I recently stayed here for the second segment of my first round-the-world trip.
First, the positives. The main reason to stay at this hotel is that it is the best cheap hotel within walking distance of the Dubai Mall. If you know for certain that your primary objective in Dubai is the Burj Khalifa and everything else is secondary, this hotel is an excellent choice. As of this date, Google Maps's aerial photography and Street View photography is still out of date. A pathway has been completed which links the southeast corner of the Rove's parking lot to the Dubai Mall Zabeel's eastern extension. There is also a gate in the parking lot fence which is usually left open for such pedestrian use. You can quickly reach the Dubai Mall in a 10 minute walk.
Traditionally, the main bus stop for sightseeing buses like the City Sightseeing Hop-On-Hop-Off bus was at the south side of Financial Centre Road. It is now at the Zabeel building on the north side of the road. This makes the Rove Downtown very convenient if you plan to use those buses (as I did) to tour Dubai.
This hotel also features a TGI Friday restaurant as the on-site hotel restaurant and a Choithrams convenience store.
The room had a magnificent floor-to-ceiling glass window. I paid for a cheaper room so I had the less impressive view facing northbound, along Al Mustaqbal Street, but it was still a very nice view.
The room was kind of small, but it was clean, smelled good, looked great, and overall was in excellent condition. No unusual sounds or sights noted.
I did not have time to go in the pool, but I did walk outside to take a look and it was very impressive.
Now, the negatives, which is what we all read Tripadvisor for. After thinking this through carefully, I am assigning a rating of four and not five.
The room was so small that it featured a sliding C-shaped table in lieu of a full-sized desk. This was kind of annoying when I needed to use my laptop.
The Rove's web site fails to explain how the 24-hour laundromat works, which is essential for anyone traveling light who needs to do laundry in the middle of their journey.
The laundromat has a machine that takes so many dirhams and gives you tokens, and then you use the tokens to pay for the washer and dryer. The washer has a detergent dispenser built in, so you do not need to separately add that.
There are ATMs in the Dubai Mall, but there are no ATMs within a quick walk of this hotel. For visitors like me who did not anticipate the need for dirhams, the front desk can sell you five tokens for roughly $17 USD, which is enough to run the washer for one load and then the dryer for about half an hour. Unfortunately, if that is not long enough to dry your clothes, and you are on a very short schedule, as I was, then you may have to depart with damp clothes in your baggage. As a result, I ended up having to do laundry all over again at my next stop, Singapore, in order to have dry clothes for the remainder of my trip. The moral of this story is that I should have taken the time at the airport to visit an ATM and get some dirhams.
I greatly enjoyed my visit to Dubai and I am already thinking about returning in a few years after the Dubai Museum's renovation is complete for an in-depth visit. I recommend this hotel to any first-time visitor to Dubai whose top priority is the Burj Khalifa. However, for my second visit to Dubai, I plan to try staying elsewhere in Dubai, such as Dubai Internet City, Dubai Marina, or Palm Jumeirah.
