Al Hail Waves Hotel Managed By Centara

Located about 15 minutes from the airport & offers a transfer for R10 but you can do it for R3 by taxi eg Otaxi/ Tasleem which require you to use their Apps. (Yango requires an Omani phone number). Whatsapp requires a VPN eg Turbo for calls but not for texts. It is clean and generally well maintained and the room had a safe, aircon, hairdryer, tv, tea/coffee facilities with 2 (500ml) bottles of water replenished daily, shower and shampoo/body wash. There are many tv channels, mainly Arabic, a few in English and 1 in French. The room was quite spacious but half the rooms face the sides of the hotel which have no view and little natural light. My room was one with a cupboard for an air con pump which was noisy and there was even more noise from the aircon in the neighbouring buildings. The only restaurant is Thai/Chinese with a reasonable buffet breakfast and a small a la carte lunch/dinner selection of mainly spicy dishes. The 1/2 board menu is more limited for R5/day (£10) even though the website says R7.5. However a large deposit is required if you are not paying daily. There is a gym and a pool but although the website says it is outdoors it is on the 5th Floor with an opening above it. To sunbathe it is necessary to use the rooftop area however there are no sunbeds, just chairs and it can be quite windy at times. There is a Pizza Hut, Sushi Station, well stocked minimarket and Pharmacy in the same block. The Staff are friendly and helpful but can lack local knowledge.

Good

A clean and comfortable city break-style hotel with an on-site restaurant with delicious chinese/thai cuisine. Mamodou, the restaurant manager is attentive, polite and does everything. I think he might even be a chef! The bedroom had AC and was roomy, clean and comfortable with tea-making facilities, water and mini fridge. Tea/coffee: Inconsistent replenishment. Iron on request but ironing board needs to be replaced. I think access to the boiler was in my room, because I woken by a very loud noise (sounded like a washing machine spin cycle). The noise continued for 30mins. Sami and Dani at Reception were helpful, courteous efficient and knowledgable. The top floor swimming pool is a big plus but could do with rails around the pool, repair the missing tiles on the floor and wall of the pool. Only one short ladder to enter/exit the pool. There is no shallow end. Overall, the hotel is a bit 'tired' and could do with freshening up but comfort, cleanliness, convenience and location make it worth the price. I would recommend to others and turn.

Drains of the sink and bath tub didn’t drain well.

The AC was great, the dinner was really nice however was not happy with the selection for breakfast.