Taj Dubai

Every now and then a upscale property earns its place on a shortlist by simply doing the basics very well, Taj Dubai, in Business Bay, is one of those. The strong location score reflects what guests actually feel on arrival, barely a stroll from the centre of Dubai, with the kind of rhythm a city traveller tends to…

Every now and then a upscale property earns its place on a shortlist by simply doing the basics very well, Taj Dubai, in Business Bay, is one of those. The strong location score reflects what guests actually feel on arrival, barely a stroll from the centre of Dubai, with the kind of rhythm a city traveller tends to want. Inside, the rooms are polished, and guests pick out a small spa, an in-house restaurant and on-site parking as the small things that add up over a stay. Front-of-house has been attentive without being overbearing, the kind of detail that doesn't show up in the photographs but ends up on the review pages. Pull the review pages apart and you find well over 3,500 reviews, with a genuinely glowing consensus that's hard to engineer. Reputation has held up across enough stays to mean something. Pricing has been sitting near €92 a night and the value score puts it in a middle-of-the-road bracket compared with similar properties. Stack Taj Dubai against the better-known names in Dubai and the trade-offs become genuinely interesting.