Movenpick Resort, Petra

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Poor
Quality of Rooms	Good
Standard of Service	Good
Cleanliness	Average
Quality of Facilities	Average

Advantages:	Prime location, excellent access to sites, lovely roof terrace
Disadvantages:	bit expensive when you add the 26% tax onto everything, renovations, lack of secure parking

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This hotel has got to be the hotel of choice in Petra, literally within 2 minutes walk is the entrance to the Petra ruins site. You couldn't ask for a better location when you are in Petra, especially as you are going to be doing a lot of walking!

The location is what saved the hotel for us really. We arrived in Jordan in July, which is off season for them as it is too hot. However, for us coming from Dubai, the 35 degree heat and low humidity was a real pleasure. For people not coming from the Middle East though it can be warm and as such qualifies as their off season. This explains why, when we arrived we were then advised of the renovations going on and that one of the main restaurants would also be out of order. We were advised that the renovation noise would only be between 9-5pm! So we figured this would be ok as we would be out for most of the day anyway. However, when we arrived in the room they had allocated to us, we couldn't even hear the concierge talking to us over the pneumatic drill that sounded like it was about to come through the ceiling. We called reception to advise that this was unacceptable but couldn't actually hear them at the other end due to the noise!

To the hotel's credit, they moved us and even upgraded us, which was lovely, but the room they initially showed us to, shouldn't even have been in operation with that kind of noise going on. What was perhaps more annoying was that they renovations had been going on for a while and there was no mention at all of this on their website when we booked the room prior to our trip - naughty and illegal in some countries!!

The pool was in a lovely shaded area, the water was freezing and the restaurant that was out of order happened to be the one that was accessible from the pool, so that was a little disappointing. Again, I am sure during peak season none of these issues would arise as they would all be sorted during the off season.

As you would expect from the Movenpick brand, the little ice cream parlour that is accessible both in the hotel and via a small windown on the outside houses some delightful Swiss ice cream, worth a visit whether you are staying at the hotel or not. The roof terrace bar/restaurant is also worth a visit, either for sundowners, or for a night cap and a shisha. However, even in July, I was feeling quite cold in just shorts and t shirt up on the roof.

All in all, the hotel is ideally situated for the sites you will want to see in Petra, that alone is worth booking into the Movenpick for. We walked for 6 hours non stop one day and were so glad when it was only an additional couple of steps to get into our room once out of the site.