Novotel Al Dana Resort - Manama, Bahrain     

We stayed here for one night at the end of May. Had booked two weeks in advance. Called the morning of check in again to confirm arrival time and we were told all was in order. Got to the hotel check in desk, quoted reference number to the receptionist only to be told no rooms were available at the rate quoted. I explained I had already confirmed this earlier and asked to speak to a manager or find a room when the guy at reception suddently changed his mind. After making one call he allocated us a room. Despite having giving credit card details over the phone, having our passports photocopied and offering to leave them at reception, we were told payment was needed up front. I have never ever experienced this before in any hotel. When we got to our room which was just average, there was absolutely NOTHING in the fridge. No mini bar, no drinks, nothing. We went out for a few hours and on returning ordered room service. On checking out next day, we realised the room service whicih consisted of a sandwich, some noodles, starter of chicken satay and drinks came to a total of 85.9 BD!!! (146 EURO) We had ordered a glass of house wine but they arrived with a bottle which we discovered on checking out cost 44 BD.....(75 EURO).....HOUSE WHITE??? We queried it the next day as there was no breakdown of the room service attached to our invoice and the receptionist merely laughed as she told us 'yes, thats the correct price'. Our mistake was to just blindly accept this and walk away but we were so dumbstruck at the time and were not thinking straight. On top of that the pool area and private beach area was packed with Arab men. There were very few women at the beach area and one woman in the pool. If you are a westerner I would definitely NOT recommend this place. On the day of check out and folowing two phonecalls, we waited 35 minutes for Housekeeping to bring an iron and ironing board to the room. Finally, If you want to get ripped off stay here. We will stay at the Ritz in future.....it would have cost us less.