When one stays in a hotel for the first time, it is typical to be impressed by the comfort, convenience and the little touches that are standard in the industry. When one stays in a hotel regularly, it becomes more a case of expecting things to be laid on and seeing the hotel room simply as a means to an end – that end being the matter of putting your head down and sleeping in the midst of a spell of travel.
It becomes a matter of some interest, then, when you find a hotel that is genuinely a friendly place to stay and allows you to feel rested and relaxed, and as though someone has gone the extra mile to make your stay memorable in the most positive way. There is a very marked difference between staying in a hotel that is comfortable with efficient staff, and one that is not only comfortable but homely, with staff who treat you like a friend. The Best Western Al Hamra Plaza Residence is very much one of the latter and, as a result, is a hotel not just for the accidental tourist but for the holidaying family too.
A hotel is definitely more than just a place to rest your head, after all. A good hotel will make you feel, in some way, sad to be leaving. There are so many hotels in this world, and particularly in Abu Dhabi – capital of the United Arab Emirates, a tourist and business destination of some repute, after all – that in order to mark one out as different and of particular quality, a hotelier needs to take great care over the selection of staff. The Best Western Al Hamra Plaza Residence is a perfect example of what it is like when this policy is followed properly.
Many hotels in Abu Dhabi are geared very much towards the grown-up. As many again are targeted at the single traveler, and are thus not really a place that you would wish to bring a child to. It is therefore quite a refreshing change to find a hotel where the children in a family are treated as being every bit as valuable a customer as the adults (who, after all, tend to be the ones with the money), and the Al Hamra Plaza Residence is rare for being such a hotel.
The lobby is home to a coffee shop that would grace any city centre, and within this coffee shop there is an ice cream parlor. It is little touches like this that make all the difference. Knowing how children can pine for home when they are far away, it is excellent to be able to give them something you know they will like – and there are not many children who do not like ice cream. The staff, quite out of keeping with the dismissive way that hotel staff sometimes treat children, are extremely friendly, and once again this makes a huge difference and makes the {Al Hamra Plaza Residence} a perfect place to bring children.