Sofitel City Centre Hotel & Residence - Dubai, United Arab Emirates 

We stayed in the Sofitel for seven nights during Easter and were quite happy with our choice, mostly because of the fantastic location, the hotel being adjacent to Deira City Shopping Center. Huge mall with everything you might need. As somebody already wrote, this is a city/business hotel, do not expect to be staying in a beach resort;) The pool area on the roof was OK, althought quite small. The fitness facilities were great. The room was clean, but as a smoking room (for non-smokers) it had unpleasent smell and it felt a bit damp overall. We stayed in the 11th floor in an executive room; don't know how the other rooms measure up. Breakfast was definitely great. The staff of the hotel was not excactly the friendliest, some were even rude. Though this seemed to be somewhat common in shops etc also.

We had an early morning flight so booked this hotel for our last night in Dubai as it's very near the airport. The reviews are very mixed here so didn't know what to expect but all in all we were quite happy with the Sofitel, it can't be compared to the beach hotels it's a business hotel in the centre of town. We paid 159Euros per room which isn't expensive by Dubai standards that's why I gave it an above average rating. We had dinner in their steak restaurant where the chef comes to the table & cuts the size of steak that you want he then asks you how much you think it weighs, if you guess within 10gr you don't pay for it, we managed to guess the weight of one to the chefs surprise so we got it free. I would definitely stay here again if I had an early morning flight.