Grand Regal Hotel

My family was genuinely distressed by the poor service and the facilities’ inadequate maintenance. The rooms also fell well short of basic cleanliness expectations, and the service overall was unsatisfactory. The staff’s lack of professionalism and attention to guest comfort had a real effect on our stay. We wouldn’t consider coming back.

The location is a real plus, about a 10 minute walk from the Beautiful National Museum and the Metro, so getting around is easy and affordable. The hotel is old, but it works and it’s clean. I had a comfortable stay and the food was good and generous, though repetitive. Check-in needs an updated system. It took a while, and other guests clearly find the wait unpleasant too, especially after a tiring flight or flight problems. The senior managers were nice and helpful. Some junior staff, including housekeepers and SOME restaurant staff, could give the hotel a bad name and need to be corrected. The head of housekeeping is fantastic, but the housekeepers themselves often seemed reluctant to clean. They would hint, rather forcefully, that we should say the room didn’t need cleaning even when it clearly did. Maybe they’re overwhelmed, but it’s not good service. When the room was cleaned, it wasn’t always thorough. One person even said they only vacuum the carpet every two days 🤦🏽‍♀️ I also saw what felt like racial profiling by some migrant staff toward Black guests and people of African descent. Don’t be loud or obnoxious, but be firm and confident about your rights. I won’t say more than that. The party floors should be moved elsewhere. It takes away from an otherwise great location when random walk-ins get in the lift and hope to use a guest’s access card to reach floors where they shouldn’t be. That can feel very uncomfortable. There’s spare land around the hotel where they could build for those purposes. Dear Grand Regal Hotel, please promote Azad in the Restaurant to Assistant Manager under the Drinks and Beverage Manager. He’s courteous, fair, committed to service, treats people without regard to race, and is wonderful with children. Angel, who serves breakfast, deserves a promotion too. She’s professional, proactive, attentive to children, and diligent at her job. She’s an asset, and everyone would love her. Well done to everyone at the hotel.

We arrived expecting to go straight to our prebooked, paid-for room, but check-in dragged on until after 5, though it was supposed to start at 3. First we were told there was no room, then that it was being cleaned. Nobody seemed to know what was happening, and we waited two hours. There were three of us and three beds, but only two pillows and two towels. We called more than eight times over two days for more pillows and fresh towels, and nothing came. They said everything was “in the laundry.” Hard to believe a four star hotel can have no towels or pillows. The Wi-Fi didn’t work. We got a password but no network name, and none of the available networks seemed connected to the hotel or room number, so we had to guess. None of the wall sockets worked either, so we couldn’t charge our devices. We reported it right away and were told an “engineer” would come. Nobody showed up. Grand Regal Hotel Doha was disorganized, unprofessional, and unprepared for guests. I can’t see how it has four stars. One of my worst hotel experiences, and I’d never stay again. Avoid it.

We stayed at Grand Regal Hotel from May 22-27, arriving very late, almost 1:00 AM on May 23. On May 23, we went out around 4:00 PM, and my husband noticed a scratch on the back of our rental car. He told the bellboy who had driven and parked it right away, but we had an important agenda and couldn’t deal with it then. At about 11:00 PM, we reported it to reception and asked to see the CCTV to find out if the scratch happened while the car was in the hotel’s care or some other way. The receptionist said manager approval was needed and asked us to come back the next evening. They said they’d message us about the footage. We followed up with the same receptionist around 10:00 PM on May 24. After nearly 20 minutes, security arrived with the same bellboy. They showed us only limited footage, not the full recording, especially the daytime part. They said confidentiality meant they couldn’t show us the whole video and suggested filing a police report instead. We were guests asking for clarity about a rental car, and hoped for more consideration and transparency. The security staff were respectful and professional, which we appreciated. But we found the receptionist and bellboy rude and lacking empathy. As far as we know, both are Indian. We also think staff should be professional during work hours and avoid language guests may find offensive or misunderstand. We repeatedly heard “pagal,” which we understand to mean “crazy,” and it made us uncomfortable. We checked out today, May 26, at 5:00 PM, even though our checkout date was supposed to be May 27. We no longer felt comfortable staying there, so we moved to another hotel. We hope management takes the feedback seriously and improves service and communication. Thank you to Johnson for bringing our luggage and handling it carefully.