of service – we were three people staying in the room so we asked for additional toiletries.  The request was made on the day I arrived into the hotel and two days later, and multiple requests later, still never got the shampoo (nor other items we requested).  One pleasant note on the service:  we did have a medical issue and needed another fridge in the room and that the hotel was responsive to that.  It took multiple tries and explanations but eventually they brought a bigger fridge.

Stay Report: InterContinental Dar Al Hijra, Madinah (April 2017)

Stay Report: InterContinental Dar Al Hijra, Madinah
comment below and let me know your thoughts :)

In my previous trips to Madinah, I had stayed at the Hilton which was located very close to the religious area but the rooms were not good and looked like they had not been updated since 1990.  Because of this, I looked for other hotels and found the Intercontinental – there are two InterCons located in Madinah; one was right next to the religious area while the other was a bit further away.  The reviews for the one next to the religious area were not good so we decided to pick the one that was a bit further away considering previous guests had given it high marks.

From the outside the hotel looked decent enough but on the inside the hotel looked older and had a really small lobby.  As you entered into the hotel, on the left was the concierge desk and straight ahead was the check-in desk.  Further towards the left was a seating area for both the lobby and small café.  Next to the café was the business center and further down were escalators which led to the second floor dining room.  As with the hotel in Makkah, this hotel was also booked as part of a tour package but I had emailed the hotel and was able to locate my reservation and add my IHG number.  For this reason, when I checked in I was greeted as an IHG member, given a welcome letter, and there was fruit and sweets located in the room.  Even though I had emailed the hotel about the reservation, it was a very long and complicated checkin process.  There were two staff behind the desk but neither seemed to a) know what was going on and b) neither seemed to have a good grasp of English which further delayed the process.  I finally checked in and received my keys to the room.  The elevators were located behind the checkin desks, but there were only two small elevators and it took a long time to get a free elevator.

Our room was located on the second floor, at the end of the hallway. The room itself was big in size, but had the same old décor and look as the hotel.  The room was shaped like an L, with long straight side that leads into the main room.  As you entered into the room, there was a small entryway which contained a table; on top of this table was the complimentary fruit and sweets.  The entryway led to a long hallway on the right hand side, which eventually led to the bedroom.  In the middle of the hallway, on the right hand side was the bathroom while on the left was the window which faced out onto the street.  The bathroom was a decent size and contained a sink, a toilet, a bidet and shower.  The shower was big but the sink area was compressed.  Further down the hallway was the bedroom area.

As were three individuals, the room contained three single beds.  As you entered into tone bed area, on the right was the closet and storage shelves.  The closet contained a safe, the ironing board and iron, while the shelves contained the mini bar and complimentary water.  Right next to the closet was the first bed – and there was not a lot of room between the bed and the closet.  On the other side of the bed was a nightstand which separated the first and second bed.  Next to the second bed was the third bed – and again there was little room between the two beds.  On the other side of the third bed was another window.  The beds were comfortable enough to provide a decent nights sleep.  Across from the beds, against the wall, was a desk, a TV on top of a set of drawers, and two chairs with a table in the middle.  The décor of the hotel and all of the amenities in the room looked old; the hotel phone looked old and sometimes did not work and there were a lack of plugs and no USB ports available. 

Amenities in the hotel included a business center, free WiFi, a restaurant, a café, and

concierge services.  The business center was a computer and a printer in a room; however, most times the door was locked so you needed to request the concierge to come and open the door.  There was free WiFi available in the room, but it was spotty and the login terminal sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t.  When it did work, the speeds were decent, but trying to get the WiFi to connect was a bit difficult.  As an IHG member, I received two complimentary drinks from the café.  I was going to order additional items, but again language and communication barriers prevented me from completing this task.  Breakfast was included with our room and this was available in the morning in the restaurant.  The restaurant was also decorated in the old décor and on the first day the breakfast had an odd layout which made it difficult to walk around – had there been more guests it would have been impossible to walk around.  Luckily the layout got better on the second day, but it still was not the best layout.  The selection available in Madinah was not as nice as Makkah and both the selection, freshness, and taste were average. 

As with the hotel in Makkah, the Madinah hotel had poor service and poor communication skills. The poor service started at checkin where they could not understand the information, it was right on the screen but they were mixing everything up.  The poor service continued when we tried to contact the front desk regarding an issue.  It took almost 30mins and at the end no one understood a single item.  Same thing happened when I wanted to request a late checkout; when I first approached the desk, the attendants English was not good and so just said “wait for manager”.  I had to come back when another attendant was there who did speak English.  It was extremely difficult to communicate with the staff for any issue.

Overall, it was a disappointing stay at the Intercontinental Madinah. The hotel was located farther away from all the other hotels so it was a longer walk to get the religious area.  Once you got the hotel, the service was poor and the hotel looked old.  In the end, there was nothing positive about the hotel.  There are other hotels which are closer to the religious area, so I would suggest to stay there; at least there is one positive aspect then.