On our way back from the United Arab Emirates and the Maldives, we had a two day stopover in Qatar. You never know when your travels will bring you back so it’s important to take advantage of these opportunities if you can. We ended up at the Marriott Doha Hotel located near the old Doha International Airport for a convenient two day stay. While not the newest property, it make up for it with competitive rate features and amenities.

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This post is one chapter in our trip to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and the Maldives on United Airlines and Etihad Airways. This trip was booked and credited to Aeroplan and Etihad Preferred Guest. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: Marriott Doha Hotel, Doha, Qatar

“A older property in the Marriott chain that is located close to the airport and offers great pool space and lots of inclusions if you do it right. The property is perfect for quick layovers”

Booking and Getting There:

We ended up at this hotel because it priced better than the Starwood property in town. It also offered a great rate in a good package that was cheaper than many of the other discounted rates. Most of the chain hotels in Doha are not conveniently located, so it’s a toss between staying in the Central Business District, at a resort out of town, or out by the airport. Either way, you’ll be taking a taxi to the main tourist destinations.

We ended up booking direct and getting a great rate on a “Family Package”. The Family Package Rate included breakfast, wifi, room upgrade, 8 PM checkout, 25% discount on Food and Beverage and executive lounge access at 828 QAR ($232 USD) per night.

We ended up booking direct and getting a great rate on a “Family Package”. The Family Package Rate included breakfast, wifi, room upgrade, 8 PM checkout, 25% discount on Food and Beverage and executive lounge access at 828 QAR ($232 USD) per night. Our rate also offered an upgrade to the Executive Floor / Lounge, which we ended up using regularly during our stay since there isn’t much around the hotel that is walkable. This is an older hotel property, but they make up for their age by offering aggressive rates.

After our Etihad Abu – Dhabi to Doha flight, we arrived safely in Doha and hopped into a cab to the Marriott Hotel in Ras Abu Abboud neighborhood.

The Room: An Executive Room, 1 King

The room was nicely sized and had lots of space. Being an older hotel helped with the larger footprint. There was a nice sized desk that was suitable for working and a sliding door to access the exterior breezes.

A Room with a View:

From the room, we had good views of the pool area and of the Doha skyline.

Surprisingly, for such a hot area, there was not a lot of shade near the pool. I wasn’t expecting much in terms of landscaping but there weren’t even umbrellas or palm trees that offered any shade. This was unusual since temperatures here regularly hit 40 degrees Celcious. A trip to the pool here is a hot experience, unless you happen to be hanging out in the pool itself.

The hotel breakfast was a full buffet that offered both western and middle eastern delicacies. It certainly helped us start the day off right.

The executive lounge was well stocked. Liquor was available for free in the lounge and was made ready through placing and order through wait staff. The liquor appeared to be limited to 3 rounds of drinks per person on our visit. It was a popular location during our evenings there.

The Marriott Doha Qatar – The Bottom Line:

We spent two days at this hotel exploring Doha before our flight home. This was mostly because Ethiad only flew to the Maldives from Abu Dhabi 4 times a week, and not on the dates that we needed to make a quick and easy connection home.

The hotel was reasonable and fit the bill for a shorter stay near the airport. The inclusions made the place much more attractive, although we probably wouldn’t stay here again the next time around since there are so many new up and coming hotels in Doha. The hotel realizes this and usually prices its’ rates accordingly.

In short, I’d highly recommend Doha for a 2 day stopover in your travels in the middle east. 

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