We decided to spend one night at The Chedi Muscat. The 158-room hotel is the best resort in the area. Several readers recommended this hotel, and others were interested in reading a review.
Did The Chedi live up to the hype? The grounds of this hotel are gorgeous. The rooms were dull, and the service was poor, especially for a hotel of this caliber.
The Chedi has additional amenities that Ford booked through Virtuoso.
These are among the most generous perks I have seen. The upgrade, breakfast, and early check-in and late check-out are standard, but usually there is only one additional amenity. There was a $100 credit and a complimentary lunch or dinner.
We should check out the club lounge at the Chedi because it intrigued me. I will cover some of the extras in club rooms below.
We booked a Club Deluxe Room which cost 734 OMR for a one night stay. I thought it was worth it for the review, and the benefits through Virtuoso were pretty generous for a one night stay.
The Chedi is located in the Al Ghubra area. The hotel is close to the airport and the old part of the city.
The beauty of this hotel is that when you stay there, you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere at a five star resort, while you are also not very far from the sights of Muscat.
The Chedi is located on a 21-acre property, and the grounds are beautiful. Rooms are spread out over a lot of buildings. The layout is beautiful.
The Chedi has a large lobby. The lobby lacked natural light and was quite dark, but that is inevitable with this kind of design, and I suppose it is practical in terms of keeping out the heat.
The check-in process was not great. I was not greeted by any employee when I arrived at the hotel, which is usually a luxury hotel. I was invited to sit in the lobby by the associate because the reception desk was small.
When this kind of check-in is performed, you are usually offered a welcome drink or cold towel, and it is explicitly marketed as a perk when booking here. I sat there for around 15 minutes with no communication from the front desk associate. It wasn't a great experience, and you expect more from a luxury property.
Since the hotel can be a bit of a maze, I was escorted to my room, which was helpful.
The room I was escorted to was the same room category I had booked. The hotel has a lot of club rooms, and my room was in one of the club wings.
The club rooms are a fair size, but not huge. The room had a king size bed, a sitting area with a chair, and a desk with a chair.
There was a coffee machine in the closet by the sitting area. The minibar is free for club guests, which is a nice touch.
There were two sinks on each side of the door in the bathroom that was back near the entrance. The walk-in shower was on the side of the other sink.
The toiletries were from Parma.
I didn't like the view of the room and the interior was nice. The only view of the room was from the club lounge outdoor sitting area. I didn't like that since it meant that I had to draw my curtains or they would look at me.
I asked the front desk associate if there were any other rooms that had a bit more privacy, because I think it's important to express if you're not happy with something. The space available upgrade that is supposed to be offered through Virtuoso was not mentioned at check-in by the associate.
If you book a rate that includes a space available upgrade at a luxury hotel, you should be acknowledged at check-in. I appreciate when an associate says that they make every effort to upgrade their guests, but unfortunately we're sold out this evening.
I thought I should ask about that since the associate didn't mention anything about Virtuoso during check-in.
The associate told me that the hotel was completely sold out and no upgrades were available. At the same time I was on The Chedi's website, I saw that the hotel was selling at least four rooms in the next higher category, and at least four rooms in the category above that.
The associate claimed that the availability online must be a glitch. I asked what would happen if I booked one of these rooms, since at least four of them were for sale. She claimed that the rooms were marked out of service in her system.
I wasn't looking to pick a fight, especially for a one night stay, because I was getting full-on Marriott Bonvoy upgrade denial vibes here. I told her to forget about it after I got back to my room.
Room 2516 was the next room I was assigned. The room was larger but not as nice. The room was up a set of stairs and there was a kitchen and living room in the hall. Maybe the entire floor can be rented for a party?
The room was bland and under furnished, but it was a great size. The room had a king size bed, a coffee table with two chairs, and a wall-mounted TV. The lack of wall treatments made me think of the Ritz-Carlton Turks and Caicos.
The bathroom had a single sink. There was a walk-in shower and a toilet.
The room offered a lot of privacy. The room had a nice view of the garden.
There are three amazing pools at the Chedi Muscat. The Long Pool is the first pool. It is more than twice as long as an Olympic pool and the longest pool in the Middle East. This pool is stunning.
The Chedi Pool is the second pool at the resort. The smallest of the three pools is on the beach. There is a pool bar here.
The size of the third pool is somewhere between the two other pools.
The hotel is on the beach with three beautiful pools. It's not as nice as the beaches in the Caribbean or theMaldives, but it's still reasonably nice.
Next to the Long Pool is the Chedi Muscat's impressive spa and gym facility. I didn't have time to get any spa treatments, but you can find the menu here.
I was able to use the gym, which was great. It had a large amount of equipment, which was divided into several zones.
When I saw that The Chedi had a club lounge, I thought I had to book one of the rooms. The hotel usually only charges an extra $100 per night for a club room, which seemed like a fairly low premium to me. The Chedi gives you the following benefits if you book a club room.
Those are quite a few things. There was a large room in the club lounge near my room. There was a courtyard with lots of seating.
The afternoon tea had a self serve buffet with some goodies. There were server who preferred coffee and tea.
There was a light selection of canaps at the happy hour. Chicken tikka and shrimp skewers, sushi, cheese, olives, nuts, and other items were included.
Wine and beer were self served, plus the bartender could make drinks.
Upgrading to a club room is a great value. If you travel as a couple and each have two drinks, that will cover the cost of a club room. The other perks, like airport transfers and laundry, are not accounted for.
I think it's important to state that this isn't a refined or exclusive lounge. The lounge has a lot of rooms with access to the club, so it has a vibe of a cattle call when the food is put out. Don't expect this to have an exclusive hotel experience.
Breakfast is served in the main restaurant by reception for all guests at The Chedi. The restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating. They had live instrumental music during breakfast. The amount of live music at this hotel is really good. That is something I always enjoy.
The hotel had an extensive breakfast buffet with both local and international options. I will let the pictures speak for themsleves.
I had a french press coffee, a banana smoothie, and a cappuccino.
The lobby lounge at the Chedi is open most of the day and serves drinks and snacks. There are both indoor and outdoor seating, and I had a drink here.
One day, I had lunch at the cute little outdoor restaurant at the Serai Pool, which was included with our rate.
A selection of bread was offered to me. I had so much Middle Eastern food that I decided to mix it up and have pizza and tuna tartare, both of which were very good.
I struggle with The Chedi here. It is a gorgeous, stunning, calming property. It is one of the prettiest resorts I have ever visited. The service doesn't match the hard product.
The first issue is that this isn't a boutique hotel. The property charges very high rates and is designed in a way that makes you feel like you are in an exclusive compound, but with 158 rooms there are potentially hundreds of guests on the property.
It doesn't feel like what you would expect from the best hotel in the city. There are a few examples.
Don't get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with the service. Don't expect a five star boutique hotel service here. If you want service to be more of what you would expect at a four star hotel, you should expect it to be more attentive.
I didn't initially plan on staying at The Chedi, but when people rave about it, I decided to check it out. Some of the most beautiful grounds I've seen at any hotel are at The Chedi. This is an exceptional property that includes the gardens, palm trees, and pools.
I didn't find the service to be great either, and the rooms as such were rather unremarkable. You will probably be disappointed if you come here expecting Aman or Four Seasons service levels. I'm not sure if that's the reason for the unfortunate experience I had, the hotel was pretty full and I know many hotels have been having staffing issues due to the Pandemic.
If you can swing it, this is the best place to stay in Muscat.
What did you think about staying at The Chedi?
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