Hilton Salalah - Salalah, Oman     

This was in May 2008 when my wife and me after a long business trip to Muscat decided to unwind ourselves and were suggested to go Salalah , as usual I booked the hotel by calling the property. This hotel was a total misfit as a choice since we had to experience a substandard quality of food and overall services.Room ambience was too ordinary. A simple request took them ages to deliver. When we talk about product, Crowne Plaza Salalah was much better since we went for dinner couple of times and found their quality and services as per the 5 star standards. It was a mistake to book Hilton Salalah since it never gave us anything which could even meet our small expectations. Last but not least their swimming pool area is also not great and we will always prefer Crowne Plaza intead of Hilton incase we plan to visit again to Salalah. Thanks Jason Barbour

The Hotel itself is small, 4 floors, and kind of secluded. So, if you are looking to just get away from it all and stay in the resort, with not too big of a crowd then this is the place for you. However, If you are looking for a more lively resort with more people and on a much larger scale, then the crown plaza is the choice for you. As for the hotel itself. The hotel is very nice, rooms are very spacious, and overall aesthetics are very good, although I must point out that the beach was not very nice, in fact, the whole time I was there nobody ventured onto the beach, they just stayed within the confines of the pool area. Service is ok, we had a bit of a problem with our booking, having booked a 1 room 4 adult on expedia, the "front counter manager" informed us that they do not allow that (even though we were able to book that way online) and that we have to pay for a second room. He was pretty rude, made snide remarks and was not willing to budge, even though it wasn't our fault. After much arguing, we were able to talk to the reservations manager, who was very polite and understanding and found some loop hole to get us 50% off, thus making it the same price. Like I said before, the beach is poor, and you can see huge oil rigs and equipment in the distance, but the pool area is very nice. This however, does not even come close to the Crowne Plaza, which is very well organized and has a huge private beach that just looked more appealing, and the pool area also had driving ranges, mini golf, areas for the kids, 3 drinks stations, massage tables for him and her, and just seemed better overall. Also, the subaqua diving people at the Hilton are very friendly and did a great job for our dolphin sighting adventure (saw more than 5 whales!). Finally, the food. Ate breakfast both days we stayed there, and It was very good, good selection, custom made omelettes and pancakes and waffles. Ate dinner once, which was also very good, the canaloni was delicious. We ate once at the Crowne Plaza, and the food seemed to be ok, but not great. For me, if I go to Salalah again, I will definitely stay at the Crowne Plaza. But that doesn't mean that I wouldn't recommend Hilton to some (especially older couples, people looking for some peace and quite)