Royal Central Hotel the Palm
East Crescent, Jumeirah, Dubai, 9970, United Arab Emirates

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Fast facts
Check in from: | 15:00 |
---|---|
Check out before: | 12:00 |
Breakfast | Breakfast available |
Pets | Pets not allowed |
Children | Children are welcome at this hotel |
Amenities
More about Royal Central Hotel the Palm

Royal Central Hotel the Palm
Featuring a private beach area, Royal Central Hotel The Palm is situated in Dubai. Boasting a 24-hour front desk, this property also provides guests with a terrace. The in-house restaurant serves Mediterranean cuisine.
Ratings and reviews
Traveller reviews
Comment: 10 May 2025
FABULOUS BREAK AWAY
PRE-STAY:
We had booked the "highest level" of board available at point of booking, which turned out to be meals only..... received an email the day before travel from the hotel offering an "all inclusive" add-on to include drinks & bar snacks at 300AED per person per day - which works out roughly to £60pp, so at £120 per day for us - we decided not to opt for this.
CHECK-IN:
We had an early flight, so arrived at around 10am. Concierge services were a dream, by the time we had gotten out of our cab - our luggage had already been taken from the boot into the hotel. (Thank You Gabriel!) We were told a room would be available at 2pm, but there is a changing room provided so we could take advantage of the facilities straight away. I have to say the initial "welcome" by the reception staff (didn't get the lady's name) was a little stinted & could've been a whole lot friendlier, especially compared with the rest of the staff during our stay.
We had paid for that full 1st day (obviously) but were told in no uncertain terms by the receptionist that all we "qualified for" was our evening meal - even though the breakfast service was still running until 10:30am & the lunch service was 12:30pm to 3:30pm. After travelling since 9pm the previous day - this wasn't a great start to be honest. A compromise was made by "swapping" the lunch from our last day to the 1st so we could at least eat on day of arrival before the evening service.
ROOM/ ROOM SERVICE:
The room was very well set out & to a high standard. Took a while to find the controls to close the blind in the bathroom so we didn't watch each other shower (it's by the loo for those about to stay!)
The balcony was very small, had to move one of the chairs constantly to be able to open the door: literally only had room for the 2 chairs & a very small table & we were quite "on top of each other" when both sat out there, which was a tad disappointing. You wouldn't be able to fit more than 2 people on it.
Room service was excellent on the whole, with bed made, fresh towels, bottled water & bathroom accessories changed daily - but the balcony wasn't cleaned once during our stay :( I personally cleaned it & regularly washed it down, as it did get sandy from our time on the beach.
FOOD:
To a high standard, although as always with buffet-style, depending on when you ate some of the dishes had been there a while & some of the main meals weren't overly hot. A good choice every day & very attentive waiting staff. Within a day of staying, the lady checking guests in for food had remembered both name & room number which is impressive.
POOL:
Kept very clean & is a good size, wasn't ever overcrowded during our stay. Not really the "2 pools" as described, as the 2nd is a very small "kiddy pool" alongside the main one, but didn't cause us any issues!
POOL BAR:
Lovely atmosphere & the staff work themselves to the bone. Sometimes a little difficult to attract attention to be served, but purely as the staff are busy, as also offer beach & pool-side service. The guys are very friendly & welcoming - thank you Bruno, Godwin & the gang!
BEACH:
A few steps away from the pool area, with 2 x full showers & foot showers provided. The beach area is kept as clean as it can be, tables are cleared regularly by either the bar staff or the lifeguard - but as always some guests don't bother asking for ashtrays or clearing their own litter, so we did come across a few (sharp) bottle tops in the sand & quite a lot of cigarette butts, but that is 100% down to lazy guests. :(
The lifeguards on the beach are fab & work hard ensuring umbrellas are positioned & re-positioned as the sun moves without being asked & helping to find sunbeds that meet your requirements. Lovely lads!
Sadly there is no beach access after sunset, as it gets cordoned off - but I am guessing this is down to health & safety as no staff are present.
SUNBEDS (!):
Plenty! Lots around the pool, which do get taken quite quickly - but also lots on the beach with umbrellas & tables. We didn't have a problem once finding somewhere to base ourselves. You're given "towel cards" on arrival to access towels for the beach & the pool.
ROOF-TOP BAR/RESTAURANT:
Virtually empty every time we went there & I have absolutely no idea why! The staff are lovely, the views just stunning & it has a beautiful layout. But sadly - 2 out of 3 times we visited we were the only ones there & on the 3rd time, there were only 6 other people. Not as "atmospheric" as we had anticipated :(
STAFF:
FABULOUS! Apart from the one receptionist on arrival (who was maybe having an "off-day") - cannot fault any member of staff in this hotel. EVERYONE falls over their feet to provide a very high standard of service. THANK YOU to all.
Having said that, the reps are a bit of a pain as was approached a good few times for unwanted photographs & massages etc - although politely! But do feel once you have the spiel the first time, it is then your decision to go seek them out & they were approaching every time they saw you which became a little wearing.
WATERSPORTS:
There are simply loads to try (at a price!) from the "Water World Sports" based there, have a chat to the guys on the beach before you book anything. We managed to share a 2-hr boat trip from 9:30-11:30 which was well worth what we paid - but had been offered at a much higher price initially. Very enjoyable & informative, but do take some water with you, it gets VERY hot & we were only given 1 small bottle of water each during the trip which really isn't enough for 2 hours in 37-degree heat!
LOCATION:
The hotel is at the end of the Palm, so is around 45-50mins away from the city & is mainly an area of hotels & residences. By sunset (around 6:30pm when we stayed) - we found everything there is very quiet.
GENERAL:
If you need a cab - download the Careem app (Uber equivalent), much cheaper & the drivers are lovely!
Be aware of the cost of the drinks (!) - on our 1st day whilst waiting for our room, we had 3 drinks each at the pool bar (3 beers & 3 cocktails) which came to the equivalent of £97! :o The pool bar has a "happy hour" 2 for 1 on specific drinks from 4pm-6pm & then the roof-top bar carries that through from 6pm-8pm. That still works out to over £12 for 2 small cans of lager during happy hour (just over a pint), a full pint outside of "happy hour" is around £15... Soft drinks aren't much cheaper: a 1.5L bottle of water (around £1 in the UK) costs just short of £5 & smaller 500ml bottles aren't much less than that - so get a big one!
It does seem a little unfair - that with a 6-night stay, we paid for 18 meals in total & only received 15, so effectively paid for a day's food that we didn't get, which wouldn't have been the case if offered an "all inclusive" option at point of booking (which we weren't), but only as an "add-on" day before arrival = for us personally would've added £600 to an already fairly expensive break away....
During our stay, we couldn't work out at all where "everyone went" after about 5-6pm, as the beach started to clear at around 5pm onwards & apart from the dining room, no-one seemed to be "around" at all, which was a little strange. Most of our evenings were spent in our room, which we hadn't anticipated.
The city is definitely worth a visit - the Dubai Mall is something else! Sadly the Burj Khalifa light show was closed on our visit :( (for all of May whilst being refurbished), but the building itself has a "mini" light show & is very impressive.
Don't underestimate the heat! On our stay - the lowest temperature was 36 degrees, & it is intense at times.
Would definitely return, as was a very relaxing break away in a stunning hotel, with beautiful views, lovely beach, nice pool, warm sea, friendly staff - just a shame everything seemed to just "stop" so early in the evenings.

UK
Comment: 31 Jan 2025
Superb stay in this ‘chilled boutique’ hote.
Hotel response
Comment: 1 February
Thank you for having taken your time to provide us with your valuable feedback relating to your stay with us. We are sincerely delighted to have met your expectations during your stay. Your helpful comments are much appreciated, and your feedback will help us to continually improve the standard of facilities and services offered to all our guests. We look forward being at your service again in the near future.
Yours truly,
Guest Relation Team
Comment: 21 Apr 2025
Extremely noisey
The breakfast is not nice at all and is very expensive as is everything in the hotel.
This hotel is definitely not worth five star rating, it is at the end of the Palm and is far enough from everywhere.
The staff were lovely and really helpful throughout our stay.
Hotel response
Comment: 26 April
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We apologize for the disruption caused by the construction noise, especially with young children, and understand how difficult it can be. We're also sorry to hear that our breakfast did not meet your expectations, and we'll review the pricing to ensure we're offering better value. We appreciate your kind words about our staff, and we're glad they made a positive impact on your stay. We truly value your input and will take it into consideration as we work to improve. We hope to have the opportunity to welcome you back in the future.
Yours truly,
Guest Relation Team

UK
Comment: 6 Apr 2025
Beach life guard means I won’t be back
As a solo traveller in Dubai, I picked this hotel as had stayed before. My experience over 12 nights with the beach life guard harassing me was so bad that I had to report it x3 times to the hotel manager. Totally unacceptable harassment e.g. putting my umbrella down daily at 4pm even though I said “no”, he refused to listen and I couldn’t relax. The beach doesn’t close until 7pm. He put umbrella down on day it was raining and left all my personal items to get wet. Again, no explanation or reason. Every day was issue with him. On my last day in space of one hour he woke me up to say “ I am taking your umbrella. You are here on your own and 2 people want it, you are 1”. I was so upset at the harassment given I am just as entitled to have an umbrella and table as everyone else, I reported it for the 3rd time in reception and made a formal complaint. This life guard did not approach men on their own, not couples just me. He left me feeling intimidated, anxious daily and because of this I won’t be back to hotel. I should feel like I can relax on holiday and I couldn’t The hotel need to rain their staff in beach and pool to be 5 star standard. Totally unacceptable behaviour by anyone let alone a 5 star hotel. Train your beach and pool staff to a 5 star standard.
Hotel response
Comment: 8 April
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. While I wish you had a better experience, it is feedback like this that we learn from and use to improve. We work hard to deliver an exceptional guest experience, and it's apparent in this case that we fell short. If you give us a chance to earn back your trust, I can assure you that we will do our best to give you the great hotel experience that so many of our guests have grown so fond of.
Yours truly,
Guest Relation Team
Comment: 1 Apr 2025
Enjoy
Hotel response
Comment: 3 April
Thank you so much for your valuable feedback! We're glad to hear you enjoyed your stay and were pleased with the food, room service, and our pool and beach facilities. We truly appreciate your comments regarding the hammam/steam room, and we’ll certainly take this into consideration for future improvements. We hope to welcome you back soon!
Yours truly,
Guest Relation Team
Very good location
East Crescent, Jumeirah, Dubai, 9970, United Arab Emirates|22.16 km from city centre
10 things to dowithin 2.78 km
Transportationwithin 3.95 km
Airportwithin 25.65 km
Check in and check out
Check in from:
15:00
Check out before:
12:00
Good to know
Children are welcome at this hotel
12 years old and under
R 731 (AED150) per person per night
2 years old and under
Free
Pets not allowed
Breakfast available
Breakfast menu
Buffet
Breakfast price
R 1,218 (≈AED 250)/person
Cash