York International Hotel Reviews

I’ve stayed at the York International Hotel multiple times since 2013. The main reason for this was location, followed by budget. The location, for what I want to do in Dubai, is literally second to none. You’re metres from the Sharaf DG metro station (formerly Al Fahidi), a 10-15 minute walk to the creek, there are multiple shawarma options just outside the main doors and the area is easily accessible via transport. The price of rooms was shockingly low during the height of covid, but slowly crept up for Expo/ICC World Cup. There are multiple supermarkets (including 24 hour ones) within a block walk, souvenir stores and pharmacies etc. I like to travel cheap, preferring location of hotel to luxury sheets. For this reason, I have returned to the York a few times. This was likely the last, however. I will stay in a run down and cheap hotel if it’s in a great spot, but I expect some level of cleanliness. I spotted a couple of tiny cockroaches a couple of days into my stay. It happens, people leave room service trays out and old air conditioners drip causing moisture – perfect habitats. But one night I returned to cockroaches in my bed, and in my bag. I told front counter, not wanting to cause a scene and just wanting the issue resolved as I have a bit of an irrational phobia of cockroaches (give me spiders any day). The manager told me that he could put me in another room until the fumigators came to the room, if I was ok with that, but the room wouldn’t be as nice. The rooms that I have always been put in were street-facing (south) rooms and decent sizes (and non-smoking). The room I moved to was smaller and faced out over buildings to the north. I believe it was a smoking room, but I didn’t care. Due to a history of smoking in hotels due to the affinity for tobacco in the middle east, sometimes you can smell the smoke of decades of visitors, even in non-smoking floors. That comes with the territory, and didn’t concern me. This room, however, was connected to a room with an active smoker via the air conditioning, and I had smoke piped in if I had the air con on. It wasn’t particularly hot, so I just turned it off. I checked every day, but the fumigators never turned up, so I was in that room for the rest of my stay. The shower lacked a shower curtain, which was interesting as the shower head fixture pointed almost horizontally, so showers were taken holding the shower head. This also provided wet floors, which were unavoidable, and a little embarrassing. The staff, as always, were very friendly. The cleaning staff especially, and I often had chats with them in passing. I was staying in the hotel at during Diwali by chance, as I had in 2018, and enjoyed the view of the fireworks on the streets in Bur Dubai. There were multiple rooms on my floor partying all through the night, for a couple of nights, which wasn’t great for my sleep as I was getting up early, but overall I wasn’t concerned. Many of the negative reviews