Royal Qatar Hotel - Doha, Qatar 

I was travelling Qatar Airways from London to Dubai with a transfer at Doha (by the way, despite the ads Qatar Airways are nobodys five star airline) but missed my connection and ended up at the Royal Qatar for the night. I had no Qatari money and couldn't find a bank machine at Doha Airport so a taxi to the hotel was out of the question. Four other people were in the same boat and we had to wait for the hotel shuttle bus. It took 2 hours to arrive which is no fun in the heat of the desert with your baggage. On the shuttle bus I checked tripadvisor on my Blackberry and my heart sank when I saw the previous reviews. On arrival it was general chaos and the staff didn't speak English very well which made life difficult (some might say that us English ought to brush up on foreign languages ourselves though in fairness). The staff were reasonably helpful although we did manage to argue over the bottled water! They wouldn't let me have any! I think they were short of it and I spent the night drinking Sprite! Very refreshing after being stuck in the desert for 2 hours! However, the food was ok but its basically Curry. Even the breakfast was Curry with a cornflakes option (I took the cornflakes). The room looked quite good and the shower was excellent, the bathroom was pretty clean and the bed comfortable (although I would have slept on a bed of nails at this point). The plumbing was a bit dubious and made some very strange sounds and the air con was less than powerful but generally speaking I have no complaints about the rooms. In conclusion, if you need a hotel room in Doha this place is ok. Be aware of the fact that the staff's command of English is poor and you better like curry if you're going to eat. Its not a 4 star hotel but it is a 3 star in fairness and I have no major gripes.