Bespoke Residences - North Residence

Very Good
Traveller Type: family with young children

Okay
Traveller Type: family with young children
  : We arrived after mid night and messaged the property several times prior about late check in, to which they did not respond. The number we had from booking.com rang out when we tried calling it. I eventually got booking.com to contact them and confirm there would be some one to check us in. There was no hot water when we arrived, when we complained we were told that a maintenance man would need to be called and that we would be charged! It took until the second day for one of the staff to contact the bespoke company who advised me there was a switch in all bathrooms which needed to be turned on for hot water. I am not sure why it was off and why the staff wouldn't know this.When we asked the concierge how to access the beach, he told us we needed to speak to security, reception staff really didn't seem to know much about anything. The whole experience was underwhelming and a disappointment after a great trip through Europe.

Good
Traveller Type: group

Poor
Traveller Type: family with young children
  : I booked North Residence apartment for 6-8 Jan through Booking.com with agents BeSpoke, represented by their agent Mohammed Hossaim, who met my daughter and I upon arrival. What was meant to be a wonderful holiday surprise for my daughter, turned out to be a nightmare from arrival.On arrival at 5pm to the apartment, as I was in a rush to take my daughter to an attraction nearby, the agent handed over the keys to us without showing the apartment around and highlighting the flaws in the apartment. Later in the evening, when I came back with my daughter multiple flaws were noted with the apartment and these were:- stinking second toilet and no exhaust fan working- stinking and dirty toilet bowl in the main bathroom with toilet seat dirty and partially broken. Exhaust fan also not working.- both TVs in living room and bedroom not working. Remote for the bedroom TV did not have any batteries- bed head rest had plastic cover on top which was torn and had dirty head patches of previous occupiers.- Kitchen didn't have any washing liquid or material to keep utensils clean. I was told by Mohammed that cleaners don't come to clean the apartment unless the booking is for more than 5 days (this turned out to be a lie later on as confirmed by another BeSpoke agent the next day).I sent texts with photos that first night to the agent and tried calling that night and next day and no response was received.Next day I went down to the reception to lodge a complaint and met another agent (Mr Chengbe) from BeSpoke who agreed to come and view the faults in the apartment. He inspected the property and apologised for the state of the flat and also added that the flat will need to be cleaned and aired for it to be liveable. He clarified that the flat is cleaned on the daily basis and whether cleaners had been to the flat. I advised him that they hadn't but Mohammed had told me otherwise re cleaning schedule.
  : Mr Chengbe advised that he will arrange for discount for the shoddy state. Over the course of next three days whilst I tried to reach Mohammed, there was no response from him but in the meantime, Mr Chengbe tried to resolve the matter to the best of his abilities. He got the toilet cleaned and batteries replaced. The toilet seat was still dirty and the exhaust fans were still not working. The second toilet was still stinking. Whilst he assured me of a discount nothing came through on 7 and 8 January (my checkout date). Because of the shoddy stinking state of the apartment, I had to move my daughter away to the Fairmont hotel next door and incur extra costs. As promised to Mohammed on 6 Jan re checkout in was scheduled to leave early in the morning at 6am on 8 Jan. Mohammed didn't turn up then to collect keys. I waited until 9.30am and when he still hadn't turned up I went down to give keys to reception. The keys that were used (white access key, room lock key and parking key) were handed over to reception down stairs and the keys that were not used (two spare cards for no idea where) were left in the apartment for collection by Mohammed. Despite my best efforts there was no discount given and instead Mohammed charged me further AED 600 for not handing over keys to him when despite my best efforts he was simply not there to collect it. This matter has not concluded and I am considering all actions necessary that is permitted here. By far this has been the worst and the most horrifying experience for me in hotel and for a place which calls itself five star, it was worse than one star, if that. I have evidence for all the statements noted above.

Wonderful
Traveller Type: family with young children